1. Our film opening mediates the representation of people with mental
illness as being unstable and unsafe. The dominant ideology in
today’s society treats individuals with mental illness or disabilities
differently to others, making them almost segregated from everyone
else. The way we have used cross cutting shows how the patient at a
mental asylum can go from silent and sitting in a corner, to a sudden
violent outburst in the next part of the scene. This shows how mental
illness can make someone very unpredictable and so are viewed as
unstable by the rest of society.
I believe we have represented women to be kinder and more caring
than men as we only have one woman in the opening sequence, and
it shows her giving flowers to the man. This follows the dominant
ideology in today’s society as it represents women to be more caring
and gentle where as the men are seen to be stronger and more
physically able, which is shown through the one male character
holding a position of authority, being a police officer, and the other a
patient which has violent outbursts, showing how his physical
strength dominates the women.
We wanted to focus on how a man with mental illness is different
from the ideology of a stereotypical male. We followed the dominant
ideology by using a straight white, male character, but opposed this
ideal by giving the character a severe mental illness. This allows the
audience to see that even a person that fits the ideal of society can
have a mental illness, and therefore they should not be discriminated
against.