La La Land – Deep Dive

Context –

La La Land was directed by Damien Chazelle in 2016 after the previous success of his film Whiplash released in 2014. Similarly to Whiplash the story is orientated around jazz culture. The film is different from many other contemporary films in that its musical elements links back to the golden age of Hollywood. The film’s style combines both artistic elements with the common tropes of a romance. However, it’s still a heterosexual romance following the trend of the Hollywood output. The film had a large budget of $30 million and stars two fairly large stars as the lead roles. It also uses the idea of the ‘American dream’ shown by the protagonists aspirations, which is a mainstream theme.

The six main entertainment conglomerates are:

• CBS
• Disney
• GE
• News-Corp
• Viacom
• GE
• Time Warner

These 6 conglomerates are a product of the mergers of around 50 different companies which are now vertically and horizontally integrated as they own production companies, distribution companies and cinemas. They also own record companies, publishing houses and TV stations. This allows them to have control over all aspects of production.

In the box office, the films with the highest budgets and that gross the most money are funded by one of these six conglomerates.

La La Land was produced by Summit (an extension of Lionsgate) which acted as the distributer for the UK and US. Arguably, the film could be considered not part of mainstream media due to it being a ‘passion project’ of the filmmaker and owing nothing to the conglomerate.

Chazelle and Hurwitz (composer) wrote both the script and score for La La Land before the production of Whiplash in 2014. Whiplash was a huge success for an indie film that only cost 3.3 million to produce and had the niche topic of jazz drumming.

La La Land was pitched to Fred Berger and Jordan Horowitz who are two indie film producers from New York. Berger is said to have described it as “essentially impossible in the mould of Hollywood financing,” meaning that it would have been a risk for mainstream production. This is because the musical genre didn’t have an established audience at the time.

The screenplay and score was picked up by Lionsgate and the production was given just 42 days to film in LA. Lionsgate gave Chazelle the freedom to make the film as he desired.

Social, cultural and political context –

La La land was released at a time where Americans were looking for escapism which the musical genres fulfilled. Musicals are often full of colour and use songs in order to distract the viewers from reality. The majority of musicals reached their popularity in the 1940s when audience watched these films in order to escape the reality of the war.

La La Land uses nostalgic elements by looking back at the prominence of jazz in its score which resembles the ‘golden age of Hollywood’ and European cinema in the 1960s. In an article released in 2017 by Geoff Nelson’s, 52% of Americans think that life was better in the 50s showing the prominence of nostalgia within our society. This can be shown in political agendas with Trump’s “make America great again,” and Farage’s “We want our country back.”

Another reason why the film’s release was timed well is because viewers were trying to escape from the reality of Trump’s new presidential reign. On a review of the film, Patterson (Guardian writer) titled it “Why this magical musical will transport you from Trump world.”

La La Land took inspiration from a range of other films. This is shown as the Academy Award winner ‘Artist’ (Hazenavicus, 2011) has links to the silent era of film in its themes. Academy Award winner Birdman (Inarritu, 2014) uses jazz drumming as its score and has links to La La such as the use of long takes. Gravity (Cuarón, 2013) also utilises long takes which is shown in La La Land. This is notable as in the 1930s the average shot length was twelve seconds compared to present day where the average is 2.5 seconds.

The film links back to the 50s and 60s as it uses 2:55:1 CinemaScope ratio which was popular between 1953 and 1967. This is emphasised as the ‘boxy, black and white Summit logo’ is shown first before the screen physically widens to show the CinemaScope logo. This adds to the nostalgia of the film. The musical numbers also aim to pay tribute to musicals from the golden age of Hollywood by designing them to look like they’re single takes.

Aesthetics –

An essential part of La La Land’s aesthetic is the combination of old and new. This is shown as Chazelle said that “I wanted to see what would happen if I pasted these MGM musicals onto a modern landscape with modern characters going through a life where the dreams don’t always match up the old movies.”

