A study of the film itnol using mfp critical lenses (cc)

A STUDY OF THE FILM IN THE NAME OF LOVE USING MARXIST, FEMINIST

AND POST-COLONIAL CRITICAL LENSES

Bigay, Charmaine June B.Pelobello, Patricia V.

Torres, Beatriz B.

INTRODUCTION

Films are among the forms of media that are rich in text that can be read. By text in film, we do not just simply mean the written script of a movie. Songs, novels, conversations, pictures, movies, etc. are all considered texts.

Usually, people agree to what the producer offers in front of them through different forms of media such as films and television shows. When consumers encounter messages and make sense of them within the hegemony of dominant code, they will reproduce already dominant definitions.

But actually, there are different ways to read text. In this research, the researchers will read the text from the

Filipino film, In the Name of Love, using Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding model of communication that has different positions in which audiences take in order to decode the meanings within cultural texts. The researchers support the claim that not all media portrayal should be accepted by the audience. That is why particularly, this study will delve into the oppositional view and they will use the critical lenses – Marxism, Feminism, and Post-colonialism to understand and analyze the film, In the Name of Love.

IN THE NAME OF LOVEMOVIE TRAILER

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

What are the texts in the film, In the Name of Love, that can be analyzed using Marxist lens, Feminist lens, and Post-colonial lens?

OBJECTIVES

In this study, the researchers aimed to analyze the text of the film, In the Name of Love, using:

•Marxist lens•Feminist lens•Post-colonial lens

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONThe analysis of the study will solely focus on the film text, specifically the dialogues, scenes, and the characters in the Olivia Lamasan’s 2011 film, In the Name of Love, that portray Marxism, Feminism, or Post-colonialism. The text will be read from the oppositional view only through these three critical lenses aforementioned.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY• The researchers hope to read and analyze the text of the

film through Marxist lens, Feminist lens, and Post-colonial lens. With this foundation, the researches look forward to a critical and better understanding of the aforementioned film.• The researchers hope to give the film audience a different

outlook on how they can view a film critically and not just rely on what is fed on them through the big screen.

• To the filmmakers, this study could be a ground for improvement on the formation of films particularly in the Philippines so that the content of the Filipino films may develop to be more enriched and critical.• Since film will be used as the medium in this study, this

research will also add to other studies that have also embarked on the same field of research.

• This study will also be significant to the future researchers as it will open the idea of studying the text of a film from a different perspective such as by using critical lenses like Marxism, Feminism, and Post-colonialism. Other critical lenses can still be used to read the film text. Also, other movies aside from In the Name of Love are also viable to be read critically.

SYNTHESIS OF REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The researchers discerned that the studies related to this research only used either a certain critical theory or Stuart Hall’s communication model as their framework. None has integrated several critical theories together with Stuart Hall’s model of communication in a particular study.

Even Lois Tyson’s book entitled Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide (2006), though used multiple critical theories, nonetheless did not use Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding communication Model in his study. Also, the literary piece studied by Lois Tyson was a novel – The Great Gatsby (1925) – by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Since this study revolves on the 2011 film, In the Name of Love, the reading of the film text will not solely base on words but on other aspects of a film as well, especially the cinematic aspects that affect the reading.

With these observations, the researchers attempt to fill these gaps by utilizing three critical theories: Marxism, Feminism, and Post-colonialism using the oppositional view under Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding communication model in studying and analyzing the text of a film. The film In the Name of Love – a film written, directed, and produced by Filipino filmmakers was chosen to substantiate the reading of a film text through critical lenses.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKFor this study, the researchers used Stuart Hall’s Communication Model Encoding-Decoding. Stuart Hall proposed a model of encoding-decoding media discourse, which represented the media text as located between its producers, who framed meaning in a certain way, and its audience, who ‘decoded’ the meaning according to their rather different social situations and frames of interpretation.

Hall argued that there were three interpretative codes or positions that a reader might bring to a text:

• Dominant reading “the reader fully shares the text’s code and accepts and reproduces the preffered reading”• Negotiated reading “the reader partly shares the media text’s

code, but may resist and modify the reception of the code in a way that reflects their own life and personal or group contexts”

But for this study the researchers only focused on the• Oppositional Reading “the reader understands the preferred

reading but does not share it and may bring alternative ways of dealing with it.”

(Balnaves, Donald and Shoesmith, 2008)

• Using the Oppositional Reading the researchers also used different critical lenses: Marxist, Feminist and Post-colonial Theory.

• MARXISM “For Marxism, getting and keeping economic power is the

motive behind all social and political activities, including education, philosophy, religion, government, the arts, science, technology, the media, and so on. From a Marxist perspective, differences in socioeconomic class divide people in ways that are much more significant than differences in religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.” (Tyson, 2006)

• FEMINISMAccording to Lord, Greiter and Tursunovic, Feminist Theory is

an outgrowth of the general movement to empower women worldwide. Feminism can be defined as a recognition and critique of male supremacy combined with efforts to change it.

