component 1 section B American film since 2005

When and where is the film set ?

How do you respond to this as a spectator?

is anything anomalous?

what is the genre? 

Captain Fantastic

Spectatorship and ideology - specialist area 

Spectatorship 

- passive - active 

- dynamic interaction with film narrative 

- reasons for the uniformity or diversity of response by different spectators 

- preferred, negotiated, oppositional and aberrant readings]

- the impact of different viewing conditions on response 

- The analysis of narrative, visual, musical, performance, genre and auter cues  

- Reception theory 

Ideology: critique of american society 

ewir

- Liberalism/ progressivness 

- Anti-establishment/ authority 

- Liberal education

- Power freedom (Noam Chomsky)

- Questioning and rebelling against status Quo 

- Being outside of the established system 

- Ben cash 

- Tradition and convention 

- status Quo/ authority 

- traditional education 

- order and conservatism 

- conserving and preserving status quo 

- working within the system 

- Jack bertrang 

Active Vs Passive spectator 

in the opening sequence there is a lack of sensory elements allowing the specator to be actively looking for meanings especially as it is the start of the film leaving the spectator with many questions the lack of dialogue creates a active audiuance as they are only being guided by the camera. There is a change when the dialouge begins shifting the perspective as you are focusing on  what the film is trying to portray and allowing the film to take you in the intended direction 

No minorities shown in captain fantastic 

The anyalsis of narrative, visual, musical, performance, genre and auter cues 

Narrative 

- Dancing around the fire- hair costume- singing/dancing - primitive aspects to the family 

- Sequences come towards the end 

- Ideologies and veiws dont change - familys 

- colours - mismatch - bright clothing; world around them bleak, so we side with them- in their self expression 

Visual

- A lot of close ups of all of the children and they are all central in the shots putting the main focus in the scene on them along with their facial expressions to create a sense of intimacy.

the clothing they wear us colourful and this represents their unorthodox way of life as all of the clothes they wear are flamboyant  

- All sound is diagetic mening everything we hear is also being heard by all the characters present 

- focus on all of the childrens faces as it is their mothers funerals but their reactions are unorthodox 

- Many close ups

- all shots- characters are centeral- not on the edge of the screen 

- our focus - we forget we are viewing a film 

- Builds intamacy 

- have to remeber its a film 

Performance 

- Unity with the family 

- Similar facial expressions 

- synchrony 

- Sense of relief - get the funeral mum wanted/ Catharsis - spectator 

- each child different function - act as one 

dad the conductor - family 

- performance - utilising the space of the frame 

- half way through the father joins in 

- ending of sequence - time place- narrative, moving on 

Stuart hall - Reception theory

Cultural theorist/ political perspective/ marxist ideologies 

Representations are never transparent or authentic 

Never a window on the world 

Mediated reality 

Dynamic and active spectatorships 

Preferred reading 

- reading an interpretation 

- accepting colluding with the message, values and ideologies of the text film 

oppositional reading 

Rejecting messages, resisting, reality or representation, values and ideologies are rejected 

relevant for a more active approach - and also for specific groups - on the margins: gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class   

Negotiated 

- Negotiating a reading which both accepts and rejects aspects of the film's messages/ values 

Aberrant readings 

De-coded or interpreted differently to the intended messages/meanings 

- Constructing meanings of your own from that text/film 

Paragraph 

With reference to a sequence you have examined explain and analyse how reception theory enhances our spectatorship. 

In the sweet child o mine scene which takes place towards the end of the film you are sutred into the filmic text by the visual cues as all of the children are placed in the center of the frame to make the spectator forget they are watching a film ad by this point they are invested in the film. The performance also helps with this as the family all have grown throughout the film and their whole journey has been based around this moment this is the peak of the character arc the spectator will be influences to actively watch this and form their own opinion. 