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) was an inspiration for the aesthetic of La La Land as well as classics such as Top Hat (Sandrich, 1935) and Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen (1952).

Art can also be shown to influence the aesthetic through the pastel colours and the soft lighting with the street lamps. Chazelle describes his process to achieve this aesthetic in the New York Times:

“Use real LA, do thinks in-camera without digital effects, but try to find those moments where real life looks as fake as possible.”

In the final scene where the viewer is shown what their relationship could’ve been like it has a very different aesthetic which is very expressionist and breaks from the realism by using imaginative imagery, techniques and theatrical sets. It takes clear inspiration from films such as ‘An American in Paris’ (Minelli, 1951).

Sound helps to contribute towards the aesthetic in La La Land. Chazelle has a clear idea of how La La Land should sound and references Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973) and Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997) to sound editors in order to capture the sounds of the bustling city.

Representations –

Hollywood is known for not representing diverse social groups as much as independent films. This is present in La La Land as there is a lack of diversity of the crew and filmmakers behind the camera which therefore creates a lack of diversity in the overall product.

Age –

Both characters are a similar age which is relevant as they’re both going through a similar crisis in life surrounding their career. Both characters are split between their career aspirations and their relationships which is significant because of their age. This is shown when Mia says “you change your dreams and then you grow up.”

This idea of growing is present throughout the film and links to the representation of their age as they’re at a stage in their life where they have to face reality and accept that their dreams are simply aspirations. This is clear as Sebastian considers giving up his dreams to play keyboard for The Messengers and claims that Mia wanted him to “be in a band and have a steady job.”

The film originally casted Emma Watson and Miles Teller but then instead chose Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as they’re slightly older showing that these aren’t new aspirations but ones they’ve been striving towards for a large section of their life.

Gender –

Gender is represented poorly throughout the film with critics pointing out that Mia is a passive character who’s decisions are motivated by Sebastian. This is clear as Sebastian comes to find Mia at the coffee shop, persuades her to put on the one woman shown and attends the audition which results in the launch of her career. Mia is also presented as an audience member at Sebastian’s performance showing her as passive but Sebastian didn’t attend Mia’s performance.

However, it’s clear that Mia leads the narrative and has a more central role than Sebastian as the audience follows Mia for the first couple of scenes before Sebastian is properly introduced and it’s Mia that is the most successful at the end. Additionally, it could be argued that the audience is made to sympathise more with Mia throughout the film due to Sebastian’s mistakes. This is evident from the start with Sebastian’s introduction as he’s impolite by beeping his horn and pushes her out the way in the bar.

Sebastian’s masculinity is a clear theme throughout the film which ties in with his insecurities. This is present at the start of the film with the ‘stand off’ between him and his employer before realising that he’s been fired and needs the job. At this point it’s clear that the sense of masculinity, which was present within Sebastian’s personality, dissipates as he realises the situation is out of his control and he then begs for his job back.

This emasculation is shown later in the film as he states “he doesn’t tell me what to,” in regards to the singer telling him to return to the stage in which he replies “I know I let him,” showing Sebastian’s attempts at trying to present himself as being masculine despite his clear lack of authority. This is later shown as he plays for The Messengers instead of pursuing his aspirations so that he can make money in order to present himself as the ‘masculine provider.’

Ethnicity –

There is a clear under-representation of the African-American and Hispanic community throughout the film. This is because the film relies of nostalgia and looking back at the past and because of this there’s a lack of ethnic roles in order to fit with the theme. Samuel Earl in 2017 said “Forget about the future, they say, the past is now the place to be – but not everyone is invited,” showing the lack of diversity throughout La La Land. He also stated “To turn back the clock, others must be turned out.”

In the opening sequence there are many different minorities represented but in terms of main characters this can shown to be limited. LA is an extremely diverse city and for the most part this is not demonstrated throughout the film. Most of the ethnic roles are ‘peripheral characters.’

