To What Extent Does the Theme of Family or Childhood Preoccupy Contemporary Cinema - Coursework Example

To what extent does the theme of family and/or childhood preoccupy contemporary cinema? By Tamas Zelei AHC 3108 Contemporary Cinema Alistair Billam, Dr. Justine Ashby The Name of the school (University) The City and State March 12, 2015 Introduction Family movies are an essential part of contemporary cinema. These movies often resonate with a majority of the American homes because of their relevant plots and captivating stories. That notwithstanding, there is still a clear contrast between the 1950s and the 1990s movies in the depiction of families and family roles. This paper will show how strong the theme of family is in modern movies, but will also depict how the theme family and its role in society have changed. The theme of family and childhood in cinema Back in the 1950s, the cinemas depicted the theme of family and childhood in a very positive light. These families, which featured in most televisions and theatre shows, consisted of heterosexual fathers and mothers who were very dedicated to their monogamous marriages that were strongly founded on both material and emotional support including accepting, caring for, believing in, loving, supporting, trusting, forgiving and valuing their children. The fathers were very affectionate and caring. Mothers were portrayed as the ideal homemakers while children were obedient to their parents and well-behaved. Each family member seemed to know his or her obligatory role in the community (Bresson, 1997). In that era, cinemas portrayed fathers as the sole breadwinners while their wives and children were dependents. This scenario rendered both mothers and children totally submissive and answerable to the head of the house; the father. In the early 1990s, there was a paradigm shift and the film industry started booming. The growing demand for motion pictures led to introduction of feature films as opposed to the traditional or reel film. Consequently, a radical change hit the film industry and the family theme depiction took a new dimension as seen in Matilda (1996). It is around this time that there was a notable twist in the family institution mainly because of the introduction of career women in society. The girl child was empowered at this stage and believed in her capabilities and abilities. She developed confidence that she can do what any man can do. Thus, both the husband and the wife were income earners. The working class women betrayed the traditional loyalty to their husbands since they were no longer the sole breadwinners. These women started to compete with their men on various family issues. Men felt a bruise on their egos and reacted with violence, as seen in The Burning Bed (1984). This marked the origin of domestic violence in cinemas. Marriages started to break up and children had to be raised by their step fathers and step mothers. These children were shown to lack proper guidance from their half parents and adopted bad behaviors and became violent as well. There are a few movies that depicted a negative side of young children where at a very tender age, a child could be seen in a film abusing drugs and alcohol; in films, such as Trainspotting (1996), Traffic (2000) and Requiem for a Dream (2000), the family members resorted to drugs and violence instead of dealing with their issues head-on (Mendelbaum, 2007, pp. 34). Kitty (1989) believes that cinemas represent the real lives of American families. Cinematic trends follow the lifestyle and technological changes that occur in real life. In the past, society embraced religion and every step they took was guided by their cultural and religious beliefs (Kitty, 1989, pp. 98-99). They also believed in solving conflicts in a peaceful and loving way rather than disrespecting and shouting at each other. Most films depicted this kind of lifestyle. Conservative cultures and traditions dictated the role of gender in society. Women could not do some jobs that were done by men. Girl child education was of no great value to most families of yester years. However, as years went by, women achieved formal education and secured the white collar jobs. The mid 1980s saw this period of radical transition of gender roles as witnessed in Tootsie (1982). Tootsie disguised himself as a woman so he could land a role in a soap opera which he did. This rough transition was marked by domestic violence and frequent misunderstanding among the spouses. Their children suffered the consequences of such violence. According to sociologists, the 1950s families have been referred to as functional families, which had well-organized hierarchies that ran from the parents to the children (Gibson, 1994). A functional family was guided by the rules that are formed by the members in the higher hierarchies. Nonetheless, these rules had to be semi-diffused so as to allow a smooth interaction between parents and children. Gibson argues that the family of the 1950s was functional because everybody adhered to the rules and regulations governing it. Children knew their place in the home as well as parents. Most of the 20th century families have however been described as dysfunctional families. Such families always have mixed subsystems with no clear division of the roles played by each member. The responsible members may play the roles of the irresponsible members. There is also the element of poor hierarchical organization whereby a child may replace his parent who is either disabled or simply irresponsible. Cases of domestic violence, bad behaviors and child neglect are extensive in such families. Children from such families usually end up being like their irresponsible parents since this is the normal lifestyle they know. In today’s cinema, the lifestyle changes that have been brought about by modern technology have covered all the cinematic families in relaying the very theme of family and childhood. Technology and modern education is shown to most families. In many films of the 20th century, the families consist of single parents and adopted children. Cinematic parents of the 21st century are portrayed not to be as caring as those in the early 1950s and the new generation children seem to know more than their old fashioned parents. (Schreck, 2001). This state makes the children defy the parents and this is recipe for violence and disquiet in families today. Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade is a family movie that demonstrates how families used to stay close together in time of hardship, whereby, the child supports his father and the father also recompenses the absence of the mother. This movie was shot in Hollywood in the year 1989. Indiana Jones is a very young man who is quite adventurous and takes after his father, Henry Jones Sr. In this film, Indiana Jones leaves his teaching job and goes after his father in search of the treasure; the Holy Grail. At this moment, Henry Jones Sr. had been imprisoned by the antagonists; the Nazis. Indiana walks a very long distance as he goes through a number of hardships so as to find his beloved father. He eventually finds his father and rescues him from the cruel hands of the Nazis. They then continue with their adventure to find the Holy Grail. A large fraction of this film shows the audiences the healthy relationship that existed between Indiana and his father, Henry Jones Sr. Going by the year of filming, this must have been the era that families still embraced love and the members adhered to their obligatory duties. In this particular episode, Henry Jones Sr. is seen to be playing his obligatory duty of protecting his one and only son; Indiana. However, the son has been portrayed to playing a reverse role. He strives to rescue and protect the father, yet the father is not aged. Logically, one would argue that the two were mutual dependent of each other as they endeavored to achieve a common goal of obtaining the Holy Grail. In this movie, cinema portrays the family as a corporate institution where every member watches over the other. Both the parent and the child show care for each other. These members of the family had a common goal as well as common enemy; the Nazis. In that era, the society believed in communal work and brotherly love. The theme of childhood is also illustrated by the kind of life Indiana Jones goes through as a child. As a young boy, Indiana Jones has been portrayed as adventurous and ambitious. Like any other child, he is full of dreams and admires his father too. He takes all the risks to see his dreams come true. This brings out another aspect of fathers in the ideal families. Children were proud of their parents and wanted to be just like them. The parents would also risk their lives for the purposes of fulfilling the dreams and ambitions of their children. However, the film had some elements of modernity. We are not told why Indiana’s mother had not been part of the team. This introduces the aspect of single parenthood. Even though Indiana’s mother had not been brought into picture, he does not seem to fill this gap. The passionate love of the father has covered up for the place of the mother. Although the theme of family is very strong here, it is not the same family of the previous generation. The movie, Batman Begins (2005) illustrates how orphaned children go through bitter stages of life and eventually take up responsibility in revenge of their lost parents. The movie starts with Batman as young child who lives in a supernatural land in a bid to understand the cruel murder of his parents. The murder of his parents and his state as a young orphan leads him to a severe trauma. He, therefore, takes it upon himself to establish the cause of the crime and eliminate the killers. Batman then joins a league of Ninjas and trains for the revenge. After he had attained his desired level of fitness, Batman escapes from the training camp and goes back to Gotham, his home town, to fight crime on his own. Fortunately, Batman succeeds in his quest for justice and restores peace and sanity to Gotham. In this cinematic family of Batman, a child has been bereaved at almost infancy age. This young person has to face the harsh society without any parental guidance and protection. Theory has it that such children often lack essential guidance and thus grow up to be ill-mannered in the society (Taylor, 1993, pp19). When Batman’s parents died, he was bound to become a bad man and join the criminals in Gotham. However, Batman’s childhood took a different direction. He took a step that most children would take in real life. He decided to look for the murderers and take a revenge on them. Batman, through this bitter theme of childhood, represents many orphans out there who find themselves in a solitary situation and wondering how death had been so punctual in snatching away their beloved parents. Abused children often grown into abusive adults. Contemporary cinema has featured many children as lacking parental attention at very tender ages. These orphaned children usually go through a lot of hardships and the society has neglected them. In a real-life scenario, the main killers of such parents have been the many diseases that have rampantly increased with the modern lifestyle and behavior. In addition, these parents have also participated in criminal activities perhaps due to difficult economic times and left the children to suffer the consequences. The cinema, by demonstrating how the bitterness of Batman led him to revenge has shown the audience how orphaned children can take up adult responsibilities and accomplish so many goals in the society. Their resultant action can sometimes be of great help to a large population. In the case of Batman, by eliminating the killers, he saved the entire population from bad leadership and crime. However, in the course of revenging, such children may hurt many undeserving individuals. Batman, unlike Indiana Jones, did not get the opportunity to enjoy the love and care of his father. This film clearly depicts the importance of parental love to any child. It shows that emotional support is truly necessary for any individual and lack of it thereof has negative consequences. There are a few exceptions like Batman who turn the situation around for good but this doesn’t negate the fact that parental love and guidance is crucial to children. In Die Hard 4.0 (2007), detective McClean together with his daughter Lucy have been used to describe how challenging it can for a single parent to raise a child. Die Hard 4.0 is yet another representation of incomplete families in the USA; a state that usually results from the rising cases of divorce and separation in the Western nations. This is an illustration families’ evolution from unity to domestic violence and eventually, separation of the parents. The father, McClean is an aging father who does not seem to understand his new generation daughter. He is of the old-fashioned and out-dated generation and struggles to be at par with the trending technology. In this new world of technology, every system is controlled by computer. Lucy, living with his ever-busy father, has unlimited freedom to move