As a spectator you are actively watching this scene the setting and performance are important to this scene as the spectator will have their own interpretations and receive the funeral in their own way as it is dependent on you personal perspective and beliefs as it is a very alternative way to have a funeral meaning every spectator will recive this in a different manner the costumes help to add to this as the clothes they wear

Different readings in the reception theory

Oppositional 

negotiated 

Aberrant 

preferred 

Captain fantastic:

Opening scene:

Micro features:

- Colour 

- Natural lighting 

- difference in costuming from what the spectator would consider normal  

- Wide shots 

- Unity of family showing them as a tribe 

- tracking shot 

- Reactions of the family when he eats the heart 

lighting- 

Towards the end of Captain Fantastic, the children and Ben celebrate and honour their mothers death, in their own way by singing 'sweet child o mine' around their mothers body. Matt Ross utilsies this scene to both give the characters and the audience a sense of catharsis and relief after all their troubles throughout the film. Through this the spectator is shifted into an active specatatorship as they fully able to feel and believe in all the joyful feelings of the characters at this point. Ross does this through his manipulation of narrative, visual clues and performance. The narrative of the scene suggests a kind of primitive aspect to family as they sing and dance around the fire, however when connecting this to the rest of film, it correlates as they constantly reject society and tradition in order to keep their ideological values. It also shifts the reader into state of active specatorship as the scene is much more engaing.

These ideas are furthered in Ross's manipulation of visual clues. Throughout this scene Ross utilieses framing to show the idea of equaility and level headedness with all the characters. Firstly all the charcters are posistioned centrally in the frame, creating a kind of intamcy with the spectator, it also demonstrates the equality in the family not having one character be more powerful than another, furthering the illustartion of the posetive aspects of Ben's parenting in the scene. Ross builds the active specataorship further with his manipulation of editing, its fast paced as it cuts to each of the children beinging the specatator into the elation and emotions of the children and Ben.

All of these ideas are once again furthered with the performances of each of the actors. Once again Ross demonstrates the theme of relief and catharsis for the specatator. The most obvious way this is done is through the use of facial expressions, throughout the whole scne all the charceters smile demonstating their final accepatnce of their mothers death, leading a a more final catharsis for the reader. It is also of intrest that in this scene all of the characrters are playing in band, empahsising the idea that they all have their own roles within the family that come together to create something, impactful as a whole.

Bill of rights scene 

Micro features:

In this scene in which we see the bill of right recited by Zaja there is a large amount of shot reverse shots, This is used to sutre the audience into the scene as this is the first time they see the results of Ben parenting and wether or not it is succesful. All of the characters present are in the center of the frame, taking the focus of the spectator onto everyones reactions the spectator will align with Ben as they can see the positive impact of his parenting allowing the children to understand the world. There is a lot of focus on the facial expressions and how each of the people present react to Zaja's knowledge and they are all surprised as she is a young child. 

No country for old men

Our analysis of both spectatorship and ideology is framed within both the production context and the historical context: 2008 and 1980s 

The 1980s social, cultural and historical contexts focus on moments of comparison and reflection. For example the idea of the 'old' pioneer which dominates classical westerns, the archetypal characters hero, anti-hero, villain, helper 

NCFOM- an urban space with echoes of the western - the wide shots and suggestion of physical space are overwhelming 

What spaces do women inhabit in this old/ or 'new' cultural and ideological landscape 

Spectatorship and the problem of alignment:

 

- Spectatorship is inherently driven by our moral values and ideologies which determines how we interact and engage with the narrative and the characters' actions, reactions, motives, decisions 

- and how we might understand their predicament 

- NCFOM - poses the challenge - who do we align with? who is morally right 

- Whose side are on? whose point of view do we understand   

Moral ambiguity - spectatorship 

moss - anti hero 

Opening scene - 

In the opening scene we originally align with the voice over who we later find out is sheriff Bell however we don't see him on screen for another 5-10 minuets we are actively aligning with him as he is talking about apprehending a killer and therefore helping society. From the end of the scene we are then shown a police officer walking someone in handcuffs and this makes the spectator question who's voice they are listening to and what they look like.

