Captain Fantastic analysis

Captain Fantastic is a movie that was made in 2016. Directed by Matt Ross, the film is very similar to films such as No country for Old Men and Winter's bone in a sense that you get the feeling that it is very raw. There are minimal effects and music, the whole movie is just based off of reality and emotion.

The plot is very unique and intriguing as it is a taboo lifestyle to live outside of civilisation. The narrative left many blanks that we are never to find out, such as why the protagonist character, Ben ever wanted to live away from society and live such a different life. Relating to that, the ending is also very unrevealing as we do not come to any kind of happy ending type conclusion and we are left in what seems like the middle of an opening scene. In fact, the end scene could be considered as a tease to the audience as it remains the same for about thirty seconds before ending. The audience is expecting something to happen but it doesn't.

The film teaches us to not judge people that are different and in a way, teaches us that there are perks to living outside of society. In some scenes such as the one where they are driving to the funeral, it really highlights how corrupt and anti-social society really is. The whole film was intentionally thought provoking and wasn't meant to be a happy film generally. It belonged mostly in the adventure genre but it had themes of comedy and action.

The characters in the movie were very entertaining and warm. The main character, Ben (played by Viggo Mortensen) is extremely relatable and made us feel sorry for him lots of times in the film. Generally, the whole family are very enjoyable and surprisingly relatable characters. George McKay (Bodevan) had the best performance of the play as he nailed the character and got his personality spot on. His awkwardness when it comes to anything social and his smartness was greatly shown. In many ways, his character is similar to Eugene's from The Walking Dead.

The film went forward pretty fast and still managed to fit a lot of detail in the plot. It flowed together well and the use of music in it was used at the perfect moments which matched the character's situations and personalities. Another unique aspect of this film is that a fair portion of the music actually came from the characters in the narrative themselves.

There were not any special effects in the movie which is a good thing considering it was set in an environment that screams 'nature'. The film is very raw and it feels very realistic. This is highlighted in the rock climbing scene where Rellian breaks his arm.

The editing was simple and featured a lot of midshots and basic camera cuts. This is probably to add to the natural feel of the movie. In addition to that, the film flowed very nicely and turned out to be a real masterpiece.

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