Movie Analysis: I Am Sam - Assignment Example

Movie Analysis: I Am Sam I am Sam I am Sam is a drama directed and written by Jessie Nelson. The movie depicts the importance of communication in daily life for which the three communication elements; relational dialectics, eye contact and compromising have taken center stage. This paper is going to analyse the 3 communication elements relational dialectics, eye contact and compromising throughout the movie, I am Sam. It is from here that we can comment about the various lessons, the movie teaches us about communication in our daily lives. I really did enjoy watching the movie as well as the various ways people use to communicate with one another. There are various forms of communication through which people can communicate with each other by use of nonverbal communication as well as verbal communication. Apart from that I also learnt how somebody’s feelings can be wounded by other people’s actions. For example, I watched as Sam together with his daughter makes use of nonverbal communication all through the film to communicate with one another. In addition to that I watched how Sam’s lawyer learnt communicating with her son; of course after Sam taught her. Thus Sam’s lawyer realized she just had to take her time and hear what her son had to say. A specific scene in the movie, I am Sam, portrays how characters make use of relationship and nonverbal elements of communication. The 3 main elements of communication in I am Sam;relation dialectics ,compromising as well as eye contact .These 3 elements are exhibited throughout the movie. In the movie, I was able to observe scenes in which there are openness and closeness, connection and autonomy as well as predictability and novelty (West & Turner, 2010). The first scene that exhibits predictability and novelty is the one where Sam together with his daughter, Lucy, are both communicating at the IHOP restaurant. Thus, this scene portrays predictability and novelty. Sam’s behaviour is predictable since he is always ordering just the same thing all throughout. Lucy on the other hand exhibits novelty since she has this urge to try out a new restaurant; one where she has never been before. Interpersonal communication usually entails every individual in a given relationship experiencing somewhat specific set of wants (West & Turner, 2010).Lucy, for instance, is aware that Sam’s behavior is predictable and wants to stick to the same habit; however, Lucy on the other hand craves novelty. Thus, Lucy has this urge to try something different and new; she feels she is growing older and her friends are trying new and different things Connection and autonomy is the second feature that occurs while Lucy is celebrating her birthday party. In this scene, we clearly see that Lucy craves independence; she wants to run away from her father since he embarrassed her. On the other hand, Lucy wants to be close to her father. She is therefore in dilemma and torn in between her thoughts on what to do. I learnt a lot from these 2 scenes that; some individuals need to be predictable so as to sustain their lifestyle, whereas others want to keep their autonomy. Another thing that I learnt is that even though an individual loves another one very much, still one needs to portray their independence. Apparently, as Lucy grew older, she needed novelty and wants to try out new stuff .Sam, on the other hand, wishes to maintain predictability. Lucy also exhibited connection and autonomy and wishes to be autonomous as well as remain connected to Sam, her father (West & Turner, 2010). The other element that is portrayed in this movie is that of eye contact. Generally, eye contact has got several crucial functions such as monitoring feedback, securing attention, regulating conversation as well as signaling the approach of a particular relationship (West & Turner, 2010).I watched numerous scenes depicting eye contact but 2 in particular caught my attention; first and foremost is the scene where Lucy and her father Sam, are a restaurant that is new and he attempts to be predictable as always, by ordering the same thing he had ordered at IHOP. In this episode, Sam begins to create a scene since the waitress informs him he cannot get French pancakes. Sam’s daughter, Lucy, looks at her father in bewilderment and her eyes really gets wide and big. She cannot believe what her father is doing and she gets into a frantic effort of trying to stop him from making a scene. In this scenario therefore, Lucy is making lots of eye contact with her dad so as to prevent him from making a scene. The other scene is where Sam together with his lawyer are busy perusing over the facts of a case. The lawyer in this case keeps communicating with Sam via eye contact since she understands that this the best way one communicate well with Sam. However, Sam is not able to comprehend what his lawyer is telling him. These 2 scenes helped me understand that you can effectively communicate using non verbal communication such as eye contact. The drama of the movie hinges on relational conflict where personal relationships are contradictory or opposed in nature. This was evident as previously discussed with the unlikely partnering of a high power smart attorney in the person of Rita with a mentally degraded character of Sam who is inconstant struggle to keep his daughter. This relational conflict however is also evident with Sam’s relationship with his daughter Lucy. In the normal relationship between a father and a child, the father would be wiser than the child with him guiding her and dispensing advises with the ways of the world as she grows up. In the case of Sam, however, his mental retardation was aggravated by the fact that his daughter Lucy is intellectually gifted who outsmarted him even as a child. This wrought an uncomfortable relationship with them that social services had to take her away because of his mental incapacity to look after his own child (Solomon & Nelson, 2010). The element of compromise facilitated the reconciliation of these seemingly conflicting characters. This was presented in the film as Sam tried to argue that love is really all we need. The hardnosed character of Rita would not have entertained the idea of love without this element of compromise in the film. The final compromise came when Sam asked Lucy’s foster parents to help him raise Lucy. This is a compromise because the custody of Lucy was awarded to foster parents whom she ran away from to see Sam, her father. Sam for his part did not keep Lucy for himself. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to keep Lucy away from her foster parents who agreed to have Sam’s custody, he instead asked them to become a mother to Lucy. The movie presents several unusual complicated and sometimes uncomfortable relationships that is difficult to resolve. However, as what Sam has just demonstrated, sometimes the most complex of problems can be solved with the simplest of solutions. That is really just love that we all require that was heeded by hardnosed lawyer, Rita (West & Turner, 2010). Finally, I think, I am Sam demonstrated how communication can operate in various ways and forms. This movie made me learn that communication can effectively be done by use of various methods and the message passed efficiently as well. I saw in relational dialectics how Sam communicated with Lucy, his daughter, in various scenes. Secondly I also saw how Lucy and her dad effectively communicated by making use of eye contact. Sam’s lawyer, Rita also utilized eye contact in her communication with him. I am Sam basically taught me a lot concerning various elements of communication as well as how an individual can communicate with another one that is not in a position to understand what s/he is saying (Solomon & Nelson, 2010). References Solomon, R., & Nelson, J. (2001).I am Sam. United States: New Line Cinema. Read More