One way of understanding better what a film is trying to say is to know how it is saying it.
This is and interesting explanation of how a movie brings a message forward to you the viewer as well as speaking to them. Every movie approaches the task differently, takes for instance American Pie when the character of Jim played by Jason Biggs is caught by his father played Eugene Levy catches him violating an apple pie, he tells him that theyll lie about what happened with Levys character saying well tell your mother that we ate it all. Here we see that the father (Levy) bears no judgment or prejudice towards his son (Biggs) and that hell protect the boy as much as humanly possible even from himself. Another more serious and equally enduring demonstration comes from the film Norma Rae where at the end as company security tries to take her out, Norma played by Sally Fields holds up a sign announcing union. Instantly every employee ceases productivity in solidarity with the cause. In Norma Rae we see the how the director speaks to us about the workers strife whereas in American Pie we see the raunchy coming-of-age of a Mid-Western teen; though both are different both leave a deeply relevant impact.
Same can be said for foreign film, the film Butterfly tells the coming-of-age story of a school boy during the last days of Spains Second Republic and the beginning of its upcoming Civil War. Like American Pie and Norma Rae it uses symbols together with unique situations to show this boys maturity hand-in-hand with the change of events occurring all around him. The story begins with the boy Monucho getting ready for his first day of school, he ask his brother questions about school as his brothers practicing the saxophone. The brother tells Monucho how the new teacher who goes by the name Don Gregorio (Gregory) is an atheists, this frightens the boy since hes deeply religious and wants noone to be damned to hell. He goes to the school accompanied by his mother, before entering the building the teacher introduces himself and takes him inside. Before attendances taken a father of one of the better off students comes to the teacher with several chickens in exchange for his sons poor performance (a sort of cross between an apology and a bribe) Mr. Gregorio thanks him but ultimately as well as obviously turns him down. With everything calmed down he begins attendance, once Monuchos names called the class begins to laugh and heckle him and with that he leaves in rage. Later in the evening the teacher comes to his home to tell his family the story and ask Monucho to excuse and forgives his classmates for their behavior. As the school year goes on thing for the better, the boy who sits next to him in class becomes his best friend, he plays drums in a band with his brother and he learns about butterflies from Mr. Gregorio; in one particular scene, Monucho and Mr. Gregorio go butterfly hunting, in one particular moment they see a butterfly land on a dandelion. Here teacher tells student how the insect collects nectar with its tongue, the director offers us a fabulous close-up of this its gathering dotting full unconditional attention to the specimen letting us see its spring-like tongue gather nectar then flying in slow motion followed by the surprise in the boys face . This sort attention to detail makes the film all the more special.
Yet dark clouds are approaching, remember these arent the Good Old Days of M-G-M/New Deal years rather a turning point for Spain from normalcy to chaos the Civil War. First we see it in his family, a young lady who lives just outside of town has the tragedy of having her mother pass away. In her time of need she comes to Monuchos father for condolence, when asked about her its discovered that she was a daughter from a shaky relationship with her mother. Also we see when the teachers given commendation at his retirement ceremony, many of the towns prominent residents storm out in protest because of his atheists and Republican prospectives. This shows the high degree of intolerance and partisanship growing in the country all culminates at the films conclusion when the hardliners and militants (Fascist) take over the town. Foreseeing the consequences, Monuchos mother gathers any and all of the pro-Republican paraphernalia (the family had voted and registered with the Republican Left party whichd just been criminalized) and destroyed them. At the very end we see Monucho yelling butterfly names at his teacher whiling hurling rocks.
We now come to the conclusion of how and why; looking at the film we see the mother destroy the political info because it would mean certain death for the family at this critical time, for the boy its the frustration of seeing good people like his teacher go through persecution along with eventual execution and the need for survival as seen with his stone throwing (harkening back to the old phrase go along to get along). We see how Monucho turn from a shy runt to well rounding young man, but we see how all around him the volatile rotation of the world. A good name for this film wouldve also been Turning Point since it displays a full change of ones being from beginning to end. Like the prior two films (American Pie & Norma Rae) it shows both an individual(s) coming-of-age followed by their struggle for survival, meaning and justice. This film speaks to the viewer in every way from A+ cinematography to historically accurate property complimented with quality performance from this cast yet all-in-all its what you as a view believe its telling you.
