Captain Fantastic - running blog


Captain Fantastic (Ross, 2016)


Opening Sequence - The Deer Scene:
- Spectatorship - 
First glimpse of family makes them seem different - wearing mud, living in a forest, killing a deer

- Values and Ideologies -
Intruders on a natural environment - killing a deer is destroying the harmony

- Film form - 
Slow pace at first, speeds up when attacking deer
Hand-held camera - puts you in the moment and into the perspective of the family 

Training (montage):
See the family without mud disguise - get to know them as people

Whilst training is odd it feels more real

Competitiveness between family members - already have conflict showing how the family has big cracks in it

Children swearing - immediately shows a less conventional way to be brought up in America

End of the day - night scene outside:

Seems a like a fairly normal campfire but we have worked out this is their daily routine
Music injects some fun and life into these characters

Ben and Bo on the road:

Use of wide shots of scenery shows how disconnected they are from the real world - so does the scene between Bo and the girls - can't interact with anyone outside of his family

The ideologies argument bit injects humour into the scene but also illustrates to the viewer that, whilst these people are very intelligent, they are out of touch with the outside world and only know it through books - the changing ideology could also represent a changing attitude towards his family

Harper's News:

The cut from Bo reading the university letters to Ben using the telephone shows that they haven't been able to truly cut themselves off from true society - also they are keeping secrets from each other breeding more conflict

Close-up on Ben's face shows that he doesn't have all the answers like he pretends he has - especially when he has to deal with his wife dying - cut to the LOUD WATERFALL as he tries to shut off his emotions and be what he deems to be rational

Supermarket Sequence:

The nihilism of Ben jumps out as his anti-capitalist, proto-Marxist views make him feel that he, and his family, are superior to the rest of America and, therefore, don't have to conform to the rules of society. Whilst consumerism and capitalism are terrible things, so is shoplifting and pretending to have a heart attack so Ben and his family aren't doing anything to balance it out. Whilst rejecting capitalism, they don't do anything to change it even though they are political and social outlets to do so. Instead, Ben's idea of making a difference is to shield his children from it so they grow up without any knowledge on how to function within typical American society where they'll need to go eventually.
If anything, the supermarket sequence proves that both America and Ben are wrong.

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