around and make friends. In the course of her socialization, Lucy meets and dates a young man, Matt Farrell. Matt is a genius hacker who has the capability to access all the government systems. One day, McClean finds Lucy and Matt by the road side and acts furiously. He is trying to protect her only daughter the pressure of her peers. However, the duo belongs to a generation which this father cannot easily comprehend (Breznican, 2006, p. 23). In this family theme, there is a parent trying to raise his daughter single-handedly. To complicate the situation further, the parent is a male trying to raise a female child. It is no secret that fathers may not easily understand the nature and complexity of their daughters. Bruce Willis, as McClean, has been used in this cinematic family to illustrate how this situation can be so challenging. Many of such families usually end up in a break up. To save the family, a father must expand his roles and offer friendly counseling to the daughter. Lucy is a girl who has to live without the care and understanding of the mother. She represents the challenges that girls in separated families undergo. The theme of family, in this instance has been portrayed in two different dimensions. There is aspect of job duty and the family duties. McClean, being a government detective was charged with various tasks in the line of duty. At the same time, he had to provide for and protect her daughter in as much as he had to protect other citizens. This case represents families in which parents fail to balance their time. Some parents pay much attention to their jobs than they do their children. This is one of the reasons why some families fall apart and their children having miserable childhood. McClean, however, has been depicted as selfless and fights hard to save his daughter. McClean also represents parental values who struggle to fight to fit into new generation. He does not want to let go of her daughter. He strongly believes that the future is worse than the past and the present. Technology poses a threat and big challenge to these old-fashioned parents. Technology, thus, widens the generational gap and creates a consistent conflict between the parents and the children. In such a family, the parent would want the children to stick the old traditions of the society while the children wish the parents were more flexible to embrace technological changes. In The Amazing Spider man (2012), Peter Parker’s family has been used to showing how inhuman parents can be. This family movie also illustrates how the contemporary society has embraced adoption of children. Their situation shows how parents can be cruel to their children with the scientific adventure. Peter’s parents, at infancy, donate him for a scientific experiment that almost turned the child into an alien. His biological parents, he was told, had incorporated the spider DNA into his body system (Kirby, 2014). They wanted him to be genetically modified for reasons best known to them. Parent cruelty varies in categories and degree. An example of an extreme case is parents terminating the lives of their children because of shame or acceptance by the society. On the theme of childhood, Peter represents children who have been intentionally neglected by their biological parents. He grows without the knowledge of his parents. This situation traumatizes the young boy a lot. This case follows the theory that some parents run away from the familial responsibilities. In real life, a man may run neglect his family due to rising cost of living or some internal conflicts. However, such cases of child neglect are not as rampant in the USA as in other developing countries, since US has embraced the adoption of children (Vetere, 2001). In the movie, a family of surrogate parents has been portrayed by Peter having been adopted by the uncle and aunt. After he had been neglected by the biological parents, this couple decides to adopt him. The couple has a challenging duty of raising the child and explaining to him, when he comes of age, what transpired between his parents. Here, contemporary cinema depicts the increasing cases of adoption in the modern American families. Children live without their real parents and are hence raised as adopted children. Adoption in the contemporary families has raised complications and conflicts among the children. Adopted children, if not well cared for, may often feel out of place in the families they live in. Many adopted children therefore, experience discomfort and trauma but find no avenue to raise their concerns. This circumstance may negatively affect their childhood, especially if the biological discriminate the surrogate child. Thus, in using the theme of family again it is not the straightforward family of earlier times where children were raised by biological parents. The family setup is a bit complex with regards to balancing surrogate and biological children and treating them equally. Conclusion Contemporary cinema has widely portrayed the theme of family to a much deeper extent than early cinema. Modern cinema is based on the daily lifestyles and problems that affect real families (Laughey, 2000). Sensitive issues such as divorce (Mrs. Doubtfire, 1993), single parenthood (One Fine Day, 1996), adoption and responsibility (Big Daddy, 1999; Life as we know it, 2010) have been highlighted in these and the above movies mentioned. In the sociological view, the early families have been depicted as functional while most modern families have been called as dysfunctional. These are issues that every individual can relate to in the world of today. References Bresson, R., (1997) Notes on the Cinematographer, Copenhagen: Green Integer. pp. 223-434 Breznican, A. (2006) ‘Die Hard Series Coming Back to Life ’. Las Vegas, 4(2), pp. 23-27 Francois, T. (1985) Hitchcock. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Pp12 Gibson, D., (1994) Contemporary Families: Sociological View, New Orleans. Penguins.Pp 23 Kitty, H. (1989) Sculpting in Time, Texas: University of Texas Press. pp. 98-99 Kirby, J. (2014) The Amazing Spiderman, Las Vegas: Non-Peril Publishing Group. pp. 2-5 Laughey, D. (2000) Key Themes in Media Theory,Burlington, Dublin: Amazon Press. New York. pp. 235-278 Matilda (1996). (PG) Rio Cinema Mandelbaum, J. (2007) Masters of Cinema: Ingmar Berman, California: Cashier du Cinema. Pp.34 Nolan, C. (2005) Batman Begins, [Online] Available at [Accessed 23 November, 2014] Schreck, N. (2001) The Satanic Screen, New York, NY: Creation Books. Pp. 56-78 Spielberg, S. 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