Gummo - Movie Critique :: essays research papers

The film Gummo is intended to be a symbolic word-painting in which fantasy and reality intertwine. Initially, the film opens in a dispirited town in Ohio after a tornado has swept through and destroyed it. Economically the small region is wrecked. Like the buildings around them, the favorable fabric that is holding the town together is coming apart at the seams. Whatever traditions and values this town has held in the past have the appearance _or_ semblance to no longer exist as the line between the sacred and the alloy has been obscured beyond recognition. While it is difficult to know outright the attitudes and convictions of any sociable group, based on what the film shows there is itsy-bitsy, if any, social solidarity in this environment. The world for this statement can be seen in the lack of any exacting figures in the film. The town is seemingly void of any structure, law, or government, and the actions of its residents seem to reflect this. Individualism seems to re ign supreme in this community, if it can be called that. Admittedly social bonds such as friends and family still exist, entirely as a whole individual pursuits and interests still override any pharisaism of collective purpose. This fact, however, doesnt truly deviate at all from what is considered normal, admittedly it does take on a much uglier face in Gummo, but individual goals and pursuits are commonplace practically anywhere in the join States and around the globe. On the other hand, it must be realized that in most instances natural disasters do have a history of pitch communities together in times of hardship, something that is not at all seen in the film. In short, the social order, much like the town itself, is in shambles, with little or no social solidarity. Gummo is meant to be entirely symbolic in oneness way or another. One of the more notable symbolisms is that of cats and their murder. The flow of their deaths is rather straightforward in a town such as this, there appears to be very little to do. In fact one thing that is never seen in Gummo is the playing of any kind of mutant or recreational activity. It appears as though the teenagers are suffering from utmost(a) cases of boredom and, because of the demand at the butcher shop, they can be compensable and entertained through the murdering of these animals.