Component 1b: US Film Since 2005 (Ideology)

How valuable has ideological analysis been in developing your understanding of the themes of your chosen films?

Plan:

Intro – Very important, as a feminist ideological analysis allows for various meanings to be extracted from a film with an implicit ideology, winters bone, which comments on feminism in an anti-feminist world. It would not be as effective an approach to no country for old men as an approach of determinism, which allows for the films implicit messages about the important role of chance in death to be analysed.

A feminist ideological analysis has been very valuable in an analysis of winters bone due to the films implicit messages about the inequality of genders and traditionalist gender roles in a rural, orthodox community (Insert Granik quote), e.g., opening sequence.

It has also been valuable due to the films denial of the male gaze and passing of the bechdell test (insert context here). It also goes against the patriarchal traditions of a male-dominated society by utilising a strong protagonist and villainous male characters who serve as obstacles to her, e.g., cattle market sequence.

No country for old men is better analysed through a deterministic ideological approach, due to the films implicit emphasis on chance and randomness in death, e.g., coin toss sequence.

An ideological approach of chance is also valuable due to the films abrupt conclusion, which also emphasises the role of chance in fate, e.g., ending sequence.

A feminist ideological analysis of Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010) is very valuable, as it allows for the films implicit messages about inequality in male-dominated society and the strength of an unconventional female protagonist. A deterministic ideological approach is more valuable in developing understanding of the themes of No Country For Old Men (Coen Brothers, 2007).

Essay:

A feminist ideological analysis is very valuable in understanding the themes of Winter’s Bone due to they film’s implicit messaged about the impacts of inequality between men in women in a traditional, patriarchal society. A feminist analysis of No Country For Old Men is less valuable, but a deterministic approach would be valuable due to the films messages about the role of chance and the random nature of death.

A feminist ideological approach is very valuable for developing an understanding of the themes of Winter’s Bone, as the film is “a feminist film about an anti-feminist world”. This can be seen in the representation of gender roles in the opening sequence of the film, where Ree, a young woman, takes paternal responsibility and cares for her family, e.g., combing her ill mothers hair and walking her younger siblings to school. She is shown to have traditionally masculine traits, e.g., she clearly desires to enter the military, as seen in her longing look through a window at students training to join. This is in defiance of the men in the rural, isolated Ozarks community, who are shown to have dominance and the roles of protectors, such as when Tonya’s husband warningly approaches the Sheriff at the end of the scene with a knife, showing him to consider the property his territory, protecting the women in it. This shows that there is a clear gender divide, as the women, like Tonya, passively care for the cattle and the land, while the men hunt, as evidenced by the dead game that Tonya and her husband cut up. Therefore, a feminist ideological approach is very valuable in understanding the themes of the film, as the film comments on the inequalities of a traditional, patriarchal society where men are dominant in authority and control over women.

A feminist ideological approach is also very valuable in understanding the themes of Winter’s Bone due to the film’s denial of traditional, male-dominated industry film conventions. The film passes the Bechdell Test, as it follows primarily female protagonists in a struggle against a system that is unfair towards them for their sex. This can be seen in the cattle market sequence, where Ree stands out alone in a room dominated by only men, showing her to be isolated, an outsider in this macho community. The films also denies the Male Gaze, as Ree is not glamourised for the arbitrary viewing pleasures of male audience members, instead wearing dull, baggy clothing, with little makeup and a role as both mother and father, performing traditionally male tasks, like hunting in the squirrel gutting sequence and teaching the children to cook, like at the end of the opening sequence, when she shows them how to cook a deer stew.

A feminist ideological approach is also very valuable in understanding the film’s themes as it allows for the audience to understand the explicit representation of men being oppressive and tyrannical over women in this society, alongside the sharp sex divide and subsequent inequality this causes. This can be seen in the cattle market sequence, where the juxtaposition of shots of frightened cattle and a desperate Ree emphasises her entrapment in this harsh system, alongside her physical enclosure behind walkway railings, similar to the cattle in cages. As she shouts desperately for Milton’s attention, he neither hears nor sees her, representing the isolation of women in the society by the men, who are only concerned with their own positions of power over the women. A sharp increase in the non diegetic composed score increases the tension of the scene, heightening the audience’s panic, immersing us in Ree’s desperate position and, therefore, helping us understand her helplessness in this oppressive system. Therefore, a feminist ideological analysis to Winter’s Bone is very valuable in understanding it’s themes.

