Film Theory

More, and More questions are being raised by critics, and viewers of what the films they see are

about, and I feel on purpose that the director makes films like that for them to be questioned. For the decisions to be made by both the critics and the viewers. Alot of what is in Cinema relation comes up in this Chapter about film theory on how the scenes are not an accident it was done deliberately to keep everyone constantly thinking and guessing about the film scene after scene. Also of how film is a montage of ideas, linked together to form an idea or a film scene or seen as a collision of techniques such as the combination close and wide-angle shots, lighting and depth etc. as Eisenstein described in his argument with his friend Pudovkin . A good example would be the movie the Negotiator where a Hostage negotiator was framed for murder and embezzlement the viewers know that he is innocent, but as the movie goes along with his fellow police officers being against him, as well as trying to kill him because he decides to take his own hostages to prove his innocence and find the real killers, it mixes up your emotions by making you think his fellow officers that want to kill him are the guilty ones, and as time goes on he is guilty himself because of how he tries to prove his innocence by taking hostages himself that would make the viewer think that he would be capable of murder and embezzlment eventhough he is innocent. He knows his own fellow officers are out to get him so he enlists someone that he doesn't really know but is another Hostage negotiator with the same reputation to safely turn him in and free the hostages that he has taken, the other hostage negotiator himself ends up trying to find the real killer as well. The shots as well as the techniques used the lighting, darkness as it was shot in the evening, the angle shots brings about all these different moods and feelings of emotion also with the music, but more so with the darkness and the camera shots used on one actor or many to capture different expressions, and bring about different emotions among the viewers. The movie the Fugitive has done this, as well as the movie Run where the person was guilty due to something that they were indirectly involved in. All close angle shots were on him, as well as all who were speaking to him in different parts of the movie.

Also in the chapter is how Karl Marx famously stated that Society dictates Consciousness, Consciousness does not dictate society. In the altering and manipulation of Films it shows that it has a deeper meaning challenging both the viewer and society.


For all the pieces of the film to come together the viewer must be constantly thinking in First, second, and Third point-of-view to get the full meaning of the film. Japanese cinema as explained in famed Director Akira Kurasowa the same director of the Seven Samurai in the Film Rashamon on how all the scenes lead to an ultimate truth after re-counting the events in a temple and then later in a courtroom, of robbery, murder, conscensual sex, or rape, and who is the culprit or the what was done on purpose. Films much later in American Cinema action and comedy films such as California Suite, Clue, Crash, the Trois Trilogy, Jungle Fever etc. have all been seen to stir emotion, then tie together for the actual purpose to be revealed. The viewer can come about with many different Theories, and interpretations of the films but films such as these are made one thing is for certain; It was no accident.