How is a film's 'message' presented?

A film's 'message' can be presented to potential audiences in different ways, from a specific genre and storyline to the actors present within the film. The genre can present a certain message, as a sci-fi film could represent how some people disregard the possibility of 'alien' life. The film could expand on this belief, using verisimilitude throughout the setting/characters e.t.c. If the film is set on Earth, the audience could then empathise with the characters and the situation they're in - thus 'opening their eyes' to the scenario and the possibility of different species. On the other hand, a drama/comedy or true life story also allow audiences to relate/empathise - as they present natural settings and real life situations. For example, it could focus on the human condition, how we take things for granted, how we can act selfish and disregard others needs e.t.c.

Actors present within films can also represent a message, as the popularity of an actor/actress could potentially determine the success of a film they're staring in. For example, the actor Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are conveyed as this 'family unit' and well respected - they appear to be down to earth as well as considerate i.e. believing in equal marriage/rights. Subsequently the films starring them are successful in the box office, Mr & Mrs Smith grossed roughly $478,336,279 worldwide (quadrupling the $110 million budget).


Examples of films with a 'message' include;


To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in a small town Alabama who chooses to defend a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. This presents a very important and predominate social message for the time [1962], as its set in America when racism was at it's peak with the segregation of white and black people. It reveals how this racism effected social perception and the legal system, as the American 'White' population where more likely going to believe a white woman's false accusations rather than a innocent black man.




Philadelphia tells the story of gay lawyer Andrew Beckett who is unjustly fired by his firm because he has AIDS, and of Beckett's legal fight against his termination. This film represented how many people in [1993] as well as in modern society have misconceptions of homosexuality and its relation to the disease. For example, many wrongly assumed that all gay men had AIDS and it could be transferred through touch - which is probably why Beckett was unfairly dismissed from his position.