1. Film Studies: Thematic Elements
Chapter 2
The Art of Watching Films
Joseph M. Boggs
Dennis W. Petrie

2. Thematic Elements Ideas Plot Emotional Effect or Mood Character
THEME refers to the unifying central concern of the film, the special focus that unifies the work.
Ideas
Plot
Emotional Effect or Mood
Character
Style or Texture
All five are present in ALL film; but in any given film, one is predominant.

3. Thematic Elements: PLOT
What happens in the film?
Adventure stories
Detective stories
Gladiator
Spider-Man
Hidalgo
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Titanic
The Fast and the Furious

4. Thematic Elements: EMOTIONAL EFFECT or MOOD
The director creates a highly specialized mood or emotional effect. In such films, it is possible to identify a single mood or emotion that prevails throughout the film. The Shining 40-Year-Old Virgin The Piano Psycho

5. Thematic Elements: CHARACTER
The focus in this type of film is mostly on the character. Although plot is important in such films, what happens is important primarily because it helps us understand the character being developed. What sets these characters apart from ordinary people? A Beautiful Mind Cinderella Man Raging Bull Elizabeth Frida Ray

6. Thematic Elements: STYLE or TEXTURE OR STRUCTURE
These films have a quality that sets them apart—a unique look, feel, rhythm, atmosphere, tone, or organization that echoes in our minds and senses long after we leave the theater. Waking Life The English Patient Fargo Pulp Fiction The Road Home

7. Thematic Elements: IDEAS
In most serious films, the action and characters have a significance beyond the context of the film itself—a significance that helps to clarify some aspect of life, experience, or the human condition.
Moral Implications
The Truth of Human Nature
Social Problems
The Struggle for Human Dignity
The Complexity of Human Relationships
Coming of Age/Loss of Innocence/Growing Awareness
A Moral or Philosophical Riddle

8. Thematic Elements: IDEAS
Moral Implications
Fight Club
Being John Malkovich
Crash
The Truth of Human Nature
Lord of the Flies (1963)
Groundhog Day
Requiem for a Dream
Social Problems
Mississippi Burning
Dead Man Walking
Do the Right Thing

9. Thematic Elements: IDEAS
The Struggle for Human Dignity
Million Dollar Baby
Rent
Schindler’s List
The Complexity of Human Relationships
The War of the Roses
Broke
Terms of Endearment
A Moral or Philosophical Riddle
Fight Club

10. Thematic Elements: IDEAS
Coming of Age/Loss of Innocence/Growing Awareness
About a Boy
Finding Nemo
Sixteen Candles
Billy Elliot

11. Thematic Elements: IDEAS
Billy Elliot (2000)
Director: Stephen Daldry
Jamie Bell…Billy Elliot
Jean Heywood…Grandma
Jamie Draven…Tony Elliot (brother)
Gary Lewis…Dad (Jackie Elliot)
Setting: The 1984 Miners Strike in England
Brief Synopsis: A talented young boy becomes torn between his unexpected love of dance and the disintegration of his family.