A Semiotic Analysis of Hot Fuzz
Accomplished city police officer Nicholas Angel is transferred to work in a small country village after he’s reprimanded for being “too good” at his job. This event is the centerpoint for Edgar Wright’s 2007 film Hot Fuzz. Following his arrival in the low-crime town of Sanford, Angel starts to notice a trend of bizarre “accidents” resulting in the deaths of town residents. As the deadly accidents increase, Angel begins to believe that town residents are being murdered. To analyze the relationship between symbols and characters as well as the film’s overall structure, I will use concepts associated with the theory of semiotics. These semiotic concepts show us how the symbols presented in the film highlight a certain idea, as well as helping the audience comprehend the film on a macro and micro level.
Firstly, structuralism states that any signifier is arbitrary by itself, an idea first presented by Ferdinand de Saussure in the first chapter of his Course in General Linguistics. This quite simply suggests that the meaning that any signifier produces is dependent on its relationship to all other elements or objects in its surroundings in that particular situation. Another approach, revolving around syntagms, considers the conventions of which we, as the audience, are supposed to use in order to combine signs and generate our perception of images. This viewpoint acknowledges the sequencing of a film in order to highlight these conventions and determine their impact on our understanding. To further develop this process, syntagms can be broken down into macro and micro levels, where the macro syntagm is concerned with conventions created across the entire narrative. On the other hand, a micro syntagm represents a system established in the beginning of the film which is only given meaning by an occurrence later in the film.
Beyond the structuralist and syntagmatic forms analysis, semiotics includes paradigms and oppositions. A paradigmatic examination questions the specific choices made by the filmmakers to convey specific ideas. With this method it’s important to acknowledge the breadth of options from which the creators could have chosen, and why they arrived at the point they did. Meanwhile, opposition defines the contending relationship between two entities, often characters of the film. The way this relationship is created offers substantial information as to how the audience is meant to perceive each character.
Japanese Peace Lily
In Hot Fuzz’s opening dialogue scene, Angel is told by his boss, the chief inspector, that he is being reassigned to a country town called Sanford. As he travels to Sanford, Nicholas is seen transporting a large plant with him at all times. When we are first introduced to this symbol it’s meaningless, like Saussure says. Yet, with context provided by the rest of the film, the Japanese Peace Lily’s presence is understood as a major characterization of Angel. Objects, a physical sign, can reveal more about character than dialogue can sometimes. The Peace Lily is first mentioned when Angel goes to tell his ex-girlfriend, Janine, about his reassignment to Sanford. Janine reminds Angel of why they didn’t work, “It’s only ever about the job. That’s what you care about.” Angel protests and Janine corrects herself, “Oh you’re right, you and that plant too.” Before we ever see it, Janine provides meaning by summarizing Angel’s interpersonal failures through the peace lily. According to structuralism, full meaning cannot be produced unless and until it is integrated into the overall situation. The first mention of the peace lily integrates the object into the important situation of Angel’s interpersonal conflict.
Angel’s reliance on the peace lily is emphasized as Angel travels by train and taxi to Sanford. The peace lily can be seen next to Angel at all times. At times, the peace lily even resembles another human being, sitting right next to Angel on the train. To fill in the lack of human interaction, Angel can rely on a living thing with no consequences, the peace lily. Between trains, Angel has to wait on a bench at a train station. Through a match cut, we can see time change from day to night. The main constant between the two shots, before and after the cut, is Angel’s peace lily, which stays on his lap at the train station.
After moving into Sanford, Angel meets Danny Butterman, a fellow police officer at the station and the son of the head inspector. Although Angel is initially put off by Danny’s naivety, the two slowly become friends. In the station’s barracks, Danny asks Angel what he’s doing later. “Watering my peace lily,” Angel replies. The peace lily compensates for Angel’s lack of personal relationships and relates to the obsession with his job. One night, Angel opens up to Danny about his main struggle: not being able to turn off his brain and distance himself from the job. Angel proceeds to tell Danny about his peace lily, “I’ve had it for three years. Oxygenates the room, helps you think, relieves stress.” Beyond talking about its simple functions, Angel adds soon after, “Needs are simple. Janine said I liked my Lily more than I liked her.” With structuralism, full meaning cannot be produced unless and until it is integrated into the overall situation. Angel’s main internal situation is his need for control, which has helped him be a successful police officer. However, at the same time, this need has inhibited friendships and relationships. To feel that there’s something in his personal life, Angel resorts to having a peace lily, a living thing without complex needs that undercut Angel’s own needs.
