|
Film Analysis
Guide Celluloid Indians AIST
320
Responding to Film
Before you watch a film, think about expectations you may have for it. What do
you think will happen? What are your assumptions about genre, plot,
characterization, theme? Be sure you respond to the film while watching it, and
record your responses (in writing) as soon as you can.
Thematic Elements
Theme and Focus
Theme refers to the unifying central
concern of the film, the special focus that unifies the work. A filmmaker may
choose to focus on ideas but is just as likely to emphasize the four other major
elements:
1)
plot
2)
emotional effect or mood
3) character
4) style or texture.
All five elements are
present in all films but in any give film, one is predominant.
Focus on Ideas
In most serious films, the action and
characters have significance beyond the context of the film itself--significance
that helps to clarify some aspect of life, experience, or the human condition.
The idea may be communicated directly through a particular incident or stated by
a particular character. More often, however, the idea is presented more subtly,
and we are challenged to find an interpretation that we feel best fits the film
as a whole:
1. Moral implications
2. The truth of human
nature
3. Social problems
4. The struggle for human
dignity
5. The complexity of
human relationships
6. Coming of age/loss of
innocence/growing awareness
7. A moral of
philosophical riddle
Content
Theme:
What are the themes of the movie? What point is the director or writer trying to
get across?
Ideology:
What ideas or political leanings does the movie convey? Are there particular
philosophies or concepts that influence the message the movie sends?
Culture:
As a cultural document, a cultural text, what does this movie say about its
culture? How does it transmit values? What kinds of ideas and values does it
hold up or condemn?
Race/Ethnicity:
How does the film construct a view of race and/or ethnicity? How do various
directors deal with the idea of race and ethnicity? Do Native and white or
non-Native directors deal similarly with ideas of race and ethnicity?
Representation of Native Americans:
What arguments does the film make about Indians? What might be the effect on an
individual viewer or mass audience of this argument?
Effectiveness:
Does the movie “work” as a movie? Why? Why not? What cultural forces might be
influencing your criteria of effectiveness?
Guides to Watching/Writing about Film
Cues for Watching/Film Terminology
| 
