Ideology

Summary

Giannette defines ideology as a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture that is used as a language system in film. He goes on to explain that movies often convey an ideology and how strongly they are emphasized, which helps to divide them into categories. Neutral movies do not focus on a certain ideology and is mainly made for a primarily aesthetic purpose. Implicit movies often have protagonists and antagonists with conflicting values, but that fact is not dwelled on. Explicit movies are meant to teach/persuade as much as they are meant to entertain. Movies can compel audiences using tropes such as ‘the underdog’ or attractiveness.

Example

While reading about ideology and the ways movies convey those ideas, I was reminded of the Harry Potter movie franchise. The movie is about a boy who’s parents die, but he survives, during an attack by an evil wizard, Voldemort, when he is a baby. He is then hidden away until he turns 11, when he is told of his magic powers and taken away to a magic boarding school. The series then follows him through the 7 years he goes to this school. He has several encounters with Voldemort and Voldemort’s followers, Death Eaters, while he attends school. The franchise ends with a tense battle, and over the years the movies became progressively darker as the risk to Harry’s life becomes more prevalent.

Connection

I was reminded of this movie while reading about the ways that characters are written in order to convey ideology to an audience. Voldemort is an evil wizard and is non-human looking as a result. He has no hair on his head or face and is missing his nose. He has incredibly pale skin and most of the features we would define as human features are absent. He is often referred to as something other than human, therefore further reinforcing the difference between Voldemort and Harry. The movie crew made Voldemort look so non-human so that the audience would be more wiling to accept the idea that Voldemort is evil.