Harrison Pauer

Professor Linda Haas

Writing 39B
19 May 2014
Hi Harrisonsince I know youre going to be revising the Lit Review and not this essay,
my commenting will be a bit lighter on this essay. If you want further comments on the
paragraph you decide to revise, Ill be happy to do that next week. --LH
The New and Improved Watson
What is a sidekick in the detective genre? Is aA sidekick a wise advisor to the
detective? Is the sidekick aA friend that helps the detective with his or her emotional
problems? Is the sidekick theOr a physical backup for the main detective? The sidekick
Conan Doyle created during the classical phase of the genres development is a mixture
of all three of these elements. Doyle created a sidekick that would help the detective
solve crimes, but Doyle also made the sidekick who was also a friend. These elements
are very simple characteristics that Doyle used to establish Watson; however, Watson has
many more complex elements that lead Watsons success as sidekick.
One of the main conventions that led to Watsons success was his ability to relate
to the main audience, the middle-class Victorian man. Watson was a perfect example of
the middle-class Victorian mangentleman. Even the simplest characteristics of Watson,
such as his name, made him more relatable to the middle-class man. Watson was given a
very plain name; a name that would be very relatable to the middle-class man. Panek
writes about the convention of Watson in his book, An Introduction to the Detective
Story<italics. In chapter 7 of this book, Panek writes about Doyles version of the
detective story and towards the end of this chapter Panek quickly mentions the
convention of Watson. Panek believes Watsons name makes him even more relatable to
the main audienceit is a, quiet name for this unostentatious man. (77). <your
sentence and the quote have to meld together to create a grammatically solid sentence >>
A representation of Watson as Victorian gentleman is illustrated iIn one of Doyles
storiessecond novel, The Sign of Four, <book titles get italics , Doyle does a very good
job at representing Watson as the perfect Victorian man. The Sign of Four is one of
Doyles earlier stories where Sherlock Holmes and Watson are hired to find the out the
source of the mysterious pearls that have been mailed each yeargifts given to Mary
Morstan. Watson and Holmes end up finding the murders of the mysterious mans
brother, and Watson falls in love with Ms. Morstan. However, when Watson finds out
that Ms. Morstan is about receive a large sum of money, he does what a proper middle-
class man does should do, and leaves her alone.says nothing about his feelings. (Location
640). Watson does not want Ms. Morstan to marry a man under her social class.
However, the most important convention of Watson is his role as the narrator. In Paneks
first chapter, Panek states thein which he outlines the beginnings of the detective genre,
and Panekhe suggests that Doyle made Watson the narrator because he was is more
relatable to the audience than Sherlock Holmes (9). Doyle gave the audience a narrator
that was not only relatable, but a narrator that was Not only is he relatable, he is able to
present facts without any biased thoughts of his own. In Konnikovas book Mastermind
How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes,>italics Konnikovashe talks about thedescribes
two methods of thinking; the Holmes method and the Watson method. Konnikova
believes Watson is a man of observation, Think of the Watson system as our naive
selves, operating by the lazy thought habit . . . [the] path of least resistance (18).
Watson acts as surrogate for the reader by giving the readerproviding the perspective of
Holmes world without giving the reader Holmes deductions. However, this main
function of Watson gets sis stripped from him in the recent Guy Ritchie films series
featuring Jude Law as Watson.
The new film series, featuring Jude Law as Watson, has reformed the Doyle series
to fit the desires of a modern film audience. In order to fit the needs of the modern
audience, Guy Ritchie, the director for the new two films of Sherlock Holmes, has
retailored, retailoring a few conventions of the Doyle series to fit the new medium and
audience, and one convention that has been remodeled the most is the convention of
Watson. Ritchie has made the world of Sherlock visible to the modern audience by
taking the Doyle series and transformingtranslating it to the big screen; therefore, Ritchie
hasin the process, he completely erased the need for a narrator because the audience now
has capability to see what is happening in the world of Sherlock. <<use last name
throughout However, by eliminating the need for a narrator, Ritchie has removed one of
the main functions of Watson, which has significantly destroyed the significance of
Watson. <probably not necessaryrepetitive---there are some scenes where we still see
through Watsons eyes In order to make Watson more relevant in the movie, Ritchie has
given Watson two main upgrades. One of the main improvements Ritchie gave Watson
is the power of deduction. Watsons new power of deduction is in no comparison to the
grand detectives deduction, but it is certainly better than the Doyles Watson, who could
not make any deductions. The second improvement Ritchie has done to Watson is
Watsons background as a soldier. Ritchie has put to greater use in combat situations,
which helped portray Watson as more of soldier than the Doyle Watson. These two
major upgrades have significantly closed the gap between Watson and Sherlock; the two
are now more like partners than they are sidekick and detective. These new upgrades can
easily been in Ritchies first film, Sherlcok Holmes.
In Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock and Watson begin the film by stopping the evil
Blackwood; however, after Blackwood is hanged and buried, Blackwood somehow
resurrects from the dead.<<its a magic trick, he was never dead Sherlock and Watson
spend the rest of the film trying to find and stop Blackwood. About forty minutes into
the movie<<film is more formal, there is a great four-minute scene that represents
Watsons new powers. The scene begins with Holmes struggling to pick a lock to a door
when Watson suddenly kicks down the door, and Watson and Holmes begin their
observations and deductions of the laboratory. This is one of the more serious scenes in
the movie, which can easily be seen in the change of lighting from the previous scene, for
the previous scene was a comical and outside scene filmed in high-key lighting.