The one major role from a black actor is Keith who is played by John Legend. His role can be critiqued as he’s shown to have sold out his roots of jazz music (a genre of music with black origins) to become a successful pop musician and it’s instead left to a white musician (Sebastian) to save the pure roots of jazz.

However, these roots can be shown as there are many black performances and black people dancing in the crowd which is a successful representation of their jazz origins however, the camera and lighting is shown to still favour the protagonists, Mia and Sebastian in these scenes.

Spectatorship –

It’s often been questioned whether film audiences are homogenous or have identical responses to the narrative as they are individual spectators. Active spectator theory shows that spectators interact with their personal ideologies.

The ‘magic bullet theory’ and the ‘hypodermic needle model’ is an important concept in regards to La La Land due to the climate in which it was made; ‘In a modern world facing numerous conflicts and injustices.’ Because of this, people watch films for a sense of escapism from reality.

This idea of the audience having a unified response has been questioned since these theories arose, however, it’s still clear that the audience often have a particular response which is dictated by the director. This is shown from the score, close-ups and editing used in La La Land in order to create a certain response from the audience.

Decisions on the narrative are essential in order have an impact on the viewer. This can be done by using binary oppositions in order to encourage the audience to become invested and take the side of the protagonist. Using character tropes and archetypes are an effect way of doing this.

It’s important that the filmmaker ensures that the audience is lost in the narrative of the story and isn’t reminded that they’re watching a film. It can be argued that the audience of La La Land never fully immerses the viewer as they’re constantly reminded that they’re watching a film as it’s too “referential and self-consciously cinematic to transport its audience out of their seats into another specific place.” (Anna Leszkiewicz, in the New Statesman).

The references to art and classical films may encourage the audience to focus on this instead of being ’emotionally involved in the narrative.’

Films are made with the intention of showing them in cinemas. this used to be the inly way films were shown but this has changed due technological advancements. The immersive experience of cinema and IMAX varies dramatically to watching a film on a lap top or tablet. In these situations spectators may often pause films and therefore interuppt the narrative showing the context in which spectators view the film effects how they perceive it.

Demographic factors have a large impact on how the viewer spectates the film. This can depend on factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic background and sexuality.

Films with larger budgets try to appeal to as many people as possible to maximise profits. To achieve this, large amounts of audience research is done in pre-production in order to make sure the film appeals to the maximum number of people. This can be in forms such as surveys, focus groups and test screening. Test screening allows for films to be re-edited to fit with the viewers expectations. For this to be most effective, the people invited are from diverse social groups so that the filmmakers can see who it’s going to appeal to most and where to target their marketing campaigns for advertising. This therefore means that the viewer demographic has an important role in determining these responses as a spectator. This could be because people find it easier to relate to people similar to themselves.

Films are often produced for mass consumption which have high budgets and therefore need large audience in order to generate profit.

Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model explains why people may interpret films differently as they’re questioning what the filmmaker is trying to impress on them. He argued that there are 3 possible ways of decoding.

Dominant reading: spectators interpret the meaning of the film as the filmmaker intended. They passively accept what the film shows them.

Negotiated meaning: viewers agree on some of the messages in the film but question others.

Oppositional reading: the spectator rejects the films messages although they do understand them.

Hall’s model works easier with other forms of media as films are sometimes too complex and many interpretations are offered by the filmmaker.

The preferred reading of La La Land is an exploration of love between the characters with themes of the American dream and the conflict between these ideas. The audience is impressed by the artistic elements used in the film.

The negotiated reading is that the viewer is impressed by the characters striving towards their dreams but unimpressed by their unbalanced and problematic relationship.

An oppositional reading could be that the viewer sees Sebastian’s obsession with jazz self-indulgent and regressive.

Large block busters often have a clear preferred readings with close ended narratives and characters with unambiguous motivation.

