Ideology

1. Explicit ideology refers to when a character in the film or someone important in making the film such as the director or writer announce the subject of the film. Implicit ideology, on the other hand, is when the ideology of a film is open for debate, meaning that people can argue different ideologies with supporting evidence.

2. Christian Bale
a. Notable Works:
· "Empire of the Sun" (1987)—wealthy child becomes prisoner of war in Japanese internment camp
· "Equilibrium" (2002)—gradually rebelling government official in a dystopian society
· "Reign of Fire" (2002)—leader of a group of refugees when dragons are released
· "American Psycho" (2000)—serial killer...
· "The Machinist" (2004)—an emaciated machinist with insomnia
· "Batman Begins" (2005)—Batman (and his alter ego) fighting against the villain Scarecrow
· "The Prestige" (2006)—a struggling magician in competition with another magician (Hugh Jackman)
· "Terminator Salvation" (2009)—John Connor leading a resistance group against robots
· "3:10 to Yuma" (2007)—a Civil War veteran and poor farmer
· "The Dark Knight" (2008)—Batman (and his alter ego) fighting against the villain the Joker
· "Public Enemies" (2009)—the FBI agent in charge of capturing John Dillinger
· "The Fighter" (2010)—the junkie brother of Micky Ward and once boxing star who eventually gets clean
· "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)—Batman (and alter ego) fighting against the villains Selina Kyle and Bane
b. Typical Role: conflicted, oppressed, unstable, heroic, determined
Christian Bale’s next role will most likely include a leader-like character with internal conflicts who must face a challenge that at first seems he cannot defeat. He will have to overcome his internal struggles before he can face the external struggles, but he cannot accomplish it by himself. His character will most likely be completely opposite if not reformed from the initial character he was as he defeated his enemy.

3. "The Lord of the Rings" (trilogy)—Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin)

a. Sam is like Frodo’s sidekick, but he is also the best friend Frodo could ever ask for because he reminds Frodo of why he is on this journey and how there is always hope. Even when Frodo abandons him, Sam comes back when Frodo is at his worst to make sure that they accomplish their goal of destroying the ring. To create this effect, the filmmaker created meaningful dialogue for Sam to say when times seem the hardest. Also, the Peter Jackson, the director, creates an emotional response from Frodo about how much Frodo needs Sam to help him fulfill his quest.
b. The value I am being asked to share is that a strong friendship in the toughest of times is all a person needs to find their way. The value I am being asked to reject is that there is no hope because even when Frodo was approaching death sometime after abandoning Sam, Sam returned to save him because it shows their true friendship.
c. Halfway through Frodo’s and Sam’s journey to Mordor, they meet Gollum, who becomes their guide. Gollum finds a way to persuade Frodo to abandon Sam, so we develop a hatred for Gollum. When the two are separated, there is some parallel cutting between them in which Gollum is tricking Frodo while Sam discovers the trick that Gollum played. This cutting makes us feel more sympathetic toward Sam because he was wrongfully turned away, and therefore we feel more hopeful that he will return since he gains the determination to find Frodo and keep him from the evil Gollum. Hence, parallel cutting is used to manipulate me to favor Sam’s viewpoint of the power of a strong friendship over Gollum’s implication of hopelessness for Frodo.
d. A filmmaker might want me to favor one viewpoint over another in order to get the underlying message across in order for the audience to understand the auteur’s intentions. Peter Jackson wants us to favor one viewpoint over another because he wants to hint that there is still hope for Frodo. He doesn’t want the audience to lose a character like Sam because he acts as a stabilizing force for Frodo when the burden of the ring takes its toll on him. He wants to show that without hope for Sam and Frodo to reunite, there is no hope for Middle Earth, so he gives the audience hope for a positive outcome.
e. Many films are debatable in their ideologies (implicit), so they can cause different reactions for people. Films can be released to specific audiences before their official release, and if there is a majority negative reaction then the filmmakers can do reshoots. This is costly and may destroy or alter the vision of the auteur of the film. However, if the film is released officially and there is a negative reaction this can lead to bad reviews which then lead to box office failures. Even with a preview by a select audience, there is still a risk for the film’s release on a large scale. This can also destroy the artistic vision of the auteur that may have had an impact on future films depending on the reaction. Also, filmmakers can lose money when they had the chance to gain it by falsely interpreting an audience’s potential reaction. Luckily, The Lord of the Rings trilogy got overwhelmingly positive reviews (not to mention dozens of academy awards…).
f. If the financier disapproves of the film, they may not want to invest, thus costing a waste in valuable money and ruining the artistic vision of the auteur. It can also have a long-term impact because that investor may not want to work with the filmmakers in the future. The financier also may have wanted the film to go in a different direction that perhaps the filmmakers initially considered, creating a big waste of time and money.

