This means
that the way we receive ideologies presented in films is extremely subjective
as they are based on the director’s own values and beliefs about the world. We
either accept or reject his film because it either agrees or not with our own
values. Turner developed this idea of subjectivity in Film as Social Practice (1988) and said: “both the production and
reception of film are framed by ideological interests, no matter how
insistently this might be denied”.
Ideologies
are expressed in every film, explicitly and implicitly. They can be identified
by the representation of prejudices about gender, race or of society’s ideals
of justice and equality for example. They can be seen in the way the film is constructed: Turner suggests analysing the
texts, narrative, characters, and lighting to see them.
An example of implicit
ideology is the film Mean girls (2004)
directed by Mark Waters. It tells the story of sixteen year-old Cady, who
starts high school in the U.S. after being home-schooled all her life in
Africa.
The school,
seen through her eyes, shows the very stereotypical “cliques” people form and reveals
one of the issues teenagers go through, fitting in. The three mean girls in the
film are the most popular (referred to as “the plastics”), pretty and stupid, everyone
looks up to them in the school despite their hypocritical attitude. The
narrative of the film is comedic, apparently empty of meaning and the issues it
deals with are highly exaggerated. This narrative was intentional: the film uses
comedy to implicitly express ideologies. The aim was to encourage teenage girls to be
more civilized when they interact with each other. Through the characters of “the
plastics”, the film shows the audience an example they should not follow. The end of the film shows that characters, who used to
be part of separate cliques, are now hanging out together.
Ideologies
can also be identified in external factors that have affected the production of
the film. Comolli and Narboni (1969) suggest that “every film is political in as much as it is determined by
the ideology that produced it”. Various scenes of Pirates and the Caribbean:At World’s End (2007) were censored in Chinese cinemas: a love scene,
mentions of political affairs, violence, and the pirate character Captain Sao
Feng reading a poem in Cantonese. BBC
news (June 2007) reports that “the previous instalment in the film
franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
Man's Chest was banned by the Chinese film bureau because of scenes of
cannibalism and ghosts”. The ideologies presented in this film were not
considered suitable for the Chinese audience by the government and therefore
they chose to regulate the showing of the film.
Ideologies
tend to be more explicit in heroes and villains films.
The first X-men film (2000) gives clear messages
of equality and acceptance. The mutants are seen by humans as “the other”. The
heroes are the mutants using their powers for good, on the side of Charles
Xavier and the villains are the ones using their powers for evil (here to get
rid of human kind), on the side of Magneto.
References
Bordwell,
D. and Thompson, K. (2010) Film Art: An
Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Comolli, J.L.
and Narboni, J.P. (1969) “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism”. Originally published in Cahiers du Cinema.
News.bbc.co.uk (2007) BBC NEWS | Entertainment | China censors 'cut' Pirates film. [online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6744245.stm (Accessed on 10 April 2013)
Starr, Elana,
2009. Ideology. Villanova, [homepage] 22 September. Available at: http://www89.homepage.villanova.edu/elana.starr/pages/ideology-cinema.htm (Accessed on 08 April 2013).
Turner, G.
(1988) Film as Social Practice.
[e-book] London: Routledge. Available through: Google Books <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=McMOAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
> (Accessed on 9 April 2013).
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