Linsey's Cinema and Society Blog: Post Four - Implicit and Explicit Ideologies in Films

“Ideology is a relatively systematic body of ideas, attitudes, values, and perceptions, as well as, actual modes of thinking (usually unconscious) typical of a given class or group of people in a specific time and place.” (Hess, 1978)

All films made whether Hollywood blockbusters or low budget independent films all represent ideologies from the culture and attitudes at the time. The above quote written by John Hess is a good definition of ideologies in films.

Cultures vary depending on when and where a film has been made. In a report written for scribd.com the author discusses two films that represent WW2, Catch 22 (1970) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Both films represent the same time period but due to the 38 year gap between each being made, they both contrast and contradict each other.

The article also discusses cinema as a communicative medium which has culturally bound implications and mediums. From this films can be divided into implicit and explicit ideologies.

Disney films are perfect examples of implicit ideologies. They are mainstream films but always have embedded messages within them. Take Wall-E for example, the title gives nothing away about the themes and is a film set in the future about humans leaving the earth due to pollution. Wall-E (a robot) has been left to clean up the years of pollution. All humans have left the earth and are now living on a spaceship which offers the highest technology so that they need to do nothing for themselves, not even walk. The ideological message here is about the worlds over reliance on technology as well as a warning to pollution. The film has a happy ending with the humans returning to earth to help clean up, another ideology here is that teamwork solves and helps everything.

An example of a film with an explicit meaning is The Wizard of Oz. The film is a well known classic about a young girl (Dorothy) who is dreaming of running away from her dull life on the farm she lives on. She ends up in Oz, a colourful odd place with munchkin’s, witches, flying monkeys and a wizard. She becomes friends with a scarecrow, a tinman and a lion and asks them to help her find her way home. She has to make her way to the Wizard of Oz in hope that he will grant her the wish of returning home. The explicit message here is the meaning of the film, once she had left home she realised how much she loved and missed her family. This was shown at the end of the film when for Dorothy to return home the line “There’s no place like home” had to be repeated.