This document summarizes a research study that analyzed the 2011 Filipino film "In the Name of Love" using Marxist, feminist, and post-colonial critical lenses. The researchers applied Stuart Hall's encoding-decoding model of communication to read the film text through an oppositional view. They identified and discussed scenes from the film that demonstrated hierarchical class systems (Marxist), decision-making and exploitation of women (feminist), and issues of identity, hybridity, and diaspora (post-colonial). The analysis was intended to provide alternative interpretations of the film's portrayal of themes related to the chosen critical lenses.

1. A STUDY OF THE FILM IN THE NAME OF
LOVE USING MARXIST, FEMINIST AND
POST-COLONIAL CRITICAL LENSES
Bigay, Charmaine June B.
Pelobello, Patricia V.
Torres, Beatriz B.

2. INTRODUCTION
Films are among the forms of media that are rich in
text that can be read. By text in film, we do not just
simply mean the written script of a movie. Songs,
novels, conversations, pictures, movies, etc. are all
considered texts.

3. Usually, people agree to what the producer offers in
front of them through different forms of media such as
films and television shows.
When consumers encounter messages and make sense
of them within the hegemony of dominant code, they
will reproduce already dominant definitions.

4. But actually, there are different ways to read text.
In this research, the researchers will read the text from the
Filipino film, In the Name of Love, using Stuart Hall’s Encoding-
Decoding model of communication that has different positions in
which audiences take in order to decode the meanings within
cultural texts.
The researchers support the claim that not all media portrayal
should be accepted by the audience. That is why particularly, this
study will delve into the oppositional view and they will use the
critical lenses – Marxism, Feminism, and Post-colonialism to
understand and analyze the film, In the Name of Love.

5. IN THE NAME OF LOVE
MOVIE TRAILER

6. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
What are the texts in the film, In the Name of
Love, that can be analyzed using Marxist lens,
Feminist lens, and Post-colonial lens?

7. OBJECTIVES
In this study, the researchers aimed to analyze
the text of the film, In the Name of Love,
using:
•Marxist lens
•Feminist lens
•Post-colonial lens

8. SCOPE AND LIMITATION
The analysis of the study will solely focus on the film text,
specifically the dialogues, scenes, and the characters in
the Olivia Lamasan’s 2011 film, In the Name of Love, that
portray Marxism, Feminism, or Post-colonialism. The text
will be read from the oppositional view only through
these three critical lenses aforementioned.

9. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
•The researchers hope to read and analyze the text of the
film through Marxist lens, Feminist lens, and Post-colonial
lens. With this foundation, the researches look forward to
a critical and better understanding of the aforementioned
film.
•The researchers hope to give the film audience a different
outlook on how they can view a film critically and not just
rely on what is fed on them through the big screen.

10. •To the filmmakers, this study could be a ground for
improvement on the formation of films particularly in
the Philippines so that the content of the Filipino films
may develop to be more enriched and critical.
•Since film will be used as the medium in this study, this
research will also add to other studies that have also
embarked on the same field of research.

11. •This study will also be significant to the future
researchers as it will open the idea of studying the text
of a film from a different perspective such as by using
critical lenses like Marxism, Feminism, and Post-
colonialism. Other critical lenses can still be used to
read the film text. Also, other movies aside from In the
Name of Love are also viable to be read critically.

12. SYNTHESIS OF REVIEW OF
RELATED LITERATURE
The researchers discerned that the studies related to this
research only used either a certain critical theory or
Stuart Hall’s communication model as their framework.
None has integrated several critical theories together
with Stuart Hall’s model of communication in a particular
study.

13. Even Lois Tyson’s book entitled Critical Theory Today:
A User-Friendly Guide (2006), though used multiple critical
theories, nonetheless did not use Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding
communication Model in his study. Also, the literary piece studied
by Lois Tyson was a novel – The Great Gatsby (1925) – by F. Scott
Fitzgerald.
Since this study revolves on the 2011 film, In the Name of Love,
the reading of the film text will not solely base on words but on
other aspects of a film as well, especially the cinematic aspects
that affect the reading.

14. With these observations, the researchers attempt to fill these gaps
by utilizing three critical theories: Marxism, Feminism, and Post-
colonialism using the oppositional view under Stuart Hall’s
Encoding-Decoding communication model in studying and
analyzing the text of a film.
The film In the Name of Love – a film written, directed, and
produced by Filipino filmmakers was chosen to substantiate the
reading of a film text through critical lenses.

15. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
For this study, the researchers used Stuart Hall’s Communication
Model Encoding-Decoding. Stuart Hall proposed a model of
encoding-decoding media discourse, which represented the
media text as located between its producers, who framed
meaning in a certain way, and its audience, who ‘decoded’ the
meaning according to their rather different social situations and
frames of interpretation.

