representation of Age in ER clip Oscar perillo

Representation of Age in the ER clip Oscar Perillo

 

The representation of age is generally that the older you get the more intelligent you seem, however past a certain age you become more of a nuisance rather than an intellectual and through the use of sound, mese-en-scene, editing and different camera angles this is all clear.

 

The scene opens with a female doctor and her older co-worker talking about a recent diagnosis and how well the doctor had done, asserting her higher status above him even though he is clearly older. It is clear that she is trying to seem younger as with dyed hair to erase the greys in her hair. This could be to avoid becoming too old, and no longer feel respected. The director of this episode moves the camera backwards at this point, tracking the two doctors. This gives the audience the impression of authority and the idea of control that the doctors have.

 

As the male, older doctor enters a room after being congratulated, he then confronts a younger child. The child is instantly seen as intelligent as he has a Sudoku book in his lap. And on closer inspection, the lighting reveals that he has large dark circles under his eyes, meaning that he is seriously ill. The SRS used places him as the doctors equal rather than the young child he really is. When the boy speaks he uses large words like “invariably fatal”, a clear indication to his intelligence, as these are words that would never be used by someone of his age.

 

The older doctor in the scene does however retain his status as he speaks directly to the boy and gives him a command with “you know you have to tell her” when referring to the boy’s mother. As the boy is then in shot the audience can see that he is reluctant, but willing: Similar to the idea of most children his age. The use of Technical Jargon in this scene also helps to prove the point that the boy is on an intellectual balance with the male doctor, however the male doctor still has the authority in the situation as although the boy is intelligent, he still respects the people older than him because they have more experience than him.

 

The young boy in the scene is represented as a reverse to general stereotype of younger children. The comparison between the two children occurs once a cut transition goes from the intelligent, terminally ill boy, to the slightly hurt and seemingly un-intelligent younger boy, whom nurses appear to be talking to in an almost patronising tone. This conversation between the nurse and small boy occurs with a SRS and also when viewing the nurse we see a low angle shot, and looking at the boy a high angle shot, depicting him as the clearly less intellectual of the two, whilst the previous conversation occurred at the same height for both doctor and patient, implying a balance between the two of them.

 

The Old woman featured in the scene represents the stereotype for the elderly, as she is seen to be a nuisance to the doctors in their efforts to work out who is sick and who is not. She states with confidence that she is here for the air and that the air is very good for her. The on-call doctor responds with a sarcastic “nock yourself out” as she moves on throughout the room. The diagetic background sounds of ambulances and dying people help to emphasise how inconvenient and foolish her request is.

 

Later when we see two younger doctors in a relationship communicating it is clear that what they are discussing is relatively minor in comparison to other events occurring. They are talking about going away on holiday, and how the male cannot attend, as he would burn up in the sun. This conversation has a tracking camera following it as they move onwards though the hospital, giving the audience the impression of a more gossip based conversation, rather than the more serious scenarios that are occurring throughout the hospital. There is then more conversation between the young male doctor and an older male doctor, who insensitively tells the boy that his girlfriend is part of a gypsy whore tribe. This idea that the older character does not correctly consider the emotions of the younger doctor is the stereotype of old people being, once again, seen as foolish. The older black doctor featured at the front of the shot in a MCU also uses the Jewish slang term “Tuckus” which he then cringes at. This could be because the term is also associated with age and he does not want to seem older than he is.

 

The middle-aged doctor and surgeon have a situation where the surgeon has been forced to remove a bullet from a patient for a police report. In doing this the surgeon “accidently” lost the bullet, performing a rather childish stunt in an effort to create his own justice. The close up on this doctor’s face when he says that he accidently lost the bullet makes it clear to the audience that he did not loose it accidentally. This connotes the idea that these doctors are not as adult as they seem.

 

To conclude, the representation of the young is seen as careless in most circumstances, although the stereotype is broken under finite situations.  This means that as characters seem to get older they either try to seem younger and therefore less serious, or they will age gracefully and end up as a burden upon their younger co-workers such as the researching doctor that referred to a woman’s heritage as