4. Changing Ideologies: Films are a reflection of society even if they are from a completely unrealistic genre. Films can reflect political views, religious views, educational views, and media’s views. An example of a film narrative that has changed over the generations would be that of "True Grit". Mattie Ross, the girl whose father was murdered and who looks to Rooster Cogburn for help, is supposed to be a more central character in the novel. The 1969 adaptation of the novel did not make Mattie (Kim Darby) as central of a character as Cogburn (John Wayne). In the 2010 remake, Mattie is given a more central role, giving her the point of view that the novel intended (although she was listed as a supporting actress in the Academy Awards). This is especially seen through how the film takes on a narrator of an older Mattie and ends the film with a scene of her older self in person (something in the novel that the 1969 adaptation lacks). The changing ideologies between these two adaptations are that women currently have a more equal and sometimes dominant presence to that of men in the acting world and even society, compared to the society of the 1960s.

5. Ideology and the “Effects” Debate: Films can affect you and your behavior without being conscious of it because in order to enjoy a film you have to accept what you are seeing and hearing. Once you accept it, it subconsciously becomes a part of your ideology so that it influences what you deem right or wrong.

6. Suspension of Disbelief: Sometimes we can accept what we see on the screen as true or realistic because we have had no personal experience with the subject matter and therefore cannot justify why we would doubt it. An example in which the suspension of disbelief applies is the film. I recently saw “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011) in the movie theater, and the idea of the suspension of disbelief was definitely present.In this film, Holmes makes many predictions about things, whether based on speculation or intuition. To show this, we are shown his predictions and possible courses of actions he could take. The suspension of disbelief applies to these situations because we go along with his predictions based simply on the fact that we know Holmes is a detective who knows what he’s doing. We don’t question his conclusions based on our own reason because Holmes has much more knowledge about the circumstances than us, the viewers. In the film world, he has access to resources, while we only have access to what the filmmakers allow us to know.

7. The financial support of a film or ownership of a film company influences the ideology of its films because they have the advantage of authority over what a film shows. If the financial backer doesn’t agree with it, they can pull their funding of a project, much like the owner(s) of a film company can replace people who made a film whose ideology they disagree with. This is risky for the filmmakers, so they must allow them to have a say. However, the potential loss of the artistic and ideological vision of the auteur can perhaps be prevented with legal help (i.e. contracts). An example of this is The Walt Disney Company and its films. Because Disney is such a well-known corporation, when placing films into the broadest of categories, one of those categories can be simply Disney. Disney’s ideology strives for family values and “happily ever-afters” because its main targets are children and their families. Especially with the animated films, there are themes throughout Disney films in which there is the good guy (or reformed guy) and the bad guy, and the bad guy is always defeated. Also, one theme I noticed just by watching a lot of Disney movies is that for almost all of their animated films, there is at least one parent missing or killed. One such example is "The Lion King" (1994): Simba is the hero, Scar is the villain, and Mufasa is the parent that is killed. This reflects the Disney ideology that despite internal conflicts (i.e. the loss of a parent), good always triumphs over evil. Disney attempts to maintain its pure image by maintaining the image of a hero and villain and making it seem more realistic by making loss a real thing (in other words, not making it look too perfect).

