Captain Fantastic Brief Outline

The Narrative

Captain Fantastic has a unique narrative where Ben, the main character has dropped out of mainstream society to raise his children without schooling or proper health insurance. However tragically Ben's wife and the children's mother takes her own life after battling with bipolar disorder. This prompts her father to exclude Ben from her funeral, however Ben and the children set out to "save mom" as she didn't want to be buried but instead cremated. After ups and downs with Jack, it seems to be all over as Jack gains custody of the children. In another twist, however the children chose to stay with Ben and they finally grant their mothers wishes and live out their lives on a farm.

The Ambiguity Within

Throughout Captain fantastic there is lots of ambiguity especially surrounding Leslie. The spectator doesn't get to understand who Leslie was or what she was like due to her dying without being on the screen, the spectator only has the other characters accounts. However the ending is the most ambiguous as it's never shown where Ben and the children get their farm house from or how they now make a living, however it does seem that the children go to school so it could be inferred that Jack and Ben had an agreement.

Consumerism and Alternative Lifestyles

In the film it's shown how ben raises his children to survive with nothing but a knife and basic clothes on their back. Hence the family has dropped out of mainstream society. He doesn't believe in living off of produced fake food or building materials and his children learn mostly how to survive, play music and they read assigned books. However the children never learn proper social skills as they're completely isolated and this is obvious with Bo's first encounter with a girl and he later goes onto claim they are "freaks".

Representation of Masculinity

Rather than flawed masculinity Captain Fantastic recognises that masculinity isn't enough. It's obvious throughout the film that the children are in need of a mother. Ben teaches them in a very masculine way and is all about, power, strength and knowledge. The children are never taught to love or be caring and throughout the film Ben shows little emotion when talking about Leslie and her death. He puts the children through gruelling tasks like hunting, climbing and battle skills but never teaches them how to paint, draw or sew.

Binary Opposites

Ben and Jack feud over the children's best interests through most of the film, however it's hard to say which is the films hero or villain. Both men truly do have the children's best interests at heart, Jack on one hand wants to give them a safe place to live with proper education and stability both emotionally and financially but in doing so he's pulling the children away from their father. On the other hand Ben also has his children's best interests in mind as he wants to keep them with him and it would almost be cruel to pull them out of the lifestyle they've only known however he could be seen as a reckless father thats in fact endangering his children. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis of the Opening and Closing Scene (Trainspotting)

In the opening sequence Renton is running from the authorities after stealing goods from a shop, this sets the scene as the audience begins to make assumptions of Renton and the kind of person he is, towards the end of the opening scene the camera pans around "Mother Superiors" place which then confirms the assumptions as Renton is falling over after taking a "hit" of Heroin. "Mother Superiors" place is ver dim and has almost a green colour to it this has connotations of illness and sickness. As well as this we see the baby that is a prominent feature in the film and she juxtaposes the drug house as she's full of life, bright and optimistic. In contrast the closing scene shows Renton reflected twice which emphasises the fact he's looking in on life and is looking at the reflection of the person he used to be. Also the song in the first scene is "lust for life" by Iggy Pop which is a punk classic and punk has connotations of pessimism, ho...
Read more

This Is England (Revision Notes)

How does TiE reflect the political and social contexts of the 80's? Throughout TiE it's obvious that Thatcherism has and is taking place, much like it did in Britain n the 80's. Much of this is obvious through mise-en-scene in the film, specifically the setting as TiE is obviously set in a council estate much like the ones around when Thatcher was in power as Prime Minister. Thatcherism and Capitalism can only really function if there are still poor, less fortunate people which is what TiE focuses on, especially Shaun who has a single mother out of work and a father who died in the Falklands and has very little to his name apart from a few sentimental items like pictures and clothing his father gave him. TiE represents the people who just scrape by, it does this by the setting of the house Shaun lives in with its undecorated walls and its out of fashion furniture and the lack of items in his house. Performance of the characters
Read more

Common Themes in Inception and Captain fantastic

Masculinity and its Flaws In Captain Fantastic masculinity isn't necessarily flawed, it's more the lack of masculinity is recognised, the need for a mother figure for the children is very obvious. Whereas in Inception masculinity is flawed as most of the male characters have male trauma and the men aren't stereotypically strong and powerful. Capitalism The anti capitalism aspect in Captan Fantastic is very obvious as the family have dropped out of mainstream society and Ben especially teaches his thoughts on the government and how it's run, however in Inception anti capitalism is a lot harder to understand as Fischers company is a metaphor of capitalism as they're a massive company with lots of control. Exploration Throughout Captain fantastic, especially after Leslie dies ben is almost searching for peace and a compromise as he wants whats best for his children.
Read more