Chapter 8: Thinking About Movies, Theory, and Meaning

Chapter Overview

The previous seven chapters in Looking at Movies have focused on the formal elements of film, giving you a new vocabulary and a new understanding of the various ways that filmmakers shape movies to create meaning and to influence viewers’ responses. Having a solid foundation in these “formalist” concepts will ensure that your interpretations of films are grounded and concrete, and that you feel comfortable backing up your analyses with supporting evidence from the films themselves.

But of course films aren’t made in a vacuum, and the formal qualities of a movie aren’t the only things that determine its meaning and significance. Cultural, historical, financial, psychological, and other contexts all influence the production and the reception of movies. Film theories help us grapple with the various ways that “formalist” qualities of films interact with and are influenced by contextual realities, and they also help clarify what lies under the surface of any movie.

Entire courses are devoted to the study and use of film theories, so Chapter Eight’s main point is simply to provide you with a broad overview of the subject, and to interest you in learning more about it.  If you are contemplating a major in film studies, you should consider this chapter a preview of things to come. 

The most fundamental topic in the chapter, whether or not a film major is in your future, is the discussion of explicit, implicit, and ideological meanings. Every movie presents viewers with multilayered meanings, so being able to see how the various layers either reveal or conceal themselves is a very valuable skill for any serious student of film. It’s especially important to see how film theories can help you chip away at ideological meanings, which are often buried deep in the fabric of a movie (and the culture from which the movie comes).