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Ways of Looking at Movies
Ways of Looking at
Movies
Every movie is a complex synthesis—a combination
of many separate, interrelated elements that form a
coherent whole. A quick scan of this book’s table of
contents will give you an idea of just how many
elements get mixed together to make a movie.
Anyone attempting to comprehend a complex
synthesis must rely on analysis—the act of taking
apart something complicated to figure out what it is
made of and how it all fits together.
A chemist breaks down a compound substance into
its constituent parts to learn more than just a list of
ingredients. The goal usually extends to
determining how the identified individual
components work together toward some sort of
outcome: What is it about this particular mixture
that makes it taste like strawberries, or grow hair, or
kill cockroaches? Likewise, film analysis involves
more than breaking down a sequence, a scene, or
an entire movie to identify the tools and techniques
that compose it; the investigation is also concerned
with the function and potential effect of that
combination: Why does it make you laugh, or
prompt you to tell your friend to see it, or incite you
to join the Navy? The search for answers to these
sorts of questions boils down to one essential
inquiry: What does it mean? For the rest of the
chapter, we’ll explore film analysis by applying that
question to the perennial blockbuster Star Wars film
series and a few of the many TV shows it spawned.
Unfortunately, or perhaps intriguingly, not all
movie meaning is easy to see. As we mentioned
earlier, movies have a way of hiding their methods
and meaning. We’ll start with the notion of hidden,
or “invisible,” meaning and the cinematic language
that helps to convey it, before exploring ways of
looking at movies for meaning and analysis.
Cinematic Language and Invisibility
The moving aspect of moving pictures is one reason
that the ways movies convey meaning can be
“invisible,” or hard to see. Movies simply move too
fast for even the most diligent viewers to
consciously consider everything they’ve seen.
When we read a book, we can pause to ponder the
meaning or significance of any word, sentence, or
passage. Our eyes often flit back to review
something we’ve already read in order to further
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comprehend its meaning or to place a new passage
in context. Similarly, we can stand and study a
painting or sculpture or photograph for as long as
we require to absorb whatever meaning we need or
want from it. But until very recently, the
moviegoer’s relationship with every cinematic
composition has been transitory. We experience a
movie shot, which is capable of delivering multiple
layers of visual and auditory information, for the
briefest of moments before it is taken away and
replaced with another moving image and another
and another. If you are watching a movie the way it
is designed to be experienced, there is little time to
contemplate the various potential meanings of any
single movie moment.
Recognizing a viewer’s tendency (especially when
sitting in a dark theater, staring at a large screen) to
identify subconsciously with the camera’s
viewpoint, early filmmaking pioneers created a film
grammar (or cinematic language) that draws upon
the way we automatically interpret visual
information in our real lives. These cinematic
techniques allow audiences to absorb movie
meaning intuitively—and instantly.
The fade-out/fade-in is one of the most
straightforward examples of this phenomenon.
When such a transition is meant to convey a passage
of time between scenes, the last shot of a scene
grows gradually darker (fades out) until the screen
is rendered black for a moment. The first shot of the
subsequent scene then fades in out of the darkness.
Viewers don’t have to think about what this means;
our daily experience of time’s passage marked by
the setting and rising of the sun lets us understand
intuitively that significant story time has elapsed
over that very brief moment of screen darkness.
A low-angle shot communicates in a similarly
invisible fashion. Often, in the Star Wars sequel
trilogy, when the protagonist (main character), Rey,
takes a significant step on her road to Jedi mastery,
our sense of her newfound empowerment is
heightened by the low angle from which the
moment is captured. Viewers’ shared experience of
literally looking up at powerful figures—people on
stages, at podiums, memorialized in statues, or
simply bigger than them—sparks an automatic
interpretation of movie subjects seen from this
angle. Depending on context, we see these figures
as strong, noble, or threatening.
