Family on Film - Movie Review Example

Family on Film Art reflects life and its various complications and complexities. Every form of art, including film, should attempt to represent lifein its reality which consists of positive aspects as well as negative aspects. In the modern world, where life is characterized by stress and tension, true art should reflect how individuals deal with stress in their day-to-day life. Spike Lee’s semi-autobiographical film Crooklyn (1994) and the American drama-film To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) are two of the most convincing examples of how the modern films represent the way of dealing with stress in daily life and both the movies present how families, especially the children within those families, deal with stress.

This paper makes a reflective analysis of the films Crooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird in order to establish how they convincingly portray the stress permeating families and how the children in these movies deal with stress within their families. A careful observation of how Spike Lee presents the plot in the film Crooklyn confirms that the filmmaker makes crucial decisions to show how stress permeates a family and how the family deals with various difficulties. In an insightful review of the movie Crooklyn, it becomes lucid that Spike Lee has been highly effective in reflecting the stress within the family of five children and how the young girl Troy Carmichael deals with this stress.

In this movie, the main character Troy is presented as facing various types of stress in her family, which consists of the four troublesome brothers and the stressed parents. All through the movie, the careful viewer comes across a brave and maturing young girl who efficiently manages various stressful moments in her daily life. It also comes to the notice of a close observer that the director makes use of arbitrary reflections and storytelling in the movie to suggest how Troy realizes the realities of life around her.

Thus, Troy observes the ups and downs in the life of her parents and she gathers strength to deal with the stressful experiences of life. The tender feelings of this young girl portrayed in the film effectively convey how the children within certain families deal with stress in their daily life. The filmmaker creates an apt setting which adds on to her stress in the family life and this setting includes the urban neighborhood and its miscellaneous characters. As an only girl in the family, Troy Carmichael has a special relationship with her father and mother.

Along with this experience, this wise little girl also observes everything around her neighborhood and she gathers experience and knowledge as to how to deal with stress in life. This experience has greatly helped this young girl in the power struggle with her four brothers. Similarly, her ability to deal with stress is evident in the scene where she evaluates the awfully large man in the grocery store. Significantly, Troy’s process of maturation is influenced by the stress-filled marriage of her father and mother, the death of her mother, her experience with her unruly brothers and relatives etc.

However, Troy Carmichael efficiently deals with the various types of stress in her family and overcomes these atrocities to become a mature character. Similarly, the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, the film-adaptation of the novel of the same name written by Harper Lee, presents how the protagonist living in the Great Depression era defends his two small children against prejudice towards racism. Significantly, the movie portrays childhood innocence in an effective way and focuses on some of the most intriguing aspects of family life as encountered by a widowed lawyer and his two small children.

In the film, the filmmaker proficiently represents the innocence and the world of play of Scout (six year-old girl) and Jem (ten year-old boy). It is from the perspective of Scout that the story is unfolded and the director successfully conveys how the children overcome the stress in their family life. By presenting Scout and Jem watching the trial of their father, whose courageous defense of a black man protects them against prejudices, the film reflects how these children deal with stress in life.

Therefore, in this movie, the filmmaker effectively shows how stress permeates a family and how the children, with the support of their father, deal with these difficulties. In conclusion, the films Crooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird are significant examples of how films deal with how families, especially the children within those families, manage stress in their daily life. Works Cited Donalson, Melvin Burke. Black Directors in Hollywood. New York: University of Texas Press. 2003. P 113.