Over the course of the film, Angel becomes friendlier with Danny and they form a close bond. After Danny reveals that it’s his birthday, Angel takes off and goes to pick up a peace lily for him. The gardening store worker, Leslie Tiller, asks if the peace lily is for someone special. Angel replies, “Yes, yes it is.” This represents a large turning point for Angel’s characterization. Previously, Angel only had his peace lily to keep him company, yet now Angel has Danny. Here the peace lily symbolizes the way Angel connects with people. Angel wants to share one of his favorite items with Danny, a true sign of deep friendship.
Getting the peace lily also has a plot function in this scene. After talking about the peace lily, Leslie reveals a conspiracy involving all of the murder victims. Angel goes to his police car to get his notepad and sees a cloaked figure jamming garden shears into Leslie’s throat. Before this point, Angel had seen signs that the murders weren’t accidents like everyone said they were. Yet, this moment shows a breaking of the peace; a deep moment of realization. To determine what the rules and conventions are and what impact they have, we look at the linear sequencing of sign systems across the narrative. The peace lily represents a micro syntagm in the film as a sign system. While the peace lily is directly related to Angel’s job of creating peace, the peace lily also shows up in the story when peace is broken and Angel is directly involved in the action.
Another instance where the peace lily is a sign system comes when Angel is nearly assassinated. After witnessing Leslie’s murder, Angel chases after the cloaked figure and loses them. While reporting the situation to the fellow officers, Angel passionately explains how these were all murders. That night, Angel returns to his apartment room to find a cloaked figure waiting for him. Pursuing in hand-to-hand combat with the cloaked figure, Angel eventually smashes them on the head with his peace lily. Here, the peace lily quite literally represents a breaking of the peace. Earlier in the narrative, the audience understands that the peace lily is Angel’s own definition of peace: “freedom from disturbance, tranquility.” This early set-up provides great contrast when the peace lily’s function is to represent conflict. The peace lily is a prominent element of both the Leslie Tiller murder and the attempted assassination, two extremely vital moments in Angel’s journey of discovery.
Action Film Cliches
Genres come with their own set of rules and conventions, which can be used to determine how we combine signs or sign systems. Understanding the genre and the genre’s rules help the overall analysis of Hot Fuzz. The film mashes up several genres, notably horror, comedy, and action. However, the genre of action is most prominent and a macro syntagm throughout the whole narrative. The cliches that come with traditional action movies are a large part of Hot Fuzz. The decision to feature action movie references and cliches within an action movie itself presents a paradigm. The filmmakers consciously decided to make Hot Fuzz a meta send-off or parody of the traditional action film. Through dialogue, character choices, and actions, the filmmakers incorporate action film cliches into Hot Fuzz’s story.
The main way action movie cliches are shown in Hot Fuzz is through the Danny Butterman character. Unlike Angel who has experienced rigorous training and combat, Danny bases everything he knows about the police from his love of action movies. While on-duty, Danny takes the time to skip through the DVD bin looking for new cop action movies. Later on, Danny shows Angel his gigantic DVD collection that takes up an entire sideroom in his house. Danny’s love for action movies is a large piece of characterization and carries into the plot and conflict. When finding out that Angel experienced real-life gunfights, Danny becomes obsessed with Angel’s past, asking him tons of questions: “Have you ever shot one gun while jumping through the air?” Danny is used to dealing with mundane tasks like finding a swan or penalizing vandalizers, while Angel is used to the extreme metropolitan action that one sees in the movies. This is expressed when Danny tells Angel, “I wanna do what you do.” Angel finds this ridiculous and says, “You do do what I do. What do you think you’re missing out on?” Quickly, Danny responds, “Gunfights, car chases, proper action and shit.” To Danny, that’s what real policing is: action and violence.