This is and interesting explanation of how a movie brings a message forward to you the viewer as well as speaking to them. Every movie approaches the task differently, takes for instance American Pie when the character of Jim played by Jason Biggs is caught by his father played Eugene Levy catches him violating an apple pie, he tells him that theyll lie about what happened with Levys character saying well tell your mother that we ate it all. Here we see that the father (Levy) bears no judgment or prejudice towards his son (Biggs) and that hell protect the boy as much as humanly possible even from himself. Another more serious and equally enduring demonstration comes from the film Norma Rae where at the end as company security tries to take her out, Norma played by Sally Fields holds up a sign announcing union. Instantly every employee ceases productivity in solidarity with the cause. In Norma Rae we see the how the director speaks to us about the workers strife whereas in American Pie we see the raunchy coming-of-age of a Mid-Western teen; though both are different both leave a deeply relevant impact.
Same can be said for foreign film, the film Butterfly tells the coming-of-age story of a school boy during the last days of Spains Second Republic and the beginning of its upcoming Civil War. Like American Pie and Norma Rae it uses symbols together with unique situations to show this boys maturity hand-in-hand with the change of events occurring all around him. The story begins with the boy Monucho getting ready for his first day of school, he ask his brother questions about school as his brothers practicing the saxophone. The brother tells Monucho how the new teacher who goes by the name Don Gregorio (Gregory) is an atheists, this frightens the boy since hes deeply religious and wants noone to be damned to hell. He goes to the school accompanied by his mother, before entering the building the teacher introduces himself and takes him inside. Before attendances taken a father of one of the better off students comes to the teacher with several chickens in exchange for his sons poor performance (a sort of cross between an apology and a bribe) Mr. Gregorio thanks him but ultimately as well as obviously turns him down. With everything calmed down he begins attendance, once Monuchos names called the class begins to laugh and heckle him and with that he leaves in rage. Later in the evening the teacher comes to his home to tell his family the story and ask Monucho to excuse and forgives his classmates for their behavior. As the school year goes on thing for the better, the boy who sits next to him in class becomes his best friend, he plays drums in a band with his brother and he learns about butterflies from Mr. Gregorio; in one particular scene, Monucho and Mr. Gregorio go butterfly hunting, in one particular moment they see a butterfly land on a dandelion. Here teacher tells student how the insect collects nectar with its tongue, the director offers us a fabulous close-up of this its gathering dotting full unconditional attention to the specimen letting us see its spring-like tongue gather nectar then flying in slow motion followed by the surprise in the boys face . This sort attention to detail makes the film all the more special.
Yet dark clouds are approaching, remember these arent the Good Old Days of M-G-M/New Deal years rather a turning point for Spain from normalcy to chaos the Civil War. First we see it in his family, a young lady who lives just outside of town has the tragedy of having her mother pass away. In her time of need she comes to Monuchos father for condolence, when asked about her its discovered that she was a daughter from a shaky relationship with her mother. Also we see when the teachers given commendation at his retirement ceremony, many of the towns prominent residents storm out in protest because of his atheists and Republican prospectives. This shows the high degree of intolerance and partisanship growing in the country all culminates at the films conclusion when the hardliners and militants (Fascist) take over the town. Foreseeing the consequences, Monuchos mother gathers any and all of the pro-Republican paraphernalia (the family had voted and registered with the Republican Left party whichd just been criminalized) and destroyed them. At the very end we see Monucho yelling butterfly names at his teacher whiling hurling rocks.
We now come to the conclusion of how and why; looking at the film we see the mother destroy the political info because it would mean certain death for the family at this critical time, for the boy its the frustration of seeing good people like his teacher go through persecution along with eventual execution and the need for survival as seen with his stone throwing (harkening back to the old phrase go along to get along). We see how Monucho turn from a shy runt to well rounding young man, but we see how all around him the volatile rotation of the world. A good name for this film wouldve also been Turning Point since it displays a full change of ones being from beginning to end. Like the prior two films (American Pie & Norma Rae) it shows both an individual(s) coming-of-age followed by their struggle for survival, meaning and justice. This film speaks to the viewer in every way from A+ cinematography to historically accurate property complimented with quality performance from this cast yet all-in-all its what you as a view believe its telling you.