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2
Cinematic invisibility: low angle When it views a subject
from a low camera angle, cinematic language taps our
instinctive association of figures who we must literally “look
up to” with figurative or literal power. During an encounter
with an angry giant serpent in Star Wars: The Rise of
Skywalker (2019; director J. J. Abrams), the hero Rey
discovers her ability to heal wounds using the Force. The
film presents her in a low-angle shot as she reflects on her
newfound power [1]. At the end of the movie, after
conquering the evil emperor Palpatine, a low-angle shot
conveys her power and pride as she introduces herself as
“Rey Skywalker” [2].
The immediacy of cinematic language is what
makes movies one of the most visceral experiences
that art has to offer. The commercial filmmaking
process exploits cinema’s capacity for transporting
audiences into the world of the story, stressing
polished continuity of lighting, performance,
costume, makeup, and transitions, thus minimizing
any distractions that might remind viewers that
they’re watching a highly manipulated, and
manipulative, artificial reality.
Cutting on action is one of the most common
editing techniques designed to hide the
instantaneous and potentially jarring shift from one
camera viewpoint to another. When connecting one
shot to the next, a film editor often ends the first
shot in the middle of a continuing action and starts
the connecting shot at some point in the same
action. As a result, the action flows so continuously
over the cut between different moving images that
most viewers fail to register the switch.
Invisible editing: cutting on action in Star Wars:
The Last Jedi
Transcript
The problem with this seamless presentation of
visual and narrative information is that it can cloud
our search for a movie’s meaning, and it makes it all
too easy to take movie meaning for granted. From
the earliest days of moviemaking, innovative
filmmakers have rebelled against the notion of
hidden structures and meaning. The pioneering
Soviet filmmaker and theorist Sergei Eisenstein
believed that every edit, far from being invisible,
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should be very noticeable—a clash or collision of
contiguous shots rather than a seamless transition
from one shot to the next. Filmmakers whose work
is labeled “experimental”—inspired by Eisenstein
and other predecessors—embrace self-reflexive
styles that confront and confound conventional
notions of continuity. Even some commercial films
use techniques that undermine invisibility: in Little
Women (2019), for example, Hollywood filmmaker
Greta Gerwig deliberately jumbles spatial and
chronological continuity, forcing viewers to actively
scrutinize the cinematic structures on-screen in
order to assemble and thus comprehend the story.
But most scenes in most films that most of us watch
rely heavily on invisible techniques that convey
meaning intuitively. So to spot cinematic language,
you’ll have to know what you’re looking for. And
soon, you will. The rest of this book is dedicated to
helping you identify and appreciate each of the
many different secret ingredients that movies blend
to convey meaning.
Luckily for you, motion pictures have been
liberated from the imposed impermanence that
helped create all this cinematic invisibility in the
first place. Thanks to streaming services, Blu-rays,
DVDs, and digital downloads, you can now watch a
movie in much the same way you read a book:
pausing to scrutinize, ponder, or review as
necessary. This relatively new relationship between
movies and viewers will surely spark new
approaches to cinematic language and attitudes
toward invisibility. That’s for future filmmakers,
maybe including you, to decide. For now, these
viewing technologies allow students of film like
yourself to study movies with a lucidity and
precision that was impossible for your
predecessors.
Invisible editing: continuity of screen direction
in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Transcript
But not even repeated viewings can reveal those
movie messages hidden by our own preconceptions
and belief systems. Before we can detect and
interpret these meanings, we must first be aware of
the ways that expectations and cultural traditions
obscure what movies have to say.
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Cultural Invisibility
The same commercial instinct that inspires
filmmakers to use seamless continuity also compels
them to favor stories and themes that reinforce
viewers’ shared belief systems. After all, the film
industry, for the most part, seeks to entertain, not to
provoke, its customers. A key to entertaining the
customers is to give them what they want—to tap
into and reinforce their most fundamental desires
and beliefs. Even movies deemed controversial or
provocative can be popular if they trigger emotional
responses from their viewers that reinforce
yearnings or beliefs that lie deep within. And
because so much of this occurs on an unconscious,
emotional level, the casual viewer may be blind to
the implied political, cultural, and ideological
messages that help make the movie so appealing.