However, the scene inside the laboratory is serious, so the scene is filmed in low-key
lighting. <what is lit and what is not? With low-key there are always choices made by the
director of what to light and what to keep in shadow Since the scene is filled with
Sherlock and Watson making deductions, the first two minutes of the scene is filled with
single character shots and following shots filmed at a medium long angle. Ritchie used
the single character shots to show Watson and Holmes perspective, and Ritchie used the
following shot from a medium long angle to show the characters movement and facial
action as they make deductions. To match the action packed pace of the movie, Ritchie
filled this slow scene with quick reverse cuts to help keep the high paced flow of the
movie. In this scene, Watson is able to make several deductions. His first deduction is
based off a bear trap he saw, and he was able to deduce that subject who worked at the
laboratory was expecting trouble. The second deduction Watson makes is based off his
observations off the notes on the windows and table, and he concludes the resident of the
laboratory was trying to combine sorcery and magic. The third and final deduction
Watson makes is the resident of the laboratory was working with Blackwood, and he was
able to make this deduction with the help of a little chemistry. <<what are the cinematic
elements when he is making these deductions? This is what you should focus on for this
point The next few shots involve Holmes and Watson fighting three criminals that
wanted to burn the house down. This scene shows Watsons new effectiveness in
combat; Watson takes on two men that are equal in size to him and wins. In the next film
by Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Ritchie gives Watson even more
improvements.
In the second film, Sherlock and Watson are trying to stop the worlds most
dangerous man, Professor James Moriarty. To help increase the intensity of the movie,
Ritchie improves all of his characters including Watson. <probably not necessary The
famous film critic Roger Erbert , a movie critic, agreses that Watson has been upgraded
and has more of a hero role:. Erbert states Dr. Watson has a more proactive role this
time. (1). Erbert believes that in this movie Watson behaves more as a hero (1). For
Watson, Ritchie increased marksmanship, increased intelligence, and increased Watsons
level of deduction that could match Sherlock. One hour and forty-five minutes in the
movie, which is the climax of the film, we see the peak of Watsons powers. Watson and
Sherlock<last name are trying to find Moriartys planted assassin, and the scene begins
with a backwards tracking shot filmed at a medium shot camera angle which is suppose
to show Watson observing the crowd. The beginning of this scene has no music in it
which helps increase the suspense of finding he assassin. The next few shots are of the
Madam Heron trying to find her brother, who is believed to be the assassin. The next
shot there is medium shot of Watson and Madam Heron, and during this shot there is a
slight ticking sound from the chess game between Watson and Moriarty that signifies the
countdown to the terrible act of the assassin. In this shot, Madam Heron tells Watson that
see does not know which man is her brother, so Watson begins to observe the crowd to
make his own deductions. The next shot is a pan shot followed by quick jump shots from
ambassador to ambassador;, and these shots are supposed to represent Watsons
perspective while he gives his deductions about the assassin. The next shot is a close-up
of Madam Heron followed by a pan shot of the ambassadors. This shot is suppose to
represents Watson listening to Madam Heron followed by his observation of the crowd
with his new information Madam Heron gave him. During the next few shots there is a
violin that gets slightly louder with each passing second to intensify the scene, and the
remaining shots are reverse shots between Holmes, Moriarty, Watson, Madam Heron,
and Watsons perspective. The next few shots go from a medium shot to a close up shot
and finally extreme close-up shots; these decreasing size shots help increase the suspense
of the climax. These sequences of shots are very chaotic and fast-paced, which increases
the suspsense. As these shots are been made, Holmes is narrating Watsons thoughts,
which demonstrates that Watson has finally reached Holmes level of deduction. Finally,
when Watson believes he has found the assassin, the reverse shots become slow reverse
pan shots; these slow shots represent time slowing down. These slow shots are, a
technique used in film industry when the audience finds out the answer in order to create
suspense for the audience. Then time speeds backup with a loud thud representing
Madam Heron confronting her brother, and as soon as Madam Heron grabs her brother, a
violin begins to play a very sharp note thats drives the suspense even further. Then the
assassin suddenly pulls out a gun, but Watson was able to disrupt his shot. <<focus on the
elements that have to do with Watsons deductions and delete ones that arent as relevant
to that point---that will keep your essay more focused
With Watsons inability to narrate, Ritchie needed to fill the void that was
created, or risk the chance of creating a character that would be relatively useless.
Ritchie decided to give Watson a power-up that would make Watson closer to Holmes
partner rather than his sidekick. In the first film, Ritchie gave Watson the power of
deduction, a trait that was unique to Sherlock, and the ability fight effectively. In the
second film, Ritchie gave Watson another power-up, and Watson now had increased
marksmanship, increased intelligence, and increased levels of deduction that could match
Sherlock. Ritchie kept his films very close to the conventions set by Doyle while keeping
the film entertaining for an action movie audience.
Good job, Harrisonthis is not a bad draft at all. I recommend you choose one of the
analysis paragraphs to revise for the portfolio
Works Cited
Works Cited:
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Sign of the Four. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2013.
Kindle eBook. Online.
Konnikova, Maria. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. New York:
Viking, 2013. Print.
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling
Green State University Popular Press, 1987. Print.
"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Movie Review (2011) | Roger Ebert." All
Content. Web. 18 May 2014.