Essay

 How far do your chosen films demonstrate the importance of visual and soundtrack cues in influencing spectator response? 

No Country For Old Men (NCFOM)

Captain fantastic (CF)

Visual Cues are important in influencing the spectator, this is seen in the films of NCFOM and CF where the visual and soundtrack cues are used to influence the spectator in many different ways. creating a deeper meaning for both of the narratives explored in each film. 

One example in CF is the scene in which we see Ben and his family having dinner with Harper and her family. where there are many visual cues influencing the spectator response. Ben and his family are juxtaposed to Harper and her family they present different ideals of society ben represents the ideas of anti establishment and anti capitalism, as he chooses to live different to the 'normal' American family he raises his children with his own ideals and teaches them through his own intuition. He presented the ideas of Chomsky and can be seen as a mouthpiece for showing how the idea may differ to the execution as in reality his children need the social interactions to be able to interact with others. Whereas Harper and her family present the ideals of the typical American Nuclear family who are upstanding citizens. However he children show how the education system is failing many children as they failed to show or retain the information they learned in school. However Ben's children who learn in a completely different way are able to retain and understand what they learn. The visual cue given towards this idea is when ben goes to give one of his younger children a glass of wine and Harper is perplexed as to why he would do that as it is against her idea of what is normal for a child. This influences the spectator as they will see the two sides of the argument, therefore must decide who they agree with and what ideals they see as right. Creating a deeper understanding for this scene as it is the only time we see Ben and his family in contrast to a 'normal' family. 

Another example of this is in NCFOM, in the scene in which Llewellyn is killed. Similar to CF This is the only time we see Llewellyn and sheriff bell together. There in correlation to Ben and Harper are two characters who are Juxtaposing towards each other. Sheriff bell presents the idea of a veteran who feels out of place in the world in which he lives which is always ahead of him, just like Llewellyn who is always ahead of him and he eventually catches up with him, however he is already dead when he is able to catch up with him. The spectator is made to feel empathy for sherif bell as he is trying to keep up and understand a world moving too fast for him, we see an expression of disgust and shame on his face when he sees Llewellyn's dead body as he was trying his best to save him. In the modern world it isn't as easy as it was to distinguish good from evil that is the idea the Coen Bros. are trying to portray that the lines have been blurred as time moves on. Characters such as Sugur present this idea as he is just a man and to many of his victims he seems like a good honest man. however he is quite the opposite the same can be said for Llewellyn as he seems as though he is on the side of good however Sherif bell is still hunting him. This influences the spectator to look deeper into what we consider good and evil and how perspective can shift as time moves on sherif bell is the mouthpiece for this. 

In CF opening scene we see many visual cues towards ben and his family being a tribe  

In conclusion Both the films use visual cues to present the deeper meanings they aim to portray and use this to influence the spectator.