While a feminist ideological reading of Winter’s Bone is very valuable for understanding the implicit feminist messages and themes of the film, it would not be as effective in understanding the themes of No Country For Old Men, which would be better served by a deterministic ideological analysis. The film largely focuses on the significant role of pure chance and randomness in death, as seen in the coin toss sequence. In this scene, tension is built through interspersed rises in the non diegetic composed score, slowly dollying in on claustrophobic over-the-shoulder shots of the two men, and a drawn out silence in the sound mix add’s a strong sense of anxiety and suspense to the scene. However, despite the strong suggestions that the scene will end in a dramatic climax, the clerk simply calls the coin toss correctly and Anton leaves him alive. This abrupt and unsatisfying end to the scene means it made no impact on the plot. However, it serves to emphasise the importance of chance in death, showing that sometimes, even when death is expected, it may not come, as ultimately the process is random, represented here by the purely random decision of a coin toss. This theme is perpetuated by Anton’s representation as a grim reaper-like figure, with black clothing, an emotionless tone of voice, and uncanny, even inhuman characteristics, like finding enjoyment in the man’s fear, as seen in his knowing smile when he says “I can come back then”, implying he will kill the man in his sleep. The themes of death in this scene is also represented by the noose-like ropes hanging behind the clerk’s head, representing his brisk encounter with death, denied only by a random coin toss.

A deterministic ideological approach to No Country For Old Men is also very valuable in developing understanding of the film’s themes due to the large role that determinism plays in the ending sequence. As in the coin toss sequence, much time is spent throughout the film to raise tension, presumably buildings towards a final showdown between the protagonist, Moss, and the antagonist, Anton. However, Moss is killed offscreen while having idle conversation with a random woman, shot by people we do not know and left to die in an undignified way, bleeding in a mole doorway. This sudden emotionally unsatisfying and jarring ending to Moss’s journey serves to remind the audience of the way that death works, chance. It does not wait for events to reach a crescendo, and strikes suddenly, without warning, and leaving us confused. This can also be seen in the death of the poolside woman, who had no involvement in events, but became just another victim of random, careless violence. The sudden nature of the event is perpetuated by the first person perspective, shaky handheld camera movements putting us in Bell’s position during the shootout. Upon discovering Moss’s body, he is shocked, the unexpected event prompting him to retire from his career in dismay at and fear of the uncaring violence that permeates the film.

A deterministic ideological approach is very valuable in understanding the themes of No Country For Old Men also because of the way that random violence plays out in the final sequence of the film. In the final scene, alongside Moss’s sudden death, his widow, Carla Jean, is killed by Anton, who represents an emotionless death, as evidenced by Anton’s clear lack of sympathy for Jean, who has recently lost two loved ones and has done nothing to deserve death. In this scene, Anton himself is also nearly killed in a sudden car crash. Leading up to the crash, we see that he is following traffic codes by crossing a junction at a green light, causing him to presume that he is safe. However, the random nature of the crash, perpetuated by the fact that it does nothing to progress the plot, reinforces the theme of determinism. Similarly to the coin toss scene, death does not occur here, but the random near-death-experience shows that violence can still happen at random. The fact that Anton himself, the personification of death, is a victim of the randomness of violence reinforces the indiscriminate nature of death. Therefore, a deterministic ideological approach is very valuable in understanding the themes of No Country For Old Men.

A feminist ideological analysis of Winter’s Bone is very valuable to understanding the film’s themes due to the implicit imagery in the cattle market sequence displaying the helpless situation of women like Ree in an “anti-feminist world”, the denial of the male gaze, the exposure of the inequality between traditional gender roles and a strong protagonist who does not fit specifically into male or female societal roles. A deterministic ideological approach to No Country For Old Men is more valuable in understanding the film’s themes of the unpredictability and uncaring nature of death, as seen in the unforeseeable deaths of Moss and Carla Jean in the ending sequence, and the miraculous chance encounters with death of Anton and the gas station clerk in the ending and coin toss sequences. Therefore, a feminist approach to Winter’s Bone and a deterministic approach to No Country For Old Men are very valuable in understanding the themes of the film’s. However, using one of the two analyses on both films would not be very valuable, as the two hold very different messages, the former focusing on the perseverance of a strong female protagonist in a male-dominated society, the latter emphasising the random, cruel nature of death.