16. Hall argued that there were three interpretative codes or
positions that a reader might bring to a text:
• Dominant reading “the reader fully shares the text’s code and
accepts and reproduces the preffered reading”
• Negotiated reading “the reader partly shares the media text’s
code, but may resist and modify the reception of the code in a
way that reflects their own life and personal or group contexts”
But for this study the researchers only focused on the
• Oppositional Reading “the reader understands the preferred
reading but does not share it and may bring alternative ways of
dealing with it.”
(Balnaves, Donald and Shoesmith, 2008)

17. • Using the Oppositional Reading the researchers also used
different critical lenses: Marxist, Feminist and Post-colonial
Theory.
• MARXISM
“For Marxism, getting and keeping economic power is the
motive behind all social and political activities, including education,
philosophy, religion, government, the arts, science, technology, the
media, and so on. From a Marxist perspective, differences in
socioeconomic class divide people in ways that are much more
significant than differences in religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.”
(Tyson, 2006)

18. • FEMINISM
According to Lord, Greiter and Tursunovic, Feminist Theory is
an outgrowth of the general movement to empower women
worldwide. Feminism can be defined as a recognition and critique
of male supremacy combined with efforts to change it.
• POST-COLONIALISM
“Post-colonial criticism is particularly effective at helping us
see connections among all the domains of our experience -
psychological ideological, social, political, intellectual and aesthetic
– in ways that show us just how inseparable these categories are
in our lived experience of ourselves and our world.” (Tyson, 2006)

19. This conceptual framework shows that with
the use of Stuart Hall’s Decoding and
Encoding Communication Theory, focusing
on oppositional reading, In the Name of Love
has been read in different critical lenses:
Marxist, Feminist and Post-Colonial Theory.
CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK

20. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

21. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM
SCENE 63

22. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM
SCENE 68

23. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

24. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

25. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

26. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

27. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

28. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

29. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

30. MARXIST
PRESENCE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASS SYSTEM

31. MARXIST
ELITE DOMINATION IN THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION
(THAT IS: LABOR, FACTORIES, AN LAND)
SCENE 16

32. MARXIST
ELITE DOMINATION IN THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION
(THAT IS: LABOR, FACTORIES, AN LAND)
SCENE 76

33. MARXIST
ELITE DOMINATION IN THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION
(THAT IS: LABOR, FACTORIES, AN LAND)

