well Vania today we're going to be looking at captain fantastic we're going to be looking at some of the political ideologies that inform the movie and gonna be looking at some of the micro features and the aesthetics of the film as well now what car things we need to be looking at now obviously you're gonna be expected to be able to compare this film with la-la-land part of component 1 varieties of film filmmaking so the two things were particularly looking at in this part of the course of spectatorship and ideology so it comes to Captain Fantastic and Ireland you've got to be thinking about how does the film represent America especially politically ideologies obviously how does the film represent in this case the American family for this film what does the film suggests about the American dream that applies this analog and so those are the key ideological things we need to be considering we also need this time thinking about spectatorship how might audiences respond to the film how might people of different political ideologies respond to the film particularly in terms of whether you are a left-wing viewer or wiping the oil maybe the centrist viewer but you won't be considering your responses to the film so first of all what plots the film provided emotional responses for you specifically as a target audience and how does the film do that consider who your favorite characters are all what characters you particularly found yourself identifying with which ones did you like did you have a favorite characters are there any characters you don't like and ultimately what if you don't like any of them you know why don't you like them what is it about you know if this film makes you angry if you hated it why you know you just can't say all the rubbish you've got to explain why did this film not appeal to you same with all our Lamb let's consider what your favorite parts of the film explain why you like them already past the film you didn't like you've got to be able splaying specifically why you did not like them okay maybe it's cuz it counters your particular beliefs whether it be religious or political maybe you didn't like the performances or you didn't maybe you thought it was too showy and a youth too many flashy techniques whatever you got to explain exactly why okay now the first thing you've gotta understand as part of this film is its political ideologies okay you've got to understand the political compass you've got to understand how this film reflects modern America this is a quote from owen gleiberman in variety says we're living in a moment after all where Donald Trump is on the right Bernie Sanders is on the left and Hillary Clinton is at the center but the supporters of Trump and Sanders have more in common in many ways in either faction House of supporters of Clinton the left and the right in America are now selling different versions of anti-establishment further and Captain Fantastic doesn't just reflect those two polls it fuses them it taps the topsy-turvy sympathies that now rule the political cultural zeitgeist Ben and Jack both represent different ideological viewpoints but in some ways both dislike the perception that as ben says the powerful control the lives of the powerless now key Tim in there that's very appropriate that you should learn zeitgeist as I guest is German it means spirit of the age okay so how does this film reflect the spirit of the age how does it reflect the early 20th century when T first century and as a reflect what's going on in America in you know the teen years of 21st century now there are some key terms you need to be able to understand here most of difficult in left and right now in this diagram here this is what's called the political compass the left-right access axis this is to do with how the economy is run in a society on the extreme left we've got communism Marxism lot Karl Marx Trotsky Lenin Mao Stalin okay these are communist societies societies where individual ownership is not allowed you don't own any personal possessions in particular it's about the way in which the means of production the factories the farms are all owned by the states they're not businesses run by you know individual owners or board of directors or the public they're owned by the government everybody is a worker there's supposedly no upper class no middle class and the working class if you look what Marx called this he called the working class the proletariat the middle class the bourgeoisie and the ruling class the ruling class there were also that the peasants serfs was he called the lump and proletariat was at the very bottom layer but communism was all about taking the means of production away from the middle class when the bourgeoisie and giving it to the workers giving it to the proletariat the idea is to produce a fairer society now it's never worked on any large-scale practical way but if the idea is is about getting rid of inequality and making everybody equal for good or ill depends where you look at it on the far right here we've got neoliberal capitalism neoliberal capitalism doesn't believe in any kind of big government it doesn't believe in the state anti statist it believes that the government should have absolutely no control whatsoever over business and that businesses should be allowed to do whatever they want to okay and that getting in the way of business and what they want to do is a bad thing that is what's traditionally seen as as the left and right wing the binary opposites we've also got another kind of left and right wing if we rotate this 90 degrees to the right all Thorat Arianism would be over here libertarian real the left if you rotated it but an authoritarian government which is where the government has complete and total control over the populace it's a dictatorship it's a totalitarian state that could be you know like North Korea is at the moment or it could be somewhere like you know communist China under Chairman Mao or it could be Imperial Japan during World War two and it's dictatorships basically it's Hitler it's Stalin okay now on the other hand we've got libertarianism or anarchy this is where the government has absolutely no glue there is no government there's no government control over people people do whatever they have complete freedom to do what everything want to and if we look at this map maps out it's driven maps out where key political figures through history would go so as you can see the worst of the worst General Pinochet of most punishing leader of Chile as evil of people get completely authoritarian and completely aunty sort of like a completely new liberal you know even hit lower than that bad well you know there's the entire you know slaughtering seven million Jews and gypsies and homosexuals and all that kind of stuff but you know Trump is about here very right-wing but not a right wing of Reagan would have been I'm not sure I completely agree with that but uh there you go Obama much more centrist much more liberal down here Bernie Sanders who was the main one of the main contenders for the American elections last time around was down he's very left-wing in terms of