Ideology –

It may be assumed that a mainstream Hollywood film such as La La Land would present dominant ideologies from a contemporary American society dominated by middle class white men with minority and female characters playing secondary roles. Heterosexual relationships will dominate the films narrative with a focus of fulfilment of employment, relationships and the family unit.

It can be argued that La La Land does this due to the focus on their relationship and the American dream. Their aspirations can be shown as ambiguous throughout the film although their main goals are clear. The equality of opportunity is a clear ideology shown throughout the film which is not representative of reality.

There’s a clear feminist interpretation of La La Land due to Sebastian playing a pivotal role in Mia’s life as he helps her achieve success by overcoming fear, doubt and insecurities. He also doesn’t attend her show despite her being at his shows, supporting him. This plays into the concept of men being the characters that actively drive the narrative and women being passive.

However, another feminist approach is to view Mia at the centre of the narrative due to techniques employed by Chazelle. In the first couple of scenes the spectator follows Mia rather than Sebastian. By the time Sebastian is re-introduced the audience has been told about Mia’s ambitions and has sympathised with her due to her failed auditions.

Anna Leszkiewutz views Mia as the central role as she says that we mostly see Sebastian perform when Mia is watching and when he does perform the focus is still on Mia and we see her reactions to the music. After the audience has caught up with Sebastian’s narrative both Mia and Sebastian look at each other at the same time, subverting Mulvey’s notion on the male gaze as both gazes are equal.

The most fantastical scenes in the film are all Mia’s auditions and performances. The audience is also shown Mia writing and auditioning without Sebastian showing her independence. Both the opening and closing of the film has a focus on Mia.

Mia achieves her ambitions of the ‘American Dream’ as she becomes a successful actress, is in a loving relationship and has a family. Although Sebastian achieves his ambitions he’s portrayed as lonely as Mia and her new partner leave the jazz club together.

Beasts of the Southern Wild – Deep Dive

Context –

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a low budget film and targets a niche audience and wasn’t financed by any of the major 6 Hollywood studios. Most of its marketing was accomplished through word of the mouth due to its critical acclaim which generated publicity for the film. It also had success in film festivals and award shows. The film can be considered an indie film which is any film which is made without the contribution of any large studio. Bob Rosen is one of the founders of the Film Independent non-profit organisation which created four categories for what an independent film should be. These are:

• Risk-taking in content and style
• Express a personal vision
• Non-Hollywood in financing
• Demonstrates the valuation of art over money

Beasts of the Southern Wild can be shown to meet the criteria for independent film as it has the sub-genre of ‘magic realism’ with the topics of poverty and natural disasters. It could be argued that these choice is topics may have restricted audiences shown that the filmmaker took risks and therefore fitting into the criteria for an independent film.

This could therefore explain why the film originally had a limited release and was only played in four cinemas across the USA. This may have been because the film is a product of a specific artistic vision from Zeitlin. This is shown as he said that “I wanted to celebrated people living on the precipice of destruction hanging onto and fighting for their homes,” in one of Franz Lidz articles in the Smithsonian Magazine.

Zeitlin worked with Court 13 who are a community that are dedicated to making films about communities and representing outsiders. They’re known to embrace the challenges of working outside the system. Michael Gottwald (Producer of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Court 13 member) stated that “Limitations are motivation for us. We love to bust through challenges.”

‘Outsider art’ was made by Roger cardinal (art critic) and is used to describe art which is made outside boundaries of ‘official culture.’ This term fits Beasts of the Southern Wild accurately as well as describing the independent film scene well.

Beasts of the Southern Wild is considered an Indie film as it goes against the grain of Hollywood conventions as it prioritises a focus on Characters rather than action. This is shown as when the creatures in the ice are introduced; this somewhat suggests that there’s going to some form of action, violence and possibly death surrounding the viscousness of these creatures. However, instead of the they are used as metaphors and symbolism and the film instead focuses on characters development.