34. FEMINIST
DECISION-MAKING
SCENE 16

35. FEMINIST
DECISION-MAKING
SCENE 17

36. FEMINIST
DECISION-MAKING

37. FEMINIST
DECISION-MAKING

38. FEMINIST
DECISION-MAKING

39. FEMINIST
OBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN
SCENE 13

40. SCENE 47
FEMINIST
OBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN

41. FEMINIST
OBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN

42. FEMINIST
OBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN

43. FEMINIST
OBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN

44. FEMINIST
OBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN

45. FEMINIST
OBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN

46. FEMINIST
OBJECTIFICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN

47. SCENE 23
FEMINIST
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION

48. SCENE 31
FEMINIST
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION

49. FEMINIST
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION

50. FEMINIST
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION

51. POST-COLONIAL
CONFLICTS OF IDENTITY AND CULTURAL BELONGING
WITHIN THE FORMER COLONIAL COUNTRIES

52. POST-COLONIAL
CONFLICTS OF IDENTITY AND CULTURAL BELONGING
WITHIN THE FORMER COLONIAL COUNTRIES

53. POST-COLONIAL
CONFLICTS OF IDENTITY AND CULTURAL BELONGING
WITHIN THE FORMER COLONIAL COUNTRIES

54. POST-COLONIAL
CONFLICTS OF IDENTITY AND CULTURAL BELONGING
WITHIN THE FORMER COLONIAL COUNTRIES

55. POST-COLONIAL
CONFLICTS OF IDENTITY AND CULTURAL BELONGING
WITHIN THE FORMER COLONIAL COUNTRIES

56. POST-COLONIAL
CONFLICTS OF IDENTITY AND CULTURAL BELONGING
WITHIN THE FORMER COLONIAL COUNTRIES

57. POST-COLONIAL
CONFLICTS OF IDENTITY AND CULTURAL BELONGING
WITHIN THE FORMER COLONIAL COUNTRIES
SCENE 40

58. POST-COLONIAL
HYBRIDITY (LANGUAGE)
SCENE 32

59. POST-COLONIAL
HYBRIDITY (LANGUAGE)

60. POST-COLONIAL
HYBRIDITY (LANGUAGE)

61. POST-COLONIAL
DIASPORA
SCENE 40

62. POST-COLONIAL
DIASPORA
SCENE 10

63. POST-COLONIAL
DIASPORA

64. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATION

65. SUMMARY
“A Study of the Film In the Name of Love Using Marxist, Feminist,
and Post-Colonial Critical Lenses” is a qualitative textual analysis
study aimed to read the texts in the film, In the Name of Love,
through the Oppositional View of Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding
model of communication. Hall believed that media messages are
always open to various interpretations thus having multiple
meanings (Chandler, 2001). This study also wanted to analyse
these texts through Marxist, Feminist and Postcolonial
perspective.

66. After reviewing previous related studies and literatures, the
researchers found indicators that helped them in identifying texts
(dialogues, scenes and characters) in the movie that depict
Marxism, Feminism and Post-colonialism.
The researchers chose to study the contemporary film, In the
Name of Love, in which they are interested in particularly. After a
thorough and in-depth study of the film, it became evident that
there are texts in the film that can be read through the Marxist,
Feminist and Post-colonial perspective.

67. These texts were coded in the coding sheet and was validated by
the intercoders who are professionals and experts when it comes
to Marxist, Feminist and Post-colonial theory.
After analyzing the coded texts, the researchers concluded that
the text, which are the scenes, dialogues, and the characters, in
the film In the Name of Love can actually be read through
Marxist, Feminist, and Post-colonial lenses.

68. CONCLUSION
With this study, the researchers have proven that the text,
which are the scenes, dialogues and the characters, in the film
In the Name of Love can actually be read through Marxist,
Feminist, and Post-colonial lenses. Texts in the film In the Name
of Love specifically the ones used in this study – scenes,
dialogues, and character – were deduced to present Marxism,
Feminism, and Post-colonialism.

69. CONCLUSION
MARXISM
For Marxism, scenes, dialogues, and/or characters belonging to
the indicators presence of hierarchal class system and elite
domination in the means of production (that is: labor, factories,
and land) appeared in the film. However, there was one
indicator that was not represented by any text in the film and
that indicator is the myriad problems associated with
industrialization and urbanization. It was the dialogues of the
characters that obviously showed the Marxism in the film. Most
scenes depicting Marxism were presented through the lines of
the characters.

70. CONCLUSION
FEMINISM
For Feminism, all indicators appeared in the film:
Economic Participation, Decision-Making, Objectification &
Exploitation of Women and Equal Opportunity and Non-
discrimination. The texts depicting the indicators of feminism
often appears in dialogues; and the texts found are mostly
showing patriarchy. Out of 17 Feminist texts found, only three
shows the equality between men and women.

71. CONCLUSION
FEMINISM
Post-colonial criticism is concerned with the effects of
colonialism on cultures and societies. In the film, In the Name of
Love, several scenes were analyzed to have depicted all the
indicators of Post-colonialism: Conflicts of identity and cultural
belonging within the former colonial countries, Diaspora, and
Hybridity. Therefore, Post-colonialism is a theory that is clearly
present in the film through the various scenes, dialogues, and
characters.

72. CONCLUSION
All three theories – Marxism, Feminism, and Post-colonialism
were theories that have something to do with power, its use and
manipulation from different angles, depending on the definition
and description of the theories. The texts in the film which are
the scenes, dialogues, and characters are ways of presenting the
theories through the film, In the Name of Love.

73. RECOMMENDATION
• future studies may also read the film In the Name of Love in a
different critical lens.
• use a different theory or framework that can be used in
analyzing the film. For example, Uses and Gratifications of Katz
in 1970 can be used in order to know how the film satisfies the
viewers’ hierarchy of needs or McCombs and Shaw’s Agenda
Setting Theory in order to know how media, like film, influence
the significance of events in the viewers’ minds.

74. • the researchers also suggest for future studies to textual
analyze a TV Commercial, a teleserye, or a news show as their
instrument
• textual analyze the music played in the different parts of the
film that served as flashback and how it beautifies the scene.
And to make this study more interesting, the researchers also
suggest to include the effect of music to viewers.

75. • To the present and future filmmakers, the researchers
recommend that they may create films with more in-depth
texts or contents that will produce better effects and points to
ponder since this study has shown that a film can be
oppositionally read by the viewers.
• Lastly, the researchers recommend to the film audience to be
more critical when watching a film.

76. A STUDY OF THE FILM IN THE NAME OF
LOVE USING MARXIST, FEMINIST AND
POST-COLONIAL CRITICAL LENSES