economy but not necessary that libertarian whereas you know if you look at someone like where is that's a face Clinton I know Clint does more towards the center anyway down here but some way think you'd be on there wouldn't you he's not anyway Hillary Clinton would be much more centrist maybe more along year somewhere key person in this film course is Noam Chomsky the character subject Noam Chomsky de Heath what will be called I believe in anarcho-syndicalist very very very left-wing we've got left rings is all Mormons and left as is possible to get right believes in complete you know completely anti-capitalist completely libertarian like people should be allowed to do whatever they want so what we're looking at here is a film that is very much critiquing American society when the film's taglines is Americans are over medicated undereducated when the children endometrium Society the comment on the obesity of those around them everyone was so fat they say are they sick those basically saying American society is sick it's disease it's ill and it needs to improve itself it's a very much nante authoritarian message throughout this film including the scene with the children pretend to be a Christian cult the disconcert the police officer you know commenting on the insanity of a you know extreme right-wing American religion recurring quote in the film is power to the people stick it to the man this is very very left-wing kind of ideology Christians are very much marked it's very anti religious which in a society where eighty three percent of Americans identify as Christians in 2018 that is pretty radical position to be taking but then as far as comparison only forty two percent of Britons and they claim to be Christian and that number is falling rapidly especially among young people so very different society so think about good remember how religious America is and how much more right wing than you are on our society although at the moment that seems to be changing with brexit to put this perspective this is what our political map looks like based on the last election for the first time in a long time with Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the Labour Party it has become really quite left-wing I mean the Labour Party would have been up here somewhere under someone like Tony Blair or and it's Gordon Brown was the last Labour Prime Minister and it's one really far left back to where it was when I was a kid whereas the Conservatives of swung further than the right because you keep the Democratic Ulster Party Youth Forum Seliger a coalition really I guess with the Conservative Party are dragging the Pacific Party to the right very anti-european very much the right-wing British press are very much you know the Daily Mail son and telegraph very much trading on racist ideas anti-immigration anti Europe because they're all owned by billionaires and it's dragging the Conservative Party the rights whereas the Labour Party in the Corbin is swinging back to the left as you can see the Green Party played camera to the Welsh nationalist party the Scottish National Party it's got a socially party are all very much more left-wing these these are minority parties if you are wondering where you would fall in the political spectrum I would highly recommend just going to the political campus to org I think it is on UK I remember was telling people campus into Google and there's a test you can take it's got about 40 questions that'll probably take about half an hour go through the multiple-choice questions are at the end of it it will tell you when you come on this grid of course that depends on you being able to understand the questions if you want help if you want me to go through it with you and explain what the questions are I'm more than happy to do that if you would or you get somebody else to do it you know whatever but I would highly recommend you do it because at your age you are now becoming real very soon if not already you will be able to vote and at this time it is vital more than any other time in my life I'll argue is vital the people go out and vote okay so find out where you are on the grid get out there cast your votes when you're able to but you've got to cast that vote which remember it's not just a right but I would say it's a duty as a citizen there's a duty to vote even if you spoil your ballot you need to do it but go out there and vote you know a little rant over politically wise in this film Noam Chomsky is one of the main so like touchstones of this film Noam Chomsky is an American linguist philosopher cognitive scientist historian a political activist very much a Renaissance man practically a household name extremely famous he's a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of a field of cognitive science hugely important theorist he holds a joint appointment as Institute professor Emirates at Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT which is one of the world's most prestigious universities his laureate professor at the University Arizona he's written over a hundred books on topics as diverse as linguistics war politics in the mass media and as I said he is an anarcho-syndicalist or a libertarian socialist very very very left wing and he's something of a left-wing hero so he is worshipped almost like a gold by the family in this film [ __ ] what this refers to relief but this these are all the characters in the film okay obviously been cash this her name is interestingly you know in a film about you know politics and money caches are very loaded named give them been they were Viggo Mortensen boda Van Cleave my George McKay we've got ray lien by Nicholas Hamilton we've got night by child shot well we got Zaza by Shree crooks who is a girl apparently I'll the tale we've got Kyla by Samantha Isla and Vesper by Annalise Basso one thing you can say about this film is that whilst the director said he wanted to write strong female characters so we fear they are pretty much sidelined in this movie and they don't get anywhere the girls they don't get anywhere near as much of a narrative arc as the male characters this is really a film about Ben and Boulder violets about fathers and sons more than anything else so if you want to have a feminist critique of the film you could say it isn't as good a representation of women as it could be not the poor bad representations of women it's just they don't get much to do let's think about its visual style this is a visually stunning film it makes great use of establishing shots to establish locations especially the wilderness so this aerial tracking shot from the beginning of the film really is idyllic it's you know because this lens flare down here as the Sun picked off the camera you know 40 years ago I would have been seen as a major major mistake but nowadays that's used to create a sense of an almost utopian beautiful image so it's showing the wilderness as being like this virginal untamed untouched unsullied perfect sort of like Mother Earth utopia so we get lots of these shots of just natural beauty contrasting of that and lots of extreme close-ups we see a lot of people especially