Volver, A Separation, The White Ribbon, Tsotsi, Departures, Animal Kingdom and The Secret in their Eyes - Essay Example

 Introduction Movies present the society with an avenue for addressing socioeconomic and political concerns, with the main intention of fostering emancipation and equity. This is because most movies are adaptations of novels. Novels, on the other hand, are not written from a vacuum, but from the prevailing socioeconomic and political realities that characterize human societies. This reality shall be divulged upon, in light of movies such as Volver, A Separation, The White Ribbon, Tsotsi, Departures, Animal Kingdom and The Secret in their Eyes. Thesis All movies are derived from prevailing socioeconomic realities with the main intention of fostering emancipation, justice and equity, in lieu of comic relief, catharsis and entertainment. Question 4 Of the seven movies, Tsotsi has the most interesting setting. This is by virtue of the manner in which the author and the film crew have labored to use various elements of filmmaking to make the movie more persuasive. For instance, although South Africa’s Johannesburg is more urbane than any other city in Africa, yet the featuring of the neighboring sprawling and (in)famous Soweto slum makes the plot of the movie more plausible. Another instance which reinstates this sense of authenticity is the presentation of large construction pipes which serve as Tsotsi and his gang’s domicile. Otherwise, it would be out of order to speak of Tsotsi’s crime as taking place within Johannesburg (Hood, 2005). The author also uses special effect filmmaking strategies to make the setting very plausible and congruent with the plot. Specifically, lightning techniques have been used to this effect. In instances where Tsotsi and his gang carry night raids, weak light is used, thereby making the audience believe that such criminal undertakings are nocturnal. Through the use of silhouettes, Tsotsi and his protégés are also densely shadowed, so that they are easily identified as malefactors. The failure to use proper lighting could have portrayed Tsotsi’s criminal exploits as taking place during daytime, and thereby painting Johannesburg as an insecure, crime-riddled city where crimes happen even during broad daylight. Lance Gewer and Gavin Hood as the director and cinematographer respectively showcase their dexterity and ingenuity in filmmaking by making the movie polyglot. The movie consists of languages such as English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and isiZulu, and thereby rightly painting Johannesburg not only as a polyglot but also a cultural melting pot. Question 5: The concept of family In all the seven movies, the concept of family is not only ubiquitous, but also given a central thematic value. In the 2009 German film titled The White Ribbon, a family is depicted in Eichwald, northern Germany as the world is on the verge of World War I. Authored by Michael Haneke, the film portrays the family as morally hypocritical. On the facade, the society appears chaste by the virtue of a puritanical pastor’s emphasis on sexual asceticism. However, a thorough look at the society peels back this façade. The village doctor treats other children kindly but has a penchant for humiliating his housekeeper and is found in a compromising situation with his teenage daughter. The family is also presented as morally unstable, even in the person of the baroness who confesses to her husband of being in love with another man. The larger family of human society is painted as unjust and giving way to moral decay. Particularly, this is seen in the instance where the baron whimsically dismisses Eva from work, but retains and recommends a farmer whose son had rummaged the baron’s cabbage farm (Haneke, 2009). In Volver, the family is also depicted as one that is replete with sexual scandals and unresolved matters. Particularly, there is an instance where Paco tries to rape Paula, despite being Paula’s father figure (Almadovar, 2006). In Tsotsi, the family is depicted as being characterized with a degree of inequality and socio-economic disparity. On the one hand, Tsotsi’s family is presented as being seriously dysfunctional. While Tsotsi’s mother is terminally ill, his father is very irresponsible and physically abusive. This situation pushes Tsotsi into street life. On the other hand, Mr. John and Mrs. Pumla’s family is decent enough to own a car (a luxury). In A Separation, the family is seen as one that is wrought with a lot of disagreements and on the verge of collapse. Nader and Simin are separated and on the verge of divorcing, fourteen years into the marriage. The instability of the family is caused by lack of trust and the disparity between modernity and conservatism. This development also plays out in Razieh and Hodjat’s marriage. Razieh does not trust Hodjat enough to inform him about the job she is about to secure. Likewise, Simin takes Nader’s money without informing him. The conflict between modernity and conservatism plays out as Simin wants out of life in Tehran, Nader wants to remain therein, as the best environment for taking care of his ailing father (Farhadi, 2011). In The Secret in Their Eyes, the family is presented as being complete and full of love even before