It also doesn’t conclude in a stereotypical Hollywood ‘happy ending’ as the conclusion is open ended and although its motivational and hopeful it has a sad tone due to the death of Wink (Hushpuppy’s father).

The ‘Independent Film and Television Alliance’ says that there are over 500 independent films released per year meaning that they make up over 70% of films produced in the USA every year. Independent films took the US box office to $4.5 billion (41.7%) in 2012. The market for Indie films averaged at 35% between 2000 and 2011.

Independent filmmakers often create short films to launch their careers. This is shown as Zeitlin created a stop motion film titles ‘Egg’ which, at the Slamdance Festival, won best animation. he made his first live action short film in 2008, titled ‘Glory at the Sea’ which was partly inspired by hurricane Katrina. The film was intended to be 5 minutes, take a month to film and cost $5000 but ended up being 25 minutes, taking 18 months to film and costing around $100,000. The film was at the South by Southwest Festival in 2008 in Austin and won many awards including the Wholphin award. With each success at different film festivals Zeitlin’s popularity as an ‘up and coming’ director increased.

After being selected to enter the Directors Lab programme Zeitlin was awarded a $10,000 cash prize to aid with the production of Beasts of the Southern Wild. The Sundance festival had an essential role in securing an audience for the film. The film was met to critical acclaim and won 74 different awards. This good publicity lead to a wider release and resulted in it being screened in up to 318 different cinemas. In 2013 it was nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards.

For Independent films the marketing for a film often costs up to three times the cost of production. Because of this independent filmmakers often make deals with major US film production companies in order to distribute their films. Because of this US film producers can be viewed more as distributers in this context.

Although Beasts of the Southern wild doesn’t directly reference Hurricane Katrina it’s an obvious influence in the plot of the film. The film also focuses on the more general impact of natural disaster and how certain communities are impacted more, although according to Zeitlin, this was not meant to be a political commentary on global warming even though this is a topic close to him.

The Gulf Coast was hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, devastating communities with the initial storm followed by huge floods. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of people having to leave their homes and over $100 billion worth of damage. It’s reported that over 1800 people died and that people of colour, the poor and the elderly were most badly affected. The messages from Beasts of the Southern wild certainly reflect the inequality which was a problem during Hurricane Katrina.

Because the financial risks of an independent film are less, filmmakers often take more risks with creative freedom than in mainstream films. Indies often do things differently by defying typical conventions and can therefore be more easily defined by what they’re not. They aren’t mainstream products, they often don’t have specific genres and don’t have typical narrative structures. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a drama but can also be viewed as a Fantasy due to the incorporation of fantastical realism. The film has a mostly conventional linear structure however, the elements fantasy which could be viewed as reality or as an figment of Hushpuppy’s imagination creates an alternative narrative and encourage the audience to think freely and decide this for themselves.

Independent film often breaks the ‘rules’ of filmmaking to create effect. For example, choosing unique and unusual shot types, or using mise-en-scene with hidden and symbolic meanings. In addition, the filmmaker may also choose to structure a scene in a more creative way by ‘foregoing an establishing shot’ and utilising ‘contrapuntal sound to challenge the spectator.’

Audiences often have expectations for independent films. It could be argued that art cinema in itself can be considered a genre due to its own unique and distinct conventions. This can also be said with independent film.

Aesthetic –

The originality of Beast of the Southern wild can be attributed to its unique aesthetic made through the artistic decisions of the filmmaker. Some of the memorable moments of the film are not designed to aid the narrative and push it forwards but instead stand out as moments of beauty.

Zeitlin is said to be inspired by the aesthetic of a documentary called Dry Wood (Blank, 1973) where there’s a scene where they’re all preparing food together. Additionally, Zeitlin was inspired by nature documentaries and wanted to show this ‘close up’ aesthetic throughout Beasts of the Southern Wild. Zeitlin said “I’m really obsessed with nature documentaries. I wanted to explore that child-like fascination with nature by showing it up close and in detail.” Jerrycan (Julius Avery) is said to be another influence on Beasts of the Southern Wild’s aesthetic.

