The documentary Law and Order made by Frederick Wiseman in 1969 produces an overall relationship between the officers, the party of law enforcement and citizens regarding to different races through montage of a bunch of events from catching a thief to taking care of a lost child. The roving camera serves as the vision of an outsider, which is us. We are the spectators of all the incidents. Also, we are the outsiders of all the incidents. As stated in “For an Imperfect Cinema” by Julio García Espinosa, “Imperfect cinema cannot lose sight of the fact that its essential goal as a new poetic is to disappear”(296).
There are intense relationship between police officers and criminals. One of a disturbing scene is the chokehold. The roaming camera aligns us with the police officers and tries to hide us within the crowd. We witnessed the appalling chokehold scene with both the visual shock and the diegetic sound of the woman choking and sobbing. However, as the film goes on, there is a transition from severe conflicts to a rather compassionate side. When it comes to taking care of a lost child, the officers take responsibilities and buy candies to comfort the kid. The film shows different aspects and reactions in various law enforcing situations.
The intention is real and straightforward. It is clearly depicted from the language of camera. In interrogation or any conversation scenes, the camera always zooms in from a medium shot to a close-up to one’s expression. Or vise versa, the shot starts from a close-up and zoom out to have a bigger picture and relation between them and the police officer. The constantly zooming in and out shots captured the most subtle and realistic changes in their faces as well as provided a clear subordinative relations.
