Film+Study

=Our Notes So Far:=

==

= Our ideas about themes: =

Family
What does this film say about the importance of family? It suggests that we should not to take family for granted, and to stay connected to each other. For example. when Prot sees the Picture of Dr. Powells son, Dr. Powell hasn't spoken to him in a while. Prot teaches Dr Powell to value family. (Caleb's group's note)

This film shows that humans have a very close relationship with their families. When Robert Porter loses his family, he invents an imaginary world for himself without family. This shows that the loss of these people was intensely painful for him. His family was very important to him, and there are many families in the world. Perhaps this was one of the reasons he wore sunglasses, to distort his vision, and not see the love he was missing out on.

In the BBQ scene, there is a close shot of Prot's face where his sunglasses' lenses show the reflection of Mark's wife and kids on one side and the other guests on the other. This also tags along with the theme of separation: like Mark doesn't talk to his son from his first marriage, and how Robert Porter got separated from his wife and daughter.

In this film, Prot cares a lot about family and spends a lot of time working out what it means. In his discussions with Dr Powell, he is always talking about family. Robert Porter loses his whole familiy and grieves about them. When they're at the BBQ on the fourth of July, Prot plays a lot with the family. He has the family in his sunglasses in the ECU.

Trauma and the brain
If you have something bad happen to you, you replay it over and over in your mind, and think "What could I have done differently?" and "If I had done this, I would have prevented it from happening". If you keep doing this, there is a part of your brain that can get caught up in it, making you feel insane. Robert Porter tried to commit suicide. It was his way of trying to get out, trying to escape reality. He obviously didn't want to believe the truth, so he created another world for himself. He didn't even want to think about the truth, because it was so painful for him.

Doctor/ patient relationship
Dr Powell is impatient at the start; you can tell with the different camera techiques. They close up on him tapping his pen (which establishes he is the doctor) and the CU of the clock on the wall. It looks like he is restless. When Ernie is telling Dr Powell about that he thinks the food is only lukewarm (so it contains germs), Dr Powell replies "I'll look into that". This gives you the feeling he will not really. You can tell he doesn't care completely, that he has heard all this before. With Prot, the more he learns, the more natural he becomes around Prot. Prot's case almost becomes personal to Mark. As a doctor they try not to care as, because it's their job, and they are not supposed to get emotionally involved. But with Prot, I feel he actually starts caring about him. He acts differently around Prot than he does with the other patients. Maybe this is because he believes Prot?