Hot Fuzz - Writing

Without a doubt this film is full of verbal wit. You can’t go more than a minute without having some kind of witty repartee.

The film was written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Hot Fuzz was the duos sixth collaboration, including Shaun of the Dead and Spaced. They added another title, the final in their Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, The World’s End in 2013.

Edgar Wright has almost 20 separate writing and directing credits. Beyond his work with Pegg, his most notable works are Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Adventures of Tintin. Wright frequently makes cameos in his films. In Shaun of the Dead he had three separate cameos and in Hot Fuzz he played a stock boy and had a voice over.

Simon Pegg has more than twenty writing credits including, Run, Fatboy, Run and Paul. He is currently in pre-production for a 2016 release of Star Trek 3. Since the success of Shaun of the Dead, Simon has become quite an accomplished actor appearing in both films such as Star Trek and Mission Impossible. He has also lent his voice to films - Ice Age, TV shows – Phineas and Ferb, and video games – Spare Parts.

While some of the dialogue in the film pays homage to other films, it sounds like realistic speech. In keeping with the “top-cop” personality of Sgt. Angel, he speaks in proper police vocabulary and is careful in the words he uses. In contrast, his new police force of Sandford, who are nowhere near the level of policing as Angel, are more laid back and crude in their speech. Towards the middle of the film we see that Sgt. Angel’s partner, PC Danny Butterman, begin to learn about “real police work” and use proper vocabulary. In turn, Sgt. Angel becomes less rigid, he doesn’t smile until the 45 minute mark of the film, and soon after lets his frustration of the events get to him as he starts to curse just like the other members of the police force.

There are countless figurative tropes in Hot Fuzz many of which go unnoticed unless one’s a seasoned movie buff or has inside information like movie commentary. For instance, actor Edward Woodward who plays the civilian liaison for the Neighborhood Watch Alliance played a similar role in The Wicker Man. Early in the film, he, along with all the members of the N.W.A. appear to be decent citizens, but turn out to be the ones behind all of the suspicious goings-on. Almost all of the “accidents” are predicted in the previous scenes. “We haven’t got long,” said by Martin Blower. “He’ll be in bits tomorrow,” said by Simon Skinner and so on… All of the ridiculous questions that PC Butterman asks Sgt. Angel in the first half of film that Sgt. Angel responds “no” to actually happen later in the film.

The movies point of view is mostly objective and omniscient. We see the true nature of the first accident before Sgt. Angel has any suspicions of the dubious nature of the Village of Sandford. As the film progresses, Angel guides the story through his suspicions.