By the end, Hot Fuzz becomes the action movie Danny is infatuated with. It is revealed that the cloaked figure is actually multiple people. The Neighborhood Watch Alliance (or N.W.A.) is a faction of Sanford’s most prominent figures, including the chief inspector. Together, they murdered the town’s residents for petty reasons. Any threat to the town’s image or feel was dealt with by murder. Since Danny’s father is the chief inspector, Danny helps fake Angel’s death and takes him out of Sanford. However, Angel comes back to town on a horse in proper action film attire, including sunglasses, a toothpick, and shotguns mounted to his back. Angel engages in a shootout with the N.W.A, only to be joined by Danny after. At this point, Hot Fuzz becomes a full-fledged cop action film, cliches and all. Danny’s question, “Have you ever shot one gun while jumping through the air,” turns into an actual moment in the gunfight. Angel and Danny enter a building by jumping through the air while shooting pistols. At this point, the filmmakers made the syntagmatic choice of breaking the flow of time. Time freezes and multiple angles show the two cops jumping through the air for around twenty seconds, a true action movie cliche. Additionally, a revolving shot of the two cops directly references Bad Boys 2, a film that Danny shows Angel earlier.
In fact, Hot Fuzz even directly references movies that are shown throughout. Earlier, Danny asks Angel if he ever, “Fired his gun up in the air and gone ‘ahhh,’” a classic moment in the film Point Break. Danny even shows Angel that scene from Point Break after a long day at work. The scene features Keanu Reeves' secret agent character struggling to shoot the bank robber he was assigned to take down. Because of the friendship they form, Reeves’ character shoots his gun in the air while yelling instead. That fictional scene becomes a reality at the climax of the film: Danny is held at gunpoint by his father and escapes only to find himself pointing the gun at his father. Danny can’t bring himself to shoot his own father and fires his gun in the air while yelling. This scene recontextualizes Point Break’s scene into a dramatic moment within Hot Fuzz. Also, the moment serves as a characterization for Danny as he finally experiences real-life action movie combat and sees it's not all fun and games.
A staple of any action movie is the one-liners, no matter how cheesy and ridiculous they are. Hot Fuzz parodies these “serious” one-liners and morphs them into a contest between Angel and Danny when they engage in combat. After a fight with a trolley boy member of the N.W.A., Angel dumps him into the freezer. Danny asks Angel, “Did you say cool off?” Angel replies by acknowledging a one-liner he said earlier while distracting someone with a stuffed monkey: “Playtime’s over.” As the action movie becomes reality, both Danny and Angel indulge in the ridiculousness of it, mentioning one-liners in a jokey tone. The macro syntagm of action movie cliches is constant throughout Hot Fuzz and emphasizes important parts of the narrative.
Angel vs. Sanford Police Officers
According to semiotics, oppositions are the fundamental way the human mind finds meaning. Analytically, we look for the overt or hidden sets of oppositions that exist in media content. Throughout Hot Fuzz, protagonist Nicholas Angel has to deal with multiple oppositions; each providing insight for characters and plot. A prominent way the filmmakers cause conflict in the story is through the opposing mindsets of Angel, a big city cop, and his new coworkers, the laidback Sanford police officers.
From the first moment Angel sets foot in the Sanford police station, it is clear to both Angel and the audience that he’s a fish out of water. Angel, a perfectionist, arrives at work right on time and asks, “Can you tell the inspector I’ve arrived?” The officer at the front desk responds, “He’s not in yet.” Immediately, an opposition is formed within Angel’s first experience in the police station. Angel’s metropolitan, high-achieving mentality does not match that of his boss. Usually, the boss is expected to arrive at work before their workers.