children are sired. Ricardo Morales and Liliana Coloto seemingly love each other until Gomez murders Liliana. However, even with this loving relationship, the family is not presented as an impregnable unit. The vulnerability of the family to external challenges is communicated by Gomez’s act of raping and murdering Liliana (Sacheri and Campanella, 2009). In Departures, the family is presented as a unit that faces its socio-economic challenges but eventually overcomes. This overcoming on the side of the family is premised on the upholding of Japanese traditional values. For instance, Mika comes to accept Daigo’s job after she sees Daigo prepare bodies for burial. Contentment is found in immaterial but precious gestures such as the issuance and accepting of tokens of love (such as river pebbles). In Animal Kingdom, the family is floated as a potent source of criminality. Particularly, after J’s mother passes on from a heroin overdose, Janine S. Cody as his grandmother introduces him into a family of hardcore criminals. It is against this backdrop that J’s eldest uncle Craig inducts J into crime, in an alley incident that pits Craig and two young men against each other. In this movie, the family cannot be said to exist since there are no ethical values the group passes to J. The group is more of a criminal outfit than a family (Michod, 2010). Question 6 The “child” is significant in the movies White Ribbon, Volver, Departures, A Separation, and Tsotsi since it sets the plotline running and also helps convey the thematic value of these movies. In the White Ribbon, children are presented as ambivalent towards social values and almost helpless. While the pastor is busy trying to inculcate values of chastity among children, his own son has already engaged in a sexual touch. The village doctor also sexually abuses his teenage child. By thus presenting children, Haneke is able to underscore Eichwald’s moral putrefaction. By implication, Haneke is postulating that children are the most innocent parties in a society, yet these are already too exposed; meaning that Eichwald’s social future is shaky (Haneke, 2009). . In Tsotsi, the child as a concept both underscores the theme of parenting and sets the movie progressing towards denouement. For instance, Tsotsi does not receive good parenting (the inculcation of societal values) from his irresponsible and abusive father. Disease also robs Tsotsi the chance to experience motherly love. All these factors combine to push Tsotsi into street life and criminality. The movie paints children as compellingly innocent to the point that immediately Mrs. Pumla’s child ends up in Tsotsi’s hands, Tsotsi is compelled to take care of it. This compulsion leads to Tsotsi’s encounter with Mr. John and the police. In A Separation, the child is acknowledged as the glue that keeps the husband and wife together and as a source of social continuity. Simin finds it hard to leave Nader because of Termeh. Likewise, it is the concept of a child that keeps the movie reeling towards the climax. Nader, the child to Temer’s grandfather, feels obligated to take all the duties due to his old father, and thereby setting a stage. Razieh is fearful of telling her husband about the job she has landed because she is certain Hodjat will not grant the permission for such an undertaking as she is heavy with a child. However, Razieh needs the job. Thus, the plot continues to thicken. Finally, the miscarriage of Razieh and Hodjat’s child carries the movie straight away to its denouement. This happens against the backdrop of Nader’s (an adult child) protective instincts towards his father’s wellbeing, pushing him to act aggressively against Razieh. In Volver, children are presented as vulnerable and a source of continuity, great concern and happiness. The vulnerability of children is for instance spoken of in Paco’s attempts at raping Paula. That a child is taken seriously as a source of continuity, great concern and happiness is seen when it is thought that the reason why the ghosts of Sole’s mother linger around is because of Raimunda’s dislike for her. In Departures, children are seen as the vehicle by which socio-cultural values are perpetuated from one generation to another. This is well depicted when Daigo takes Mika to the river bank and gives her a pebble as a token of his feelings or their bond. This sets the plotline of the movie running towards its climaxing since it is because of these values that Daigo goes the length to prepare bodies in the morgue for burial. This leads him to encounter his father’s body, his token of fatherly love and to prepare the body for a decent burial (Koyama, 2008). Question 7 In The White Ribbon, there are many crimes that are involved. The crimes include multiple homicides (of the farmer’s wife and the baron’s son), kidnapping of the baron’s son, child sexual abuse (of the doctor’s teenage daughter), suicide and wrongful dismissal from work. The movie rotates around these crimes but does not conclude on the fate of their perpetrators since the whole plot is interrupted by the Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia. Thus, the perpetrators are left unpunished. In The Animal Kingdom, there is organized crime being carried out by a criminal gang. The gang’s criminal operations