Ideology: Myth, Family Values and Communication through cinema

As we've discussed in the previous weeks of the course, cinema is a powerful language-system and can be used to communicate ideas. Those ideas can be inclusive and encouraging, while others can be harmful. 

Ideology is defined as a system of ideas and ideals. In the context of cinema, ideology can mean the ideas that are communicated through cinematic technique. 

For example, a stable pan can illicit calming emotions in the viewer. Cinematic techniques paired with narrative content can directly communicate ideologies to the viewer. 

 

 

One of the more cinematically famous examples of ideology is through the western genre. Films in the western genre used mythological techniques to communicate ideologies to viewers. In the context of the western genre, filmmakers used wide-shots, sweeping aerials and shots of the Monument Valley in Utah to create boisterous stories for morale. During the height of the genre's popularity in the 1960s, mythic westerns allowed audiences to understand America's role in the Cold War. A great example of this is the western classic High-Noon. 

But, through the use of this ideology, westerns also reinforced patriarchal visions of society. Where a white man with a big horse and a big gun is seen as a tamer of the "wild" landscape. These films also communicated ideologies of racism and sexism through their problematic representations of Native Americans as dehumanized and women as subservient to the mythic "cowboy." 

 

Still from Little Mermaid from Zimbo

 

Ideology in cinema evolved in the 1980s when an increased focus on capitalism communicated conservative family values through cinema. In particular, Disney films like Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Snow White perpetuate the idea that "long characterized its female characters as damsels in need of rescue, for whom marriage is the ultimate goal" including the leaving-behind of their entire family and residence.  

Contemporaneously, through techniques like low-key lighting, outsiders are typically portrayed as villains. Also, the working class, women and children are seen as susceptible to corruption. 

Despite problematic ideologies, it's important to understand how ideologies are communicated through cinematic form, content and technique. This is because cinema asks us to explore different ideas and challenge social norms created through media. 

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