| Chapter 5: | Conclusion |
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V
Conclusion
Compendium of Good Questions to Ask About Any Film
- 1. Was the film truthful? How much artistic license was used? Was the license appropriate for this kind of film?
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2. What are the explicit and implicit values of this film? From the film’s point of view, what is good? What is evil?
- • Is the film basically conservative, emphasizing the individual, promoting tradition and family values, distrusting human nature, and accepting of a hierarchy among people? Or, is it liberal, emphasizing the group, promoting social change and cultural pluralism, believing that people are basically good, and emphasizing egalitarianism?
- • How are men and women portrayed? Which are the protagonists? Are there women who are other than sex objects, femmes fatales, or idealized pedestal occupiers?
- • What is most valued in the film both on the surface and below the surface? Among competing values, which are the most and least important?
- • What is revealed about social problems and social issues? What issues are evident? Does it convey that they are inevitable or can be changed? Does the film breed cynicism or hope or at least insight?
- • Does the film perpetuate America’s emphasis on individualism? Or does it, (like Spike Lee and John Sayles), see individuals primarily in the context of social relationships?