are more structured, profound and more lethal. The crimes of this gang range from homicide, killing of police officers, forceful conscriptions (of J) and drug dealing. For instance, the gang kills Nicky after its ring leaders Pope, Darren and Craig kill two police officers. J’s mother died of a heroine overdose, thereby illustrating the group’s involvement with hard drugs. In the movie, the author lets J as the protagonist serve poetic justice to its ring leaders. Immediately J runs away from police witness protection, he shoots down Pope before approaching Smurf in his home. This movie reinforces the theme that criminality has a fatal ending. As for the movie Tsotsi, the crime involves robbery, murder and inadvertent kidnapping. Tsotsi, Boston and his criminal gang rob Soweto’s inhabitants to earn a living. While it is open that Tsotsi reasonably shot dead his comrade Butcher, the latter had also murdered other harmless and complicit victims. As for the kidnapping, Tsotsi ends up with the child in Mrs. Pumla’s car which they had carjacked. This orchestrates the plot towards its denouement as circumstances and moral conscience later compel Tsotsi to attempt to return the child. The punishment that is meted out on Tsotsi is unclear since the movie has two endings. There is an instance where Tsotsi is shot dead as he tries to reach out for the baby’s milk. However, there is an alternative culmination of this movie where Tsotsi as the protagonist is shot in the shoulder and escapes on foot towards Soweto. Thus, it becomes clear that the author, Mr. Gavin Hood, is more interested in divulging on the ravaging reality of poverty and crime, instead of communicating crime’s consequences. Question 9 There is no denying that the movies The Secret in Their Eyes, Animal Kingdom and A Separation are movies with strong central female characters. In The Secret in Their Eyes, the strong female character is Judge I. Mendez-Hastings. Unlike her peers in other movies, she is a successful career woman – a departmental chief at the time the investigations being documented were taking place. Her being successful, active and energetic is well played out throughout the movie. For example, at an instance, she exhibits independent-mindedness when she frankly tells Esposito that she could not see the connection between the way a suspect in a photo looks at a woman and criminal culpability. In another instance, she uses her mordant wits to obtain information from Gomez, the prime suspect. She does this by invoking sexual innuendoes that challenge Gomez’s sexual prowess and ability. This differentiates Hastings from the other female characters in other movies since they are more conservative (Sacheri and Campanella, 2009). In A Separation, the strong female personalities and models of femininity are Simin and Razieh. The strength in Simin is seen in her being able to resist her husband, Nader. While Nader is insistent that they have to stay in Tehran, Simin is categorical that they relocate. By implication, at the heart of the matter is that Simin was challenging a patriarchal status quo to assert that she should be at the center of Nader’s decision-making, and not Simin’s father. This also brought to the fore, the debate on show a family should be viewed – whether nuclear or extended. Simin’s strength is further underscored by the fact that she withstands her husband in Tehran, a very patriarchal society. On the other hand, Razieh’s strength is exhibited by her resolve towards financial independence by working hard, even when expectant. In Animal Kingdom, it is contestable whether Janine Cody should be considered a feminine model. This is because, though she is a strong figure, her strength is channeled towards a criminal cause. Of certainty, it is not in doubt that it takes voluminous strength for a woman to serve as the matriarch of a ruthless and notorious criminal gang, the Melbourne criminal family. However, she leads Joshua J. into a life that is surrounded by dangerous criminal elements; that Joshua J. is her grandson, notwithstanding. Conclusion In all the seven movies, it is clear that their authors intended to address serious matters that underpin human existence. Thus, it is not fortuitous that concepts such as family values, father-child relationships, superstition and the supernatural, economic inequality, crime and criminals’ fate form a complex weave that loom together all these movies into a common motif. Likewise, it is not by chance that the social context in this discussion includes different geopolitical spheres such as South Africa, Japan, Iran, America, Germany and Australia. The import of this is that the movies confirm that social values such as emancipation, justice and equity cut across all races and regions and should thus be tackled with universal oneness and brotherhood. References Almadovar, P. (2006). Volver. Los Angeles: Sony Pictures Classics. Farhadi, A. (2011). A Separation. Los Angeles: Sony Pictures Classics. Haneke, M. (2009). The White Ribbon. Berlin: XVerleih AG. Hood, G. (2005). Tsotsi. New York: Miramax Films. Koyama, K. (2008). Departures. Shochiku. Michod, D. (2010). Animal Kingdom. Film Australia. Sacheri, E., & Campanella, J. (2009). The Secret in their Eyes. Los Angeles: Sony Pictures Classics. Read More