Can a Film Change Somebodies Views?

Hey Guys,

I have always been interested in film and how everything works. I've always loved the use of story-lines and cinematography and how a film can take us away from our own lives or makes us feel powerful but can films really change our views? Can a film make you sit down and think about what you believe in and make you think about them, or even change those beliefs all together?

 As you will know, there are a lot of different types of films, some are there to just entertain, and you don't need to be overly involved with them, such films as pure action films or comedies. These films that we know are just basically sit down, we watch and we don't need to take much in, or away from the experience. As my father likes to call them, they are 'remove brain' films.

These aren't the films that I want to focus on; they do not tend to affect us all that much. The films that can affect us are more the emotional dramas or the love stories, but also sometimes films that we would not expect to affect us do touch is in the most peculiar ways.

Now there is a difference between a film affecting us and a film changing our views. Neither of these are easy to do, as there is such a wide audience range and it is hard to affect each one individually. To effect or touch somebodies heart you have to have a theme or content that people understand or have been through themselves, or even a theme that people would hate to go through and are scared of, such things like love, life and death are very high in effecting people but is there other ways? Could people be affected by things that are not as obvious?

In respects of changing somebodies views, now this is a very different case. It is very difficult to turn round to somebody and say 'I think you should feel this way about this topic.' It does not work that way, you can't tell people how to feel or how to view things, all you can do is show them and hope they understand it the way you hoped.

An example of a film I studied once that changes views was Natural Born Killers, Directed by Oliver Stone. Now this film gets a lot of mixed reactions, and that is the point of the film. It was created to effect people and it makes them feel differently about the media, law enforcement and criminals. This film puts a spin on serial killers, making them into more of a hero figures as the media glorifies them and makes them into a respected couple who are mistreated by the corrupt law enforcement.

The question is though; does this film change your views? Well whilst watching it, you do feel for the couple and you do find yourself on the other side with the criminals, hoping that it will 'end well' for them. I would not say it fully changes your views forever though. Yes it makes you more wary of the press and of law enforcement, but many films do this.

What I really want to know is, if you can make a stunning film, which changes peoples' views, and makes them think. Now I'm not saying that some views are wrong and others are right, obviously everyone thinks differently, but what I want to know is if it is possible to watch a film and come out thinking 'maybe my view on this subject was not clear' I want to know whether you would go home after a film and think over what you saw and how it could affect your views and even yourself.

All directors and writers strive to affect the audience in many different ways. Each of them have probably also tried to change peoples' views and tried to make people think a certain way, the thing is I don't feel like you should be made to feel a way, I feel that if you show somebody something in a different light than they are used to, maybe that will affect something.

I guess, for now, I will just have to keep wondering, until I find a film that makes me change all my views or, hopefully even better, create something that effects people in more ways than one.

Stay Safe,

Matt Thom