George Lucas exploited cultural invisibility when he
wrote and directed the original Star Wars (later
renamed Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope). By
borrowing story elements from mythology and
heroic legends, referencing cultural touchstones in
character and costume design, and even lifting
stylistic flourishes from old movies, Lucas made his
1977 space adventure feel like a classic legend—even
for young viewers with no direct knowledge of its
many cultural influences. Lucas and every Star Wars
film director since reinforce this impression by
beginning each movie with text that evokes the
classic fairy-tale “once upon a time” opening: “A
long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . .”
1
2
3
Exceptions to invisibility Even conventional commercial
films like the Star Wars movies sometimes deviate from
cinematic invisibility. The meaning of the text scroll [1] that
opens each film couldn’t be more obvious. Likewise, as in
these examples from Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015;
director J. J. Abrams), the “wipe” transitions [2] (in which a
new shot literally wipes across the screen to replace the
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preceding shot) and the iris transition [3] that ends every
episode are designed to be noticed. All of these visible (and
old-fashioned) techniques are there to evoke associations
with 1930s Flash Gordon space-adventure films that are
among the many cultural touchstones that shape our
experience of Star Wars.
Of course, this cultural invisibility is not always a
calculated decision by the filmmakers. Directors,
screenwriters, and producers are, after all, products
of the same society inhabited by their intended
audience. Frequently, the people making the movies
may be just as oblivious of the cultural attitudes
shaping their cinematic stories as the people who
watch them.
Throughout the series, the Star Wars films
repeatedly reinforce mainstream societal attitudes
toward power, gender, and family. Even the ragtag
resistance is governed by a hierarchy of uniformed
commanders, generals, and admirals. Rey may be
the galaxy’s Jedi savior, but she is also female and
thus wears lipstick and a form-fitting outfit. The
ruthless dark side villains Darth Vader and Kylo Ren
both ultimately side with the traditional values
embodied by their Jedi families. Whether by design
or the result of unintended cultural influence, the
familiar attitudes and ideas that pervade these
otherwise alien adventures likely play a large part
in the enduring popularity of the Star Wars
franchise.
Cultural invisibility in Star Wars Most Hollywood films
favor stories and themes that reinforce viewers’ shared
belief systems. Like his grandfather Darth Vader, Kylo Ren
embodies our common need to believe that good ultimately
triumphs over evil and the love of family is stronger than the
lust for power.
Check Your Understanding: 6 of 14
INCOMPLETE
Question
What does the term invisible describe in the context of film form?
Select an Answer
A. techniques that are literally invisible in that they aren’t able to be seen and aren’t present in
the image
B. elements of form and meaning that are deliberately hidden by filmmakers to convey a
message
C. images that are made possible through sophisticated lighting techniques (e.g., the use of
darkness to conceal certain parts of the frame)
D. a collection of cinematic techniques that are so commonly used that we are able to absorb
their meaning instantly and intuitively
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Ways of Looking at Movies
Check Your Understanding: 7 of 14
INCOMPLETE
Question
Which of the following best defines the term cultural invisibility?
Select an Answer
A. filmmakers’ use of stories and themes that reinforce viewers’ shared belief systems
B. a process of incorporating stories and themes that is always a calculated, deliberate decision
by the filmmakers
C. a conscious effort to disguise cultural differences among the characters in a film
D. a technique filmmakers use to produce films that challenge viewers’ belief systems and
ideologies
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Check Your Understanding: 8 of 14
INCOMPLETE
Question
Which of the following describes the relationship between “invisibility” and the term cinematic language?
Select an Answer
A. Cinematic language frequently calls attention to itself so as not to seem invisible.
B. Cinematic language is so familiar to viewers that it seems invisible.
C. Cinematic language is literally invisible in most films, as only experimental filmmakers use it.
D. Cinematic language is never invisible because it refers to the dialogue in a film.
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