Captain Fantastic

Initial Thoughts

This film is about a family who have disassociated themselves from the mainstream society we live in today, a father of 6 raises his children in a forrest as their mother suffers from bi-polar and commits suicide.

My Personal view of this film is that it isn't for me, despite its good use of narrative i am in conflict with the films premisses, the way that Ben's wife and himself want to live their live is fine but they shouldn't exert it on their children without them having any choice, the film starts off very slow and then the ending is all mashed into one bit at the end, which i can understand as it seemed rather boring to me so they had to speed the film up before people lose interested. The ambiguity in this film shows that we should be in acceptance of people wanting to live a life away from mainstream society, and also people who want to live in mainstream society. The message this film is trying to get across is that we don't all have to fallow consumerism we can live alternate lifestyles if we please such as how Ben and his family do. The element of flawed masculinity, the role of a father is to protect the family, which he doesn't always intend to, they need a mother, he hasn't got enough masculinity to bring up the children, he only teach's them masculine things like hunting and fighting, he has made their lives masculine, when an element of a mothers femininity is needed.

Ben & Jack

Neither Ben or Jack are the true villains/heroes in this film as in their own way they are both right and wrong, Ben is right by wanting to save his children's lives but he is wrong in not giving them a choice, Jack is right as he tries to look after his children and save the from Jack but it can be seen as villainy for trying to take them away from Ben.

Capitalism

If we look from the point of view of Ben, he see's capitalism as a system which the world is run by and it is wrong, he thinks it is better to home teach his children, give them unique names, teach them how to fight and hunt, to kill and make your own food and clothes, living of the land if you will, on the other hand Jack see's this as absurd and child cruelty, both views of which are right and wring i their own terms, but due to the way the world is run Jacks opinion is in favour as everyone is run by capitalism.

Child Representation

- Gender equality is shown in children as their are 3 of each gender, which makes gender equality fair if you will.
-Rellian represents a child whom wants to live a "normal" life, celebrate christmas and go to school/play video games, we see this when the family meets their cousins and Rellian is almost instantly playing video games and enjoying it, we also so it when they celebrate Noam Chomsky day, which they have created and Rellian turns around and says, "why can we celebrate christmas like the rest of the world", this shows he doesn't want to live the life that his father has lead him in the direction of.