Representation –

The representation of age is a key feature of Beasts of the Southern Wild with the contrasting age difference between Wink and Hushpuppy. Wink is the older out of the two and acts as a parental figure however, he doesn’t display the stereotypical wisdom of his role. He has authority and respect within the community and is viewed as a leader throughout the film as he leads the plan to blow up the levee.

Age is represented as Wink prioritises teaching Hushpuppy to survive over giving her affection and love. Hushpuppy has clear respect for her father, shown by her use of phrases such as ‘Daddy says’ and ‘daddy always says’ showing the respect that’s gained from their age difference and therefore Winks survival knowledge. This is shown in the fishing scene and the crab eating scene. This shows that Hushpuppy is being changed by her father’s views and ideologies. Miss Bathseba can also be shown to have authority due to her wisdom surrounding the stories of the aurochs which the become an essential aspect of the film because of Hushpuppy’s imagination of these creatures.

Children are often stereotypically represented as weak and emotionally vulnerable however, Beasts of the Southern Wild pushes against the grain of this stereotype as Hushpuppy is presented as strong and independent and deals with challenges that face her effectively. Her voice-overs throughout the film gives the viewer an insight on her attitudes and perspective. This is shown as she says “I see that I’m a little piece of a big, big universe, and that makes things right,” showing her impressive ability of being able to show a positive attitude in such harrowing conditions showing her strength and resilience and presents her as being far more mature than her age. In the final shot of the film she’s presented as a leader of her community meaning that she has taken over the role of Wink after he passed away. This is shown in the screenplay as the last words are “Hushpuppy leads them forwards, into the future,”

Gender –

The audience would assume that there would be progressive representations of gender as it was made and set in 2012 and is a contemporary indie films which are renowned for this representation. However, Wink clearly holds stereotypical views of strength and survival skills as the characteristic of a male and therefore encourages Hushpuppy to act tough and masculine. An example of this is when they arm wrestle and when he refers to her with masculine terms such as “you are the man,” and “You’re gonna be the king of the Bathtub.”

Wink also criticises Hushpuppy when she shows emotion and fear which highlights her gender and the representation of this. While discussing her health and anxiety he responds with “That’s just a side effect of being a stupid little girl.”

Hushpuppy’s clothing is either masculine or completely androgynous throughout the film. In the opening scene her clothes are described as ‘boys underpants and a child-sized wife-beater (vest).’ When she’s in the hospital they dress her in more stereotypically feminine clothes and her discomfort is clear throughout this scene.

Ethnicity –

Ben Kenigsberg (writer of Time Out Chicago) showed concerns about the representation of race in Beasts of the Southern Wild due to the black residents of the community being depicted as “alcoholics, inattentive parents or fools who accidentally set fire to their homes.” The representations do often edge towards offensive with the inhabitants of the community often being shown as ‘poor, dirty and even animalistic at times.’ The is shown at the start of the film as Hushpuppy is playing with dirt before eating with the animals and being told to ‘share with the dogs,’ showing the animalistic presentation and therefore negative representation of their race.

However, this can be disputed as race is represented as irrelevant in the community as there are many races depicted and all of them are viewed as equals.

Spectatorship –

Independent films are arguably found more challenging by audiences as they can be interpreted in multiple ways and ‘invite a wider range of responses,’ supporting the idea of an active spectator. Roger Elbert one said:

“I’ve always felt that movies are an emotional medium … We come voyeurs. We become people who are absorbed into the story, if the story is working. And it’s an emotional experience.” A key part of spectatorship is the emotional impact that a film has on a person which was an important aspect to Zeitlin.

Zeitlin said “I think Court 13 is about living the Story, about trying to create the actual feeling that you are trying to shoot on set. You want to shoot a party, you have a party. You want to shoot a flood, you go to a flood. It’s trying to get the real thing on camera and emotionally too. There is a lot of slight-of-hand acting using real performances and real emotions.”

