"Losing Isaiah"

The movie that I will discuss is called Losing Isaiah, directed by Stephen Gyllenhall. This film focuses on the controversial battle between a African American, played by

Halle Berry

and her fight to win back her son Isaiah from his adoptive white mother, played by

Jessica Lange

. From the six approaches to writing about film, I will focus on the ideological approach of this movie. In an article titled

Beyond `Losing Isaiah': Truth in shades of gray

, written by Lena Williams she discusses the issue of trans racial adoptions. In her article she states,

Experts in child psychology and racial identity differ widely on whether black children are harmed by being adopted by white families.

. This issue fall under the ideological approach because this film focuses on the beliefs and values of black and white in the sense of race and class. The fact that Halle Berry plays a young African American, who was an ex drug addict who is now fighting for the custody of her son who was taken in by a white mother and her family caused a huge racial custody battle of whether it was more appropriate to send the child to his natural black mother or stay with the white mother.

The basics of ideology

I am providing a link to an article titled "Film and Ideology." I found this article published on the Washington State University website by M.Hughes. The author starts off with a basic definition of the term, while simplifying it to the notion of " a systematic worldview" of the way we define ourselves and the way we define our relationships with others. The author then continues with looking at ideology in terms of its relation to films. He discusses the film Casablanca and how it portrayed the importance of nationalism. He then takes an interesting approach and discusses how ideology in films has changed with time e.g. in the 1960's films were based on cowboy stories; and when women gained rights, films were reflected on feminist views. He then concludes his article by braking up the term into three categories: neutral; implicit; and explicit and provides definitions for all three.
Here is a quote

Neutral ideology is found in escapist films and light entertainment with emphasis on action, pleasure, and entertainment values for their own sake. Superficial treatment of right and wrong: Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989). These films in themselves reflect a value system where fun and entertainment are forms of consumerism.

Are Social Classes Dying?

Terry Nichols Clark, a University of Chicago professor, recently wrote about his views on class studies. He discusses how new class systems are emerging. By stating, "Class analysis has grown increasingly inadequate in recent decades as traditional hierarchies have declined and new social differences have emerged." This quote demonstrates his feelings in how social standings are today. He claims that newer hierarchies are forming and therefore, diminshing current social groups. The main point of this article is that with the current economy, every social group changes in different ways. It is very noticable that he feels that there are more higher class social groups forming than lower class. Terry Nichols Clark makes his point known by using clear examples and concise words.

An Ideological Approach to The Simpsons

The article King-Size Homer, written by Barry Hodge, talks about a single episode of The Simpsons and portrays all the ideological approaches to it. The episode is when Homer decides to gain weight and so he can become physically handicapped. By doing so, he would be able to work from home and not have to deal with a typical working environment. The article goes through the episode thoroughly and gives ideological explanations for each of the characters involved. Towards the end of the article, there is a separate part entitled "Ideological Codes" which gives numerous examples of how The Simpsons contains all sorts of subliminal messages pertaining to the real world. For example "one character, Milhouse (sic), bares [Richard Nixon's] middle name (and one can only ascertain from his un-dominant ideological background – bespectacled, constantly bullied, hated – [that he is] a... true Nixon)." This article provides us with an ideological perspective of The Simpsons. Clicking on the link above should take you there.

An Ideological Approach to The Simpsons

The article King-Size Homer, written by Barry Hodge, talks about a single episode of The Simpsons and portrays all the ideological approaches to it. The episode is when Homer decides to gain weight and so he can become physically handicapped. By doing so, he would be able to work from home and not have to deal with a typical working environment. The article goes through the episode thoroughly and gives ideological explanations for each of the characters involved. Towards the end of the article, there is a separate part entitled "Ideological Codes" which gives numerous examples of how The Simpsons contains all sorts of subliminal messages pertaining to the real world. For example "one character, Milhouse (sic), bares [Richard Nixon's] middle name (and one can only ascertain from his un-dominant ideological background – bespectacled, constantly bullied, hated – [that he is] a... true Nixon)." This article provides us with an ideological perspective of The Simpsons. Clicking on the link above should take you there.

Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism & Media Culture........What else is New?

In this example of an ideological approach Douglas Kellner the author explains the analysis or our society. Douglas discusses how to interpret our own society depending on the different factors. Kellner says that the contributions in the study of our own culture studies seems to be his focus. One example of ideology is the study of class and how the upper class degenerates the lower class.

Kellner says, "Radio, Television, film, and other products of media culture provide materials out of which we forge out our identities; our sense of selfhood;notion of male or female.......(and just keeps going by providing more examples)"

I highly recommend this example of ideological analysis. This example goes into really good detail.