After being officially introduced to the officers in the station, oppositions are quickly formed. While some officers are more receptive to Angel than others, there’s an overall feeling of distance between Angel and the officers. Angel is even in opposition with his superior, the chief inspector of Sanford. Trying to calm Angel down, the chief inspector says, “This isn’t London.” Through dialogue, the vast opposition between Angel and the other officers helps fine tune each character’s nature. Time and time again, the audience is reminded that Angel is not “with” the other officers, despite them working together. At lunch during work, the officers press Angel to answer why he came to Sanford, “It wasn’t my choice.” Sergeant Tony Fisher responds, “Wasn’t your choice to come down here and tell me how to do my job.” Through this small piece of dialogue, the audience can understand Fisher’s motivation and the tension between him and Angel. Later at lunch, Fisher asks Angel why he’s wearing a vest, “Nobody’s going to stab you around here.” Angel responds by asking, “Have you ever been stabbed, Sergeant Fisher?” These lines of dialogue both say a lot about each character’s nature and experience. The contrast between Angel and Fisher clearly illustrates the “fish out of water” story archetype, a syntagmatic possibility.
The main way opposition is formed between Angel and the other officers is through the characters’ outlook. Angel has an intense view of his job and takes everything seriously, due to his formal training. On the other hand, the Sanford officers have a laissez-faire attitude on policing. For Angel, policing is a lifestyle; for the other officers, policing is a job that starts at nine and ends at five. In his essay “‘He’s Everything You’re Not…’: A Semiological Analysis of ‘Cheers,’” Arthur Asa Berger states that, “Binary oppositions are the fundamental way in which the human mind finds meaning.” In this quote, Berger is expanding the concepts Saussure originally presented, and is explicitly stating that the process of signification relies on the way two things are set against one another. Angel and the Sanford officers are a perfect example of the binary opposition that Berger mentions.
Perhaps the most important figures for opposition within the Sanford police department are the Andys, two detectives both named Andrew. Here, the opposition is clear: Angel is a detective of sorts and so are the Andy’s. Conflict is immediately formed. The Andys are always finding a way to poke fun at Angel: writing twat on Angel’s police cap or pointing out the misspelling of Angel’s name in the newspaper. Through dialogue, the Andys consistently find a way to aggravate Angel, especially by making fun of the fatal “accidents” that keep repeating. After a couple murders have already taken place, Angel sees the town journalist Tim Messenger killed from the top of the church roof falling on him. Once Angel deduces that the death must be a murder, the Andys crack a joke: “Maybe the swan did it.” The Andys and Angel’s constant conflict make it easier for the audience to define the poles of opposition within the police station. The Andys and Angel are complete, polar opposites: a great paradigmatic choice the filmmakers made to define each character and create tension. Substituting the other police officers’ opposition with a different relationship can be used as means to examine the choice itself, but also its relevance in the context of the rest of the film. The way the audience learns about Angel as a character is heavily dependent on the opposition between Angel and the other officers. Therefore, in the case that the officers were portrayed differently, Angel would change as a result.
Without any limits to how the police officers could’ve been portrayed, there are endless options to use as a substitute. However, creating a hypothetical scenario in which the police officers act the opposite explains the choices the filmmakers made. What if the police officers were understanding and passionate instead of oppositional and untrusting? In this case, the audience’s understanding of Angel’s character would shift. Instead of seeing the contrast between Angel’s metropolitan attitude and the officers’ laidback one, the audience would see the officers and Angel as one hivemind. The officer’s undetermined behavior serves as a reference point from which viewers could construct an interpretation of Angel. Additionally, the film’s plot would have much banality in the middle. While more conflict arises with the cloaked figure and minor police duties, strain within the station keeps something constantly happening in the story. Without these side plots and mini-conflicts, the main murderer conflict would be drawn out and lacking. Many define story as, “A conflict between opposing forces.” The Hot Fuzz filmmakers demonstrate a clear understanding of story and character by keeping Angel constantly at odds with his coworkers, even if they ultimately have the same basic goal as him.
Conclusion
Semiotic analysis is a tool for media consumers to use in order to develop better understandings of the content and its particulars. In the case of Hot Fuzz, examining the presence of structuralism, oppositions, and micro and macro syntagms offers a deep insight into the characters, their relationships, and their position within the plot as a whole. While countless more examples could be drawn from the film, I believe that the symbol of the Japanese peace lily, the oppositional relationship between Angel and the Sanford police officers, and the macro syntagm of action movie cliches are instrumental to the film’s effectiveness. Comprehension of these representations of semiotic processes enables the construction of a better informed perception of the film.