Battle Star Gallactica: The Plan - Movie Review Example

Introduction This paper intends to analyze a movie titled “Battle Star Gallactica: The Plan” (2009). Interaction, including interaction in communication, revolves around the so-called ‘cooperative principle’, which was first voiced by Paul Grice in his "Logic and Conversation”1. The need to be polite during interaction flows out of the cooperative principle. According to Brown and Levinson, politeness can be understood as the amount of (verbal) work, required to mitigate threats (face threats) to successful cooperation in interaction2. Goffman (1978) states that a “person tends to conduct himself in such a way so as to maintain both his own face and the face of the other participants"3. Acts, contrary to face-saving, are called face-threatening acts (FTA). Speakers can adopt four broad strategies: bald on record (FTA in its unmitigated form), negative politeness, (FTA is mitigated by making a request less direct), positive politeness, (minimizes the threat to one’s face, for example by treating this person as a member of a group), and off record, (speaker does not openly state the FTA or does so in an ambiguous way). Thus, politeness is viewed as a form of strategic behavior which the speaker engages in, weighing up the potential threat to the hearer, the degree of familiarity with the hearer, the power of relationship between them and modifying the utterance accordingly. Cooperation principle can be divided along four maxims: quantity, quality, relevance and manner. If the speaker chooses to flout these maxims, it may result in an implicature. A conversational implicature arises as a result of one’s failure to follow the four maxims. Grice points out that it can be due to the following reasons: a speaker might quietly violate a maxim; s/he can opt out of operation of both the maxim and the cooperative principle; s/he may be faced by a clash and s/he may flout a maxim5. Another important aspect for conversational interaction is turn-taking. When engaging a conversation, it is important to follow a specific set of rules, which governs turn-taking. According to Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson 1974, they are: 1) whenever the current speaker selects a next speaker, the latter has the right and is obliged to take his/her turn 2) if the current speaker does not select the next speaker, any of the participants can become the next speaker and 3) if neither the current speaker selects the next speaker or no one decides to be come the next speaker, the current speaker may resume his/her turn.6 Any take-turning attempt is can be regarded as successful if no one else takes his/her turn at the same time. In communication and turn-taking it is important to point out signals, indicating change of speaker. Duncan suggests a set of specific and discrete signals, which indicate turn-taking, which include: intonation, drawl, body motion, sociocentric sequences such as but uh, or something, you know, pitch or loudness accompanied with sociecentric sequences, and syntax7. A silent pause after a grammatically correct and complete sentence as well as a question implies a change of turn8. In order to be able to review and analyze the above mentioned concepts, two episodes of the movie called “Battle Star Galactica: The Plan” (2009) have been selected. Applied to the first episode, we can see that Sam utilizes bald on record politeness strategy by commanding Doc “Just take care of her!” This utterance does not conceal the FTA, yet is accepted by the addressee in a life-or-death situation. Sam again uses the bald on record politeness strategy when he decides to leave the base in search for Kara. He calls out “Helo!” (Tahmoh Penikett), calling for him to join Sam in his search. This is a bald on record strategy as no effort it taken to mitigate the threat (cf.: Helo, would you mind coming back to the Cylons with me?) When Brother Cavil says “He should let her go”, he is making an implicature. As a matter of fact, he is making two rather peculiar implicatures, since he is on the one hand expected and should behave as a human and on the other hand he is a Cylonian mole and should pursue his plan – extermination of the colonists. Hence his implication is two-fold: 1) he is implicating that Sam exposes himself to danger by going back after Kara and is thus endangering the resistance movement in general 2) he is saying that love is a nuisance for him because from the Cylonian point of view love is a rudimentary feeling and that feelings are making one vulnerable and imperfect. This implication arises out of the clash that Brother Cavil faces: as he is unable to fulfill the maxim of quality without violating the maxim of quantity. When Sam returns to the base, Doc asks him “Are you hurt?” This is a question, which implies that Doc has selected Sam as the next speaker and that Sam has the right and is obliged to respond. Sam is expected to respond, when Brother Cavel chimes in, asking “What’s wrong?”, thus assuming the turn and interfering Sam’s expected utterance. Sam disregards Cave’s question and responds to Doc “I feel fine, just help her”. In this case Sam makes a statement without selecting the next speaker, and according to turn-taking rules, any of the participants can become the next speaker. This role is for the second time assumed by Brother Cavil, who asks a question “What happened?”, offering Same to take the turn. This time Sam responds, explaining the situation. In case of subsequent utterance, each of the participants makes statements without selecting the next speaker, thus giving other participants the chance to participate. The next