Section B – American film since 2005 (two-film study) No Country for Old Men/Captain Fantastic
KEY TOPIC : • Critical Approaches to Ideology
TYPICAL EXAM QUESTION :
How useful has an ideological approach been in studying your two chosen films ?
This section of the exam will ask you to apply an ideological perspective or approach to your two films ( No Country for Old Men and Captain Fantastic) and will probably ask you how useful that approach has been to you in studying the films.
An ideological approach to studying the film would be to apply a specific ideology such as a feminist viewpoint, a specific political perspective , or a more general discussion of ideology such as traditional moral values vs modern morality, capitalism vs socialism etc. and analyse the film in this way.
I would suggest looking at both films through the ideological perspective of traditional values v modern morality is useful in lots of ways ( how each films presents and develops themes such as family, crime , law enforcement, past v present etc.
Obviously Captain Fantastic is far more explicit in its direct discussion of traditional conservative values versus progression liberal /libertarian values , but you might want to look at how useful it is to compare Sheriff Bell ( traditional , law and order,fairly conservative ) and Chigurh ( modern, unfamiliar , NOT liberal) and what the film is saying about modern life and the failure of traditional values. Where does Moss fit in ?
If you're more confident applying a specific political theory to both films and assessing how useful that application is then I would suggest looking at both films through the lens of how they symbolise and criticise capitalism and capitalist values.
This is straightforward enough in Captain Fantastic , as it's explicitly explored by characters such as Ben , but may be more complex and less useful in No Country for Old Men...Llewellyn Moss takes the money , so you could argue this represents how the modern world values money above all else , and Bell clearly represents a more old-fashioned set of family values , but what is Chigurh ? He doesn't care about money at all. What contemporary political or social values does he represent ?
The good thing about his question is that it's very likely you'll be able to talk about the limits of looking at the films through ideology, and be able to mention other things you think are more useful....genre , film form , and how characters like Chigurh can't necessarily be reduced to political symbols etc.
Please email me with any questions and I'll add in any relevant resources or links to this section and the others....good luck !
David daa@varndean.ac.uk
LINKS
examples and discussion of various suggested ideological themes in No Country for Old Men ( morality, war,capitalism etc.)
subtle end complex exploration of No Country for Old Men and how it maybe can't be reduced to ideology...useful! I like the link to postmodernism
Detailed exploration of political ideology in Captain Fantastic...really good