been being reflected in this case in the rearview mirror the bus we see this a lot we've got the idea that through reflections it's sort of like saying that you know it's sort of like he's having to study his own face he's under look at himself when you you know is it's about introspection all right it's about you know that contrast between the vastness of the world and the intimacy of the self and where you'll set your your place in this world again cost you quite important the the individuality of their dress it's all handmade it's all personal there are a lot a dress how they want was creepy Russian gas masks but it's all very retro so very 1970s it's got that kind of 1970 hippie flower power thing going on so that contrasts heavily with the modernity and the somberness of the church despite its really bright and colorful doors Hyuga Viggo Mortensen wearing a Jesse Jackson t-shirt Jesse Jackson ran for president in 1988 against I believe Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan was a very right-wing very conservative politician Jesse Jackson was black preacher and so like I'm you know a disciple of Martin Luther King very liberal and he was a Democratic Party candidate unite name for our 98 and this is legal bosses own t-shirt he had campaigned for Jesse Jackson at that time and it's suggesting you know the viggo mortensen politically very much you know mahse extreme has been but he aligns with that kind of political structure so if we look at the binary opposites in this between Ben and Jack who is his father-in-law Ben is liberal he's socialist probably knockoffs and [ __ ] like Chomsky very anti-authoritarian and atheist Jack who's Ben's father in law was the ex-navy pilot who see this modeling of a piece for you Ryan he's got his main hat they were photographing himself in uniform has got his medals obviously in that case very much a patriot very much a you know he served his country he's politically conservative he's wealthy got a massive house Fanueil Thor Tyrion and he's a Christian but this film is surprising in that it doesn't really take sides neither of these men is perfect neither of them as a hero neither as a villain you know it's you know it'll be easy for this film to treat Jack as this villainous character but he's not he's a loving caring grandfather he loves his kids we see him playing with the kids in the garden and you know he's a good man but he's the binary opposite of Ben Ben is also in many ways a good man I've been in many ways not necessarily a very good father again reflections mirrors bold oven Ben as we can see in this case bold ovens like Ben's beard a makes him look a little bit messianic like a messiah figure he's sort of like a Jesus look to him it also represents this kind of like man nature he's like unwashed untamed itself like you know lay it was long hair and beard make him look like he's something wild about him he's a wild man so when he shaves his beard off of the end of the film it's sort of like him trying to integrate more into normal society it's kind of like there's also a symbol of masculinity a beard isn't it's like maleness baby this is him shaving it off and trying to get more in touch with his feminine side keeps the long hair on the other hand boat oven who's got very long here shaves his hair off into this very 1950s conservative crew-cut again that's Mick you know he's that's very long hair here gives him a call androgynous look and drogyny being the you know having both male and female characteristics but shaving that off it makes him look much more masculine that's more boyish much more grown-up you might argue is part of him becoming more masculine he's becoming a man because it's a coming-of-age story for Bowdoin again this is a nice shot which shows really ins isolation look at how everything is dark and he's just in this pool of light you know it reflected alienation against all of the other members of his family and about society in general so the darkness is significant here the shot course in the supermarket the supermarket is representative of American consumer capitalism where everything is for sale the fact that they shoplifting is a deliberate rejection of white capitalist ideology notice how bright and harsh the lighting is in the sequence compared to the sequences in the wilderness which we've got all kind of gold and glow about them what's interesting is his farm offered fresh farm but all this food is processed all this food is you know from you know masa farm production it's not food that they would be used to it's you know I mean this is all fruit but it's you know better quality than you know what fast food or anything like you know it's like donald's or anything but still it still representative of capitalism consumerism and this sort of like the artificiality of its it it it's all surface it's pretending to be fresh it's a simulation of simulacra freshness if you want to put a boulder lodging and postmodern view on it it's not really fresh but it's taking that kind of ideology influences on the film Matt Ross very much quoted this photographer simin your hand he's a photographer who does a lot of stuff with nature and things like that so the his photographs of nature were very much important to some apparently but look at how this photograph of your ones of this child looks very much like the kids in this movie there's sort of a wild us to it it's like a nature it's like a child's nature like a no water nymph or something this is Matt Ross as the director of it you may recognize him as playing Gavin Belson in the sitcom Silicon Valley here on Raw south brilliant he himself grew up in and off the grid alternative lifestyle necessarily is sort of like a a communist such in the 1960s kind of way but still off the grid in the Pacific Northwest just like the characters in this film and this film was sort of like a fictionalized version of his own you know experiences you know Bo Devan like Matt Rossum I reflected upon I should say felt isolated in this commune and wanted it rejoin society again interesting little thing in here as well there's a nice bit of foreshadowing which may have a Chekhov's gun of another name for that in the campfire scene at the beginning you can see rear alien reading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky which is a very famous Russian novel but it's about three brothers who with increasing age start the shunt and rebelled against the ways of their father just like railing yourself does later on the movie so think about this attention to detail that you'd see in these movies so that is a brief rundown of the kind of quasi briefing to Lavrov our that's a rundown of some of the things you want to be looking for in this movie it's got some important political context for you as I said go out and Google that political compass thing I think it's very very important that you do that that's for you as your personal growth off to do a film studies you need know this stuff right if you need help let me know girl do some research on Captain Fantastic if you've got the questions you know where I am and I'll talk to you next time