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Nadine Tawfik
Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
August 18, 2014
The Superhero Holmes
During the Victorian era, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has written Sherlock Holmes as a
consulting detective. This worldwide known genius has been standing out from any other type of
novels. As the years go by, technology develops and people start becoming less fascinated. More
specifically, people have been exposed to the idea of Sherlock Holmes for many centuries now.
As a result, to recreate Holmes, some modern changes have been made to his stories.
For the 21
st
century, Sherlock Holmes has become presented in cinematic productions. To
modernize the genius detective, directors have transformed the Doyle novels into series and
films. The most important way Holmes has become modern is through a mash-up. The mash-up
is the combination between Sherlock Holmes written by Doyle with the modern day superhero
cinema. Thus, the recreation of a superhero Sherlock Holmes creates the modern version of the
stories.
A superhero is someone with extraordinary powers which make them unique (aMc
filmsite). Those powers make them have advantage compared to normal people. Thus, they are
distinctive people. Super powers can come in different ways. In Sherlock Holmes the movie,
Sherlocks super power is his intelligence. Away from stereotypical heroes, Holmes depends on
his brain and attention to details. He depends on his memory and meticulous memory palace. In
the movie, he is created in a unique way to reveal the hidden hero. In his article The Brawling
Supersleuth of 221B Baker Street Socks It to Em, A.O. Scott writes He [Sherlock Holmes]
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was a proto-superhero, amenable to all kinds of elaboration and variation, and even a measure of
mockery, as long as the basics of the brand were respected. Thus, Sherlock Holmes plays a
heroic role in the movie. Since Sherlock Holmes is a consulting detective, it makes the movie a
detective movie as well. The reason why is because of all the suspense, the clues, the crimes,
investigations and the audiences thrill while they play the game stress-free. The detective films
focus on the unsolved crime (aMc filmsite). With the combination of a thriller detective movie
and a superhero detective, the movie Sherlock Holmes is a Mash-up of both superhero and
detective genre film.
On the other side, the mash-up is present in Sherlock the series. This mash-up is
mentioned in the scholar article Sherlock Holmes For The 21
st
Century: Essays On New
Adaptations. The author writes about a scene in the first episode of season one where the
position of the two characters reveals their meaning. Kayley Thomas says, John glances up
while searching for a cab. He see Sherlocks silhouette on the roof in a strikingly superhero-like
pose, coat billowing around him like a cap. () acknowledging and challenging the notion of a
heroic Holmes (Thomas 70). Here, the author underlines the cinematic settings which uncover
the heroic side of Holmes. Through cinematic trick, the director gives a combination of a hero in
a detective. Thus, they create the mash-up.
Firstly, in the movie Sherlock Holmes, the cinematic tricks strike out. For example, The
Mash-up scene is revealed distinctively when Sherlock Holmes and Watson are trying to save
Miss Irene Adler. In storage full of butchered pigs, Miss Irene Adler has been tied up on a rail,
getting closer to the chopping knife, close to getting cut in half. During this scene, the viewers
know that she will be saved. Watching with no stress, the viewers learn from the master, the
hero, Sherlock. They observe his use of his powers. He becomes the superhero when analyzing
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the machines mechanism. With his mechanical and critical thinking, he analyses the different
parts of the machine, trying to stop the moving rail by blocking a part of the machine with bones.
After that fails, he looks at the water pipes. He knows specifically when and how to make that
work in their favor. Sherlock raises the water pressure; Watson and he jump on the rail to make
the metal weaker. In the end, the metal breaks and they all escape the sharp knife saw.
The scene starts with the sound of the saw moving with an extreme close up on the
machine. The element is in the left, foreground of the frame. The reason why is to give the sense
of right direction to the audience, knowing that they are moving from the right of the screen to
the left. Thus, the negative space is at the right side of the screen, the audiences eyes are waiting
for the heros group and himself to come and fill in the negative space. The viewer's attention
is called to an event or presence in the diegesis that is not visible in the frame, creating a sense
of thrill.
The following scene is when the pigs are cut in half. With a long shot of the pigs going
through the saw one by one, the camera does not move, but the rail does. It shows time is
running out. It is a stable shot that can accommodate movement without reframing.
The following shot is Sherlock Holmes face. There are two elements in this shot. First,
the light is low-key lighting. There is no harsh or direct light to show Sherlocks face in detail. It
creates a shadow and obscure parts of the principal subjects. As a result, it creates tension.
Second thing is the framing. The cameras point of view is at low-level. Looking up at Sherlock,
the audience feels like they are looking up at their hero in desperation to save them. It gives a
feel of the victims emotions and puts the audience in Irene Adlers shoes.
