Tag Archives: Power

Power Imbalance and Camera in Joy

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In this scene from Joy, a power imbalance is depicted using the positioning of the camera which explicitly involves the viewer. To the audience, the camera is the lens with which they view the world created and presented before them. To that degree, the positioning of a camera on set can also be used to position the viewer inside the world itself and become immersed. By placing the camera at eye level, the film adds to an immersive effect and the viewer may feel as if they are actually behind the counter.

This positioning is done intentionally to compare Joy’s situation with the viewer’s own, demonstrating an imbalance of power which calls to attention the issues and themes of the movie while drawing in sympathy for the character from the viewer. As she sends what little money she has left to her family, it draws nearer to the camera and makes the audience feel as if they are taking it themselves, implicating them in a balance of power and involving themselves in the scene a little more personally.

May I Smoke My Pipe as Well?

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In Inglorious Basterds, there is a plethora of examples of phallic imagery used to show the power imbalance in different scenes. The scene that the meme above is from is perhaps the most well known instance of phallic imagery in the film. This meme is attempting to exaggerate the phallic imagery in this scene to show how the two men are exerting control over each other. During this scene, Landa is speaking to LaPadite in an uncomfortably calm manner, as he knows that he is about to massacre the Jewish family hiding underneath the floor boards. When LaPadite begins to smoke his pipe, he is attempting to take control of the situation, being the first man to take out his phallic item. During this period, he believes that he can convince Landa that he is not hiding anyone and that he has shifted the power over to himself. However, once Landa asks if he can smoke and brings out his ridiculously large phallic pipe, he shows that he has always had the power in this situation; they are “comparing sizes” and Landa has come out on top. Both of them use their pipes to convince the other that they are in control, but in the end, the man with the biggest pipe wins.

Blind Loyalty

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I chose these two stills because they showcase the sort of blind loyalty and the “no questions asked” atmosphere that Adolph Hitler was able to construct in his country. This sort of obedience and loyalty was crucial to Hitler’s, the Nazi’s and the Third Reich’s movement in Germany and their areas of interest in their conquests. But how?… How was Hitler able to ensure that his followers maintained this level of blind obedience and loyalty? The answer to this question is highly complex and the ways in which he achieved this level of discipline and obedience was not only through fear, but also through his effort of making those who followed him blindly feel very well cared for and playing on the natural human trait of wanting to feel like one is better than another. Hitler would make sure that those who followed him and took up his ideas as their own were very well taken care of. In the scene where Professor Siletsky is trying to persuade Maria Tura into being a “spy” for the Nazis, he promises her increased rations and her comfortable life back if she would come to the Nazi’s side and proclaim her allegiance to Hitler. By  promising great things and by making people feel superior to others, Hitler was able to create an almost god-like idealization of himself that his followers looked up to so much that they would even jump from an airplane to their death with no questions asked.