Young sherif - colour and clothing - Shagur dark clothing 

Cuts on wrists - suggests he lacks feelings/ emotion/ sociopath 

His facial expression - worms eye level 

Spectatorship - forms our opinion of him as a Villian 

ideologies good Vs evil/ Binaries - we clearly distinguish the antagonist 

Law Vs outlaw - chaos into the film 

Uncle Ellis sequence 

Mise en scene - feel sorry for him 

Old Vs new - outlook/ attitude/ values 

things changing - getting worse 

this country is hard on people 

Sheriff Bell - looks to ellis for support as a mentor 

bell is weary 

Harking back 

Ellis narrates a time when someone called Max was shot in a random way 

Lines are blurred - between good and evil - just as they are with bell 

Key ideologies

- American dream

- Good Vs Evil 

- Moral ambiguity 

- old vs new 

- transitions: social, cultural, moral 

Key sequences 

- crossing the border

- opening

- coin flipping - Gas station/texaco 

- moss death - in frame with sheriff 

- closing - 'times have changed'  

Analyse how key elements of film form enhance your understanding of the films ideologies

Moss death scene:

In this written response i will analyse moss death scene in order to explore how the key elements of film form enhance your understanding of the ideologies presented in this film.  

Mise en scene - 

- framing 

- rural america 

- Inheritance 

- Shagur is wearing all black which connotes with death 

- shop owner wearing typical clothing 

- he look tired

Message and values: 

Captain Fantastic

Marxist ideologies/ political ideologies

- Bens parenting influence by his values, beliefs and attitudes to American society 

- As an indie film this is more likely to offer alternative views to the' American dream/ way of life 

- Ben educates his children to be fiercely independent, to learn to survive physically and emotionally - his education is wider than the traditional educational curriculum 

- The depth of their knowledge on wide raging subjects is admirable: literature, the classics, political science, history, politics, the constitution 

- the eldest son gained entry to ivy league universities   

Society, the system and individuals 

- Embedded within ben's ideologies is a deep suspicion of how society treats individuals - a system which works against the interest of most everyday people - Chomsky motto - power to the people and stick it to the man 

- Contained within this rejection of power, are strong echoes of the political views of Noam Chomsky - someone whom the family revere directly  

Political activism, greed and capitalism

- Political activism against corporations and capitalism - wealth in the pockets of the minority, at the expense of the majority 

- His writings occupy - the result of campaigning in protest at austerity after 2008 - occupying public spaces like central park 

- Greed and politics - political status quo looks after the interests of those who fund them and elect them - never those of the poor 

- The elite, the media and cultural organisations perpetuate the dominant ideologies serving the status quo - by controlling information. the so called liberal press is the conspiracy  

With close reference to the dinner sequence analysis how a critical approach you have studied enhances your understanding of the film ideologies 

Dinner sequence analysis: ideology

Mum/ harper and husband - telling children how Lesley died 

Vs ben - straight out with it 

Ben reflecting Chomsky's philosophy of learning/ language 

Ideological clash - ben rejecting nuclear family - middle class values 

Typical american family - Ben is perplexed by their view 

the family stands for mainstream America

Most people would reject ben's style 

ben pushes his beliefs and boundaries onto family 

With close reference to the dinner sequence analysis how a critical approach you have studied enhances your understanding of the film ideologies ? 

In this written response i will analyse the dinner sequence in order to explore how a particular critical approach  has informed my understanding of the ideologies in Captain Fantastic. Exploring the clash of values between ben and his wife's family brings conflicting ideologies into focus. This is evident when harper and her husband tell their boys how Lesley died. the opposing parenting styles are both presented as they both in their own way tell the children how she died, This causes them to clash as they disagree and it ends with Harper walking out. however ben is perplexed by this and fails to understand why she is being so sensitive, he has the alternative view which can be connected with Chomskys view's. Both him and Ben have many similarities in the way they view society and are anti the capitalist corporate american and its ideologies such as the American dream. Ben chooses to raise his children against the normality and 'off the grid' teaching them his values instead of the ideals of capitalist america, he rejects the power given to the top teirs of society and chooses to raise his children through his own ideals. An example of this is when ben attempts to give one of his children wine which in the American ideals would be considered as wrong, whereas ben takes his own approach and chooses to give her a little bit. This scene further amplifies the difference of ben's parenting as Harper and her family are there to juxtapose this as they are the basic image of a nuclear family whereas ben is the complete opposite as he is a single father with a lot of children. 

In the dinner sequence there is a big use of the framing and placement,  to help further create the sense of the two families colliding. Mise en scene is used to create this as the setting is a family dinner where they are all sitting around together, this is