When Miss Adler is terrified of the moving blade, she looks straight at her density. Then
the camera takes a shot at what Irene Adler is exactly seeing. That is known as the Point-of-
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view Shot where the camera sees with the characters eyes, showing what the character would
see. This is repeated when Sherlock notices part of the machine underground with an opening.
The audience gets a point-of view shot to understand Sherlocks plan. That is when the audience
relaxes with anticipation. This camera shot gets repeated throughout Sherlocks thought process.
The audience is lead to see what the hero is thinking of doing. Therefore, the audience believes
more in the hero while learning from him.
In the end, there is a shot of Irene looking straight at the camera with her face separated
by the line of the saw. It gives an excitement and suspense feeling to the audience. This close-up
of the victims face is fill[ing] the frame showing her face expression and emotions. It shows
how it feels like to be barely saved by Sherlock Holmes. Right after that shot, comes the life
saving shot where Holmes is holding to Irenes shirt to prevent her from slipping into the saw
and becoming two halves. That extreme close-up of Sherlocks hand holding Adlers shirt shows
the importance of that little detail.
Furthermore, in the series Sherlock, the audience experiences many scenes where the
mash-up is highlighted. For example, in season one, episode three The Great Game,
Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as a hero trying to save the victims who are on the phone. The
scene where he looks straight at the painting trying to figure the proof that the painting is a fake
represents the mash-up clearly. Holmes determined to investigate the painting at the last seconds
while he tries to save the young boy on the phone provides the evidence that Sherlock is
portrayed as a detective hero.
The scene starts out with a Shallow Focus on Sherlock Holmes with the painting
behind him. The director makes the audience focus on the hero and detective while being able to
see what he is trying to solve. With that in mind, the audience knows the sole purpose of solving
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this mystery is to save a life. Thus, this shot conveys the idea of a hero detective wanting to
investigate the painting.
The second shot comes with Frontality and a close-up of Holmes face. The detective
side of Holmes is revealed when he tries to expose the fraud painting. The Frontality brings the
main character to direct address with the audience, resulting in the audiences eagerness to
understand what is going in the detectives mind. The close-up uncovers Holmes while at work.
He focuses on every part of the painting to expose it while the spectators observe every emotion
on Holmes face. The combination of the two cinematic tricks makes the audience feel closer to
Holmes and looking up to him in a heroic sense, even though he is doing a detective work.
Furthermore, the second shot is the painting itself. This shot is the point-of-view shot
where the audience is directed to what the main character is looking at. Hence, the spectators can
understand what is going through Holmes mind and what he is seeing with his eyes. This is
important to involve the audience with Holmes, creating the suspense present in any detective
and superhero film. In addition, this shot is an extreme close-up so that the viewers will feel
exactly what Holmes is seeing and going through. Furthermore, while going through the painting
with his eyes, the audiences go through it with the cameras. This is called Pan which creates a
feeling of danger. As a result, the shot makes the spectators feel like detectives while being on
the edge of their seats. They experience a mash-up of anticipation and detective genres of
cinema.
Lastly, the last shot is the close-up of Holmes face when he figures out the answer to
his problem. This is when the viewers are relieved from their anticipation. It is important because
the spectators feel that Holmes has saved the boy at the last minute by being his meticulous self.
At that moment, the detective is a hero who saves the young boy.
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In brief, in Sherlock Holmes the movie and Sherlock the series, the cinematic methods of
the different shots reveal the heroic side of Sherlock Holmes. It gives another dimension to the
character: heroic. The cinematic techniques prove the mash-up of the detective and the heroic
genres in Sherlock. Therefore, the new combination modernizes the old Holmes stories. That
twist of style makes the detective more approachable to the modern day audience. With the many
types of films and series, Sherlock Holmes has to stand out with unique techniques and
modernized side of the Doyle novels. The mash-up takes the best of Holmes and makes it better,
exciting, and less historic to the nowadays audience.

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Work Cited
"Detective-Mystery Films." Detective-Mystery Films. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.filmsite.org/mysteryfilms.html>.
"Film Analysis Guide -- Plain HTML Version." Film Analysis Guide -- Plain HTML
Version. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Aug. 2014. <http://classes.yale.edu/film-
analysis/htmfiles/nojava_index.htm>.
Scott, A. O. "The Brawling Supersleuth of 221B Baker Street Socks It to Em."The New
York Times. The New York Times, 24 Dec. 2009. Web. 04 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/movies/25sherlock.html?_r=0>.
"Super-Hero Films." Super-Hero Films. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.filmsite.org/superheroesonfilm.html>.
Thomas, Kayley. "Sherlock Holmes For The 21st Century: Essays On New Adaptations."
(n.d.): n. pag. Web. 10 Aug. 2014.
<http://writing.colostate.edu/files/classes/10452/File_0BF6FFA2-A099-FBDC-
9F2FC3CFCED6396C.pdf>.