Genres and Their Conventions

Writing About Film

According to the article "Writing About Film" by Karen Gocsik, the five types of film writing are: formal analysis, film history, ideological papers, cultural studies or national cinemas, and discussion of the auteur.

Formal Analysis includes the breaking down of a film in order to determine how they contribute to the film overall. In order to do this correctly, one has to have a thorough understanding of film terminology.

The next type of film writing is film history. It includes how history influences the production of a film, a film impacts historical events, and the production of a film creates its own history. The example used in the article is war films. The inspiration to create a war film may have come from the experience of actual events of war. There is a cause-and-effect factor at work, as well, because as the idea for a war film becomes a film it has an impact on the audience that can influence a society's stae of mind regarding war. The article also discusses how films have their own place on a timeline. A film can be considered a Hollywood classic based on when it was created, such as Sunset Boulevard, because the certain traits it possesses, from the glamorous female lead to the simple fact that it is in black and white, are what make it capable of obtaining such a label.

Another way a film can be analyzed in terms of how it has its own history is what happens along the way in the production of the film. What if they cast someone else to play Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver? The "You talkin' to me" scene, along with others, probably wouldn't have the same effect because great films have their own "trademarks" that could only originate there depending on the choices of everyone in the production of the film. The last way in which the article discussed how film's have their own history is with the release of films. Some films are meant only for young audiences (I can't imagine some poor old lady having to sit through Twilight). Similarly, there is a cultural barrier in the film world that allows films to be released only in certain areas, such as with the exmaple in the article in which The King and I was banned in Thailand for its disrespect toward the royal family of Thailand.

Ideological papers are about how a film has a set of beliefs, whether political to the point of propoganda or moral to the point of familial values. One example would be with Leni Riefenstahl who was a German director and personal favorite of Hitler whose films had a strong portrayal of the Nazi ideology. In terms of morals, according to the article, Mary Poppins shows a strong sense of the importance of a father's relationship with his children that even the best nanny in the world could not be a substitute for. Films can have an underlying message that an ideological paper is meant to decode and take apart based on how it is represented in the film.

The next section is cultural studies and national cinema. Films can reflect a certain culture, which is why some people become hesitant about watching foreign films. For example, a US film starring a not-so sensible female may be considered shameful somewhere like Saudi Arabia where society is very conservative and many women are Muslim with almost every inch of themselves covered. The culture in which a film was made can even be reflected in shot composition. For example, a Russian film may not have a single close-up, therefore allowing it to fit into a national category of Russian films. Cultural studies can tell one about a nation or patterns in the cinema of that nation or culture.

The auteur is the person whose ideas about a film and whose style ultimately influence the final product because of their authority over the decisions made to make that film. Oftentimes a film can be associated with this single person because of their influence on the film depsite the contributions of everyone else involved (e.g. Psycho= Hitchcock, Star Wars=Lucas, Pulp Fiction=Tarantino). Auteur criticism serves to identify the auteur's themes and trends with their body of work, as well as the decisions made in the process of creaitng the film. For example, Scorsese tends to embody themes associated with the anti-hero and oftentimes one of the decisions he makes in his films is having deNiro as one of the main characters. It is important to note that in a successful auteur criticism, one must bring in other types of film writing such as film history and formal analysis.

Annotating a film sequence is a good way to take notes before writing a film paper. It includes a shot-by-shot list of the sequence in order to distinguish patterns in cinematography and editing techniques or the lack thereof. Its benefits are that it gives you a comprehensible layout of an important scene in order to determine how the director put the film together and how these intentions reflect the audience the way they do.

By "Think Beyond the Frame" Gocsik means to imply that one should always consider the force of external factors on a film. This could mean the auteur's influence and how this shows a pattern in terms of style, what the circumstances were at the time the film was made (e.g. ideology, financial limitations, etc.), how critics and academics viewed the film, what place the film has in its genre, and what simply the presence of the film or who is in it tells one about a certain culture (e.g. stardom's place in the US).