There have been many studies showing the emotional impacts that a film can have of the audience. There are two predominant theories that support this idea.

Identification view – spectators engage with the film as they’re trying to place themselves in the characters situation and empathise with them. This is know as ‘imaginative identification.’

Assimilation view – Spectators experience sympathy and antipathy but they are instead an external observer looking at the character from the outside.

It can also be argued that the viewer responds differently from the character which is shown by the ‘asymmetry of emotional response.’ This is shown as when Wink dies the audience wouldn’t feel grief to the same extent as Hushpuppy. This is because Zeitlin focused the film with Hushpuppy in the centre so that the audience is more concerned about Hushpuppy’s wellbeing than Wink’s death.

Most active spectator theories focus on the notion that the spectator interprets the film and therefore people will have a diverse response. This view is challenged by the ideas of emotional contagion.

Coplan said that this idea was developed by psychologists Elaine Hatfield, John Cacioppo and Richard Rapson. The idea has been described as “the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronise expressions, vocalisations, posters, and movements wi those of another person, and, consequently, to converge emotionally. “

Plantinga argues that filmmakers attempt to create scenes of empathy in order to exploit emotion from the audience with the characters feelings. A scene attempting to do this will have scenes with long shot lengths, a shallow depth of field and close-ups. Narratives will often slow down in these scenes in order to maximise the chances of an emotional response from the spectator.

Zeitlin uses these ideas in the Wink’s death scene. The use of Hushpuppy’s voice-over is essential within this scene as we have an insight into what she’s thinking. It could be argued that the fantastical elements of the film such as the aurochs and the ice-caps collapsing may restrain the audience from becoming fully immersed as these elements break-up the realism. However, it could also be argued that these elements allow for the audience to become closer to Hushpuppy as it’s an insight into Hushpuppy’s imagination.

Ideology –

Marxist film theory ideology challenges Hollywood’s narrative structures and allows the spectator to make their own interpretations. It does this my using a deep focus so that the audience is free to look around the frame and decide what to give their attention to. This is not shown in Beasts of the Southern Wild as it utilises a shallow depth of field in order to dictate where the audience should look.

The shallow depth of focus normally focuses on Hushpuppy which also adheres to Marxist filmmaking as it does’t prioritise the community over the individual. However, it does follow Marxist film theory in that there is a clear sense of community within the Bathtub community as there’s equality between everyone in the community. This is shown as Wink says “Boss, anything go wrong, Walrus is Daddy.”

Even though the film concludes with a group shot, the focus is clearly on Hushpuppy’s story throughout the film. This can be shown as she is the leader in the group in the last shot of the film. Beasts of the Southern Wild contextualises and analyses hierarchical relationships which is shown due to the lack of celebration of ‘capitalism, industrialisation, wealth and material possessions.’ It instead celebrates ‘community, nature and strength.’ The difference in priorities and community is apparent between the Bathtub community and the ‘industrialised world,’ This is shown as Hushpuppy states, “Daddy always saying that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got.”

There is the key representation of Social class throughout the film shown from the Bathtub community as many don’t work, have low incomes and have compromised living standards. The difference in class is evident in the scenes in the hospital where the audience can make direct comparisons the Americans not in the Bathtub community. Privileged Americans are clearly blamed for this division shown by the wall that cuts them off. This seems particularly relevant in comparisons to the claims that Trump made about building a wall during his presidency. 

The audience is encouraged to ‘cheer the underdog’ throughout the film as they are encouraged to ‘share the joy of these characters.’ The portrayal of the authorities that evict Hushpuppy and Wink while they’re vulnerable is negative as they are aggressive and violent. 

It’s clear that the film explores Marxist film theory concepts however, it could be argued that Zeitlin focuses too much on the individual and not enough on community as well as leading the spectator to focus towards Zeitlin’s preferred interpretation.