episode is the conversation between Brother Cavil and Sam. This is for the most part a quite and a peaceful conversation, however there are episodes of conflict and face threatening. Neither Sam nor Brother Cavil demonstrates ample politeness strategies because the conversation between them is rather informal and there is no need for the considerable amount of verbal work. For example, utilizing the bald on record politeness strategy, Sam says: “Bless me” (as opposed to “would you be so kind as to bless me?”). Brother Cavil employs the same bald on record strategy when he says: “Now, Sam, listen”, but then changes his tactics by switching to the negative politeness strategy when he attempts to talk to Sam about the Cylons and Sam's attitude to them. This is a very tricky topic for Brother Cavil, who on the one hand is a Cylon, and on the other hand is living with humans and is not to reveal his cover. For that reason he chooses a negative politeness strategy and starts out with “given it was a journey... could you forgive the Cylons?”. Amount of verbal work here is considerable – at first he sets a condition (“given”) and then he is making his request indirect by disguising it as a question. In other words, he says 'if... then could you forgive?' as opposed to cutting straight through and saying “forgive them!”. Sam is shocked to hear it and responds with a direct FTA, utilizing the bald on record strategy: “Listen, Brother...” In the same episode we see several implicatures as well. In the course of the conversation, Brother Cavil asks Sam if he has changed his mind after being afraid and feeling like running. Sam responds: “Barolay was there and she was gonna see me run” and by doing so he violates the maxim of quality – the meaning which was avoided was “I was afraid they would call me a coward”. Not willing to be called a coward, Same chooses to make an implicature in this situation. In another instance Sam makes another implicature by saying “you know, at the end of a confession, sometimes there's an ending or, you know...” This is an indirect request for Brother Cavil to absolve Sam's sins, however he cannot openly tell Brother Cavil to do so and consequently Sam opts to violate the maxim of manner, thus making an indirect request. One more instance of making and implication is Cavil's utterance “Humanity had so much sin”. It is openly ambiguous, and is not clear what message Brother Cavil is intending to convey: whether it is “humanity is sinful and has to be eliminated” or “this holocaust is a punishment from the Gods and we deserve it”. Violating the manner maxim in this case makes a convenient cover for Cavil. Turn taking follows general rules, mentioned above. For example, when asking a question, the current speaker selects the next one by addressing this question to him/her. By asking “You've been up all night?” Cavil chooses Sam to be the next one to talk; Sam in turn is obliged to take his turn and responds to Brother Cavil with “Yeah, I guess so. Seems like I never sleep anymore”. This utterance is grammatically complete and does not contain a question, hence any of the two speakers can take his/her turn in the conversation. Cavil then states: “I know the feeling”. A completed sentence, grammatically and structurally correct prompts Sam to take his turn again. After making his first utterance Sam doesn't pick another speaker, nor Brother Cavil continues, so Sam decides to continue asking to be blessed. A complete sentence, which in itself is a request shifts the turn to Brother Cavil (BC), who urges Sam to continue. By addressing Sam, BC chooses him as the next speaker and the conversation continues. Sam then moves on – he is not interrupted by BC, and is not choosing a next speaker to talk – hence he continues all the way until he says “I just wanted to get out”. By completing his thought and sentence he is not selecting the next speaker and doesn't continue himself either. This allows BC to take his turn, who asks an indirect question, disguising it as a statement. As has been mentioned previously, a question implies selection of the next speaker, so Sam continues. Sam concludes his utterance with “I'm a godsdamn coward, Brother”, which also implies a question (I am a coward, aren't I? He was perceiving himself as a coward and was seeking reassurance). BC then takes his turn and concludes his utterance with a question “What about now?”. The question again implies change of speakers and Sam is obliged to take it and accepts it. The conversation continues with an alternation of speakers, with successful turn taking and communication until it reaches the point of tension between BC and Sam. At this point the number of utterances they make are not successful from a communicative point of view because starting from “I know you didn't just say that” the conversation is deprived of successful turn taking, BC trying to persuade Sam that Cylons' deeds and actions are justifiable and Sam not accepting this idea because of terror and unjustifiable death. This part of the conversation requires additional attention. From “I know you didn't just say that” and up to “Are you defending them?” all turn taking attempts can be regarded as unsuccessful because both speakers were attempting to take turns simultaneously, trying to take the initiative. BC was persistent in trying to defend and justify the Cylons and Sam, at the same time, was just as persistent in denying it. As a result this fragment of conversation does not contain a number of elements which are required for successful turn-taking, e.g. pauses, questions facilitating change of speaker, eye contact at the end of the utterance etc. Read More