An analysis of the Tropfest film 'The Unspoken'

1. The Unspoken
A close analysis

2. Overview
• The film is a confronting look at a
filmmaker’s personal journey to reach
out to his dying father, before he slips
away from cancer.
• It is a eulogy expressed while his
father is still able to hear the normally
‘unspoken’ words of love, reflective
of the transition of life’s stages –
from care giver to care receiver.

3. Overview
• Key themes include the
transitional cycles of life,
familial relationships, the
expression of paternal love,
the frailty of old age,and
making the most of life –
creatively and expressively.

4. OverviewThe voice is that of the
everyday vernacular
expressing the eulogistic
reflections of a son to his
father.
Their relationship is
foregrounded, through the
nature and character of the
father.

5. OverviewThe fragility and
helplessness of illness
and age are also
foregrounded as is the
enduring relationship
between husband and
wife ‘surviving life’s
curve balls’.

6. The film starts with a
rhetorical question and
repetition that engages the
audience to reflect on the
idea that it is “crazy we can
spend all our life with people
really really close around us
but never really expressing
what they mean to us.”

7. • The reflection
foreshadows the
spoken eulogy – not
one that is ‘forced
and that they are
never going to hear’.

8. • The side shot of the father with
captions that flicker to emphasise
the roles the father has played in life
‘husband, father, mate sculptor,
builder, labourer”.
• The narrator states simply “my dad’s
83 and he has terminal lung cancer.”
This is emphasized by the graphic
‘cancer warrior’.

9. The voiceover that
states that “Dad, this
film is all the things I
NEED you to hear.”
This is reinforced by
the direct address and
graphic ‘Unspoken’
which fades to
‘Spoken’.

10. The surprise that is felt when
the effects of age and illness
are wrought on parents is
expressed in the hyperbolic
admission that “I always
thought you were completely
indestructible”, illustrated by
the demand gaze of the father.

11. Close up of eyes and
hands reinforces the
accumulation of the
father’s skills, “build, fix
or solve” - juxtaposed
now to their ‘clutching
an armchair every day”.

12. The narrator reflects on the
‘incredible mind just staring
out of the window”
contrasted to the “same
mind that used to burst alive
with all those quick quips
and stories and dry jokes”
which “now hold the key” to
inspire the son to “tell stories
of my own”.

13. Adjectives such as
quick & incredible
with a close-up of
his father’s pinched
mouth show, the
effect of illness and
age on the once
vibrant story telling.

14. The paradox of that mind
that was “too weak “to
step outside the window
yet too strong to not at
least try” foreground that
“time and cancer have
wilted your frame.”

15. This is compared to the
once broad shoulders
that physically and
metaphorically lifted
the son up and showed
him the world with
completely new eyes.

16. This is highlighted by a
low angle shot showing
the fragile yet heroic
frame of the old man,
emphasized also by the
zoom out to a mid-shot of
the father’s now aged
shoulders.

17. The transitional nature of
life’s cycle is highlighted in
the statement that it was
“now my time to lift you
up” – emphasised by the
close up of the clock –
symbolic code for the
passing of time and its
effect on relationships.

18. The POV, while still that
of the son, shifts to
reflections on the
nature of being a father
and the statement that
“it takes a pretty special
person to be a dad”.

19. Use of alliteration and listing
accentuates the special nature of
being a dad who can “write the rules
and provide and protect”. The reply
comes in the statement that “you
always did that”.
This is contrasted with a high angle
shot that emphasizes the smallness of
the man while paradoxically
commenting on his extraordinary
stature as a ‘special dad’.

20. • A perspective is offered on generational
relationships and the way his father was
“robbed of a family.”
• Yet new relationships and fatherhood can
compensate by “giving love back”.
• Visually, we are given the father’s
perspective of his own relationships as he
sorts through old photographs.
• The narrator highlights the nature of
fatherhood as a way of giving and gaining
love – with the colloquial comment that “I
love you in buckets”.

21. The wider relationship of
husband and wife highlights
also the richness of the father’s
relationships – the close-up of
the ‘couple in an embrace
highlights, through facial
expressions and gestures, the
supportive relationship of
“battling on together” in life.

22. • Juxtaposition of the
embrace to a close up
shot of the husband and
the out of focus image of
his ‘carer’ wife is symbolic
the impact that terminal
cancer has had on their
relationship.

23. • The use of the sporting analogy
“falling into each other is just
beautiful, always managing to survive
life’s little curve balls no matter where
they come from” makes the point that
this is yet another stage of life to be
negotiated, emphasised by the overlay
of images of their faces, a couple who
have metaphorically become one over
time, eyes looking into each other’s
soul.

24. • Values of ‘curtsey, respect and ambition” have
‘filled my being’.
• Understanding of the role of parent is presented in
the use of the colloquialism ‘mate’ – highlighting
the equality and understanding now achieved by
the adult son who is ‘really, really thankful you said
‘no’ as many times as you said ‘yes’.

25. The narrator expresses his
‘awe’ of his father’s
‘creative spirit’ which is
highlighted through a
workshop scene of a man
who, despite age, is still
able to demonstrate that
creativity which
metaphorically ‘shapes’
the son into the person
he is today.

26. • The stereotype of the inability of a
father to “struggle to put into
words” his love for his son is
transformed through sculpture into
“amazing’ pieces of art that spoke
to me more than any language
could”.
This highlights the way love can be
expressed in other ways.
This is recognised by the narrator
in the repetition of “you inspired
me mate, you inspired me to see
things differently”.

27. This is further expressed
through oxymoron of “the
solemn beauty and the
tortured lines” of the
creations.
This is visually is portrayed
as an overlay of images,
the artwork and the father
– representing that the
father expresses himself
through his work.
“I heard you speak to me.”

28. • The quiet finality of the declaration that ‘if
there is nothing more in time that I get to
tell you, then these few words at least
you’ll hear. I love you mate, thank you” is
accompanied by the non-diagetic sound of
the music ‘At the battle’s end’.
• This alludes to life’s ‘battle’ with its
triumphs and tragedies yet, in this eulogy
it is one of victory which again is
reinforced by the solemn music, its tone
supporting the eulogistic monologue.