• POST-COLONIALISM“Post-colonial criticism is particularly effective at helping us

see connections among all the domains of our experience - psychological ideological, social, political, intellectual and aesthetic – in ways that show us just how inseparable these categories are in our lived experience of ourselves and our world.” (Tyson, 2006)

This conceptual framework shows that with the use of Stuart Hall’s Decoding and Encoding Communication Theory, focusing on oppositional reading, In the Name of Love has been read in different critical lenses: Marxist, Feminist and Post-Colonial Theory.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

MARXISTPRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

SCENE 63


SCENE 68









MARXISTELITE DOMINATION IN THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION

(THAT IS: LABOR, FACTORIES, AN LAND)

SCENE 16



SCENE 76



FEMINISTDECISION-MAKING

SCENE 16


SCENE 17




FEMINISTOBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN

SCENE 13

SCENE 47








SCENE 23

FEMINISTEQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION

SCENE 31




POST-COLONIALCONFLICTS OF IDENTITY AND CULTURAL BELONGING

WITHIN THE FORMER COLONIAL COUNTRIES













SCENE 40

POST-COLONIALHYBRIDITY (LANGUAGE)

SCENE 32



POST-COLONIALDIASPORA

SCENE 40


SCENE 10


SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

SUMMARY“A Study of the Film In the Name of Love Using Marxist, Feminist, and Post-Colonial Critical Lenses” is a qualitative textual analysis study aimed to read the texts in the film, In the Name of Love, through the Oppositional View of Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding model of communication. Hall believed that media messages are always open to various interpretations thus having multiple meanings (Chandler, 2001). This study also wanted to analyse these texts through Marxist, Feminist and Postcolonial perspective.

After reviewing previous related studies and literatures, the researchers found indicators that helped them in identifying texts (dialogues, scenes and characters) in the movie that depict Marxism, Feminism and Post-colonialism. The researchers chose to study the contemporary film, In the Name of Love, in which they are interested in particularly. After a thorough and in-depth study of the film, it became evident that there are texts in the film that can be read through the Marxist, Feminist and Post-colonial perspective.

These texts were coded in the coding sheet and was validated by the intercoders who are professionals and experts when it comes to Marxist, Feminist and Post-colonial theory.After analyzing the coded texts, the researchers concluded that the text, which are the scenes, dialogues, and the characters, in the film In the Name of Love can actually be read through Marxist, Feminist, and Post-colonial lenses.

CONCLUSIONWith this study, the researchers have proven that the text, which are the scenes, dialogues and the characters, in the film In the Name of Love can actually be read through Marxist, Feminist, and Post-colonial lenses. Texts in the film In the Name of Love specifically the ones used in this study – scenes, dialogues, and character – were deduced to present Marxism, Feminism, and Post-colonialism.

CONCLUSIONMARXISM

For Marxism, scenes, dialogues, and/or characters belonging to the indicators presence of hierarchal class system and elite domination in the means of production (that is: labor, factories, and land) appeared in the film. However, there was one indicator that was not represented by any text in the film and that indicator is the myriad problems associated with industrialization and urbanization. It was the dialogues of the characters that obviously showed the Marxism in the film. Most scenes depicting Marxism were presented through the lines of the characters.

CONCLUSIONFEMINISM

For Feminism, all indicators appeared in the film: Economic Participation, Decision-Making, Objectification & Exploitation of Women and Equal Opportunity and Non-discrimination. The texts depicting the indicators of feminism often appears in dialogues; and the texts found are mostly showing patriarchy. Out of 17 Feminist texts found, only three shows the equality between men and women.

CONCLUSIONFEMINISM

Post-colonial criticism is concerned with the effects of colonialism on cultures and societies. In the film, In the Name of Love, several scenes were analyzed to have depicted all the indicators of Post-colonialism: Conflicts of identity and cultural belonging within the former colonial countries, Diaspora, and Hybridity. Therefore, Post-colonialism is a theory that is clearly present in the film through the various scenes, dialogues, and characters.

CONCLUSIONAll three theories – Marxism, Feminism, and Post-colonialism were theories that have something to do with power, its use and manipulation from different angles, depending on the definition and description of the theories. The texts in the film which are the scenes, dialogues, and characters are ways of presenting the theories through the film, In the Name of Love.

RECOMMENDATION• future studies may also read the film In the Name of Love in a

different critical lens. • use a different theory or framework that can be used in

analyzing the film. For example, Uses and Gratifications of Katz in 1970 can be used in order to know how the film satisfies the viewers’ hierarchy of needs or McCombs and Shaw’s Agenda Setting Theory in order to know how media, like film, influence the significance of events in the viewers’ minds.

• the researchers also suggest for future studies to textual analyze a TV Commercial, a teleserye, or a news show as their instrument• textual analyze the music played in the different parts of the

film that served as flashback and how it beautifies the scene. And to make this study more interesting, the researchers also suggest to include the effect of music to viewers.

• To the present and future filmmakers, the researchers recommend that they may create films with more in-depth texts or contents that will produce better effects and points to ponder since this study has shown that a film can be oppositionally read by the viewers. • Lastly, the researchers recommend to the film audience to be

more critical when watching a film.

A STUDY OF THE FILM IN THE NAME OF LOVE USING MARXIST, FEMINIST

AND POST-COLONIAL CRITICAL LENSES

Education

A study of the film itnol using mfp critical lenses (cc)