There are many film theories out there. There are also many ideas about the same theory. Film theorists have many ideas of what ideology in a film is. Jame McLaughlin bases his ideas of ideology on Freud’s theories and mythology (McLaughlin). Robin Wood uses theories of ideology, genre and auteur to explore film theory (Wood). Gary Bettinson and Richard Rushton have an apparatus theory based on Jean-Louis Baudry, Louis Althusser, and Christian Metz theories (Bettinson and Rushton). Defining ideology is more of a personal choice of the film viewer and should not be restricted to just one idea.

 In James McLaughlin’s analysis of Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock) in “All in the Family: Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt,” he associates family life to innocence and city life to corruption. He goes so far as to associate the two main characters, Uncle Charlie and Charlie, as Dracula and his female victim. This view of the story is a stretch of the imagination. Uncle Charlie is a corruptive force in Charlie’s life but she is not fully an innocent victim. At first she does not understand her situation with Uncle Charlie, but when she does realize it she chooses not to do anything. Had Hitchcock used darker scenes with stronger shadows, with Uncle Charlie slowly moving towards Charlie as if he were to pounce upon her, then the audience may see what McLaughlin sees. As to his claims of an incestuousutial relationship (metaphorically) and the “death” of the father, he has some bases, but he is rather heavy handed about it, drawing conclusions on the slightest of suggestions. His theories are based on Freud’s theories of the Electra complex are ridiculous and should not be used as a means to analyze films.

Robin Wood’s use of ideology, genre, and authorship, in his article “Genre, Ideology, Auteur,” as a means to analyze a film is more comprehensive than just using one of those theories. The comparison between the films It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra) and Shadow of a Doubt made understanding these theories easier. The two films have similar genres, and ideology, but different authorships to them. Hitchcock brings a darker and grittier side to the genre, and leaves the ending not-so-happy. Sure the “good” guys won in Shadow of a Doubt but they do not feel like winners. The last scene of the film, when Charlie and Graham are talking about marriage and small town life, Charlie appears to have lost her innocence. She is no longer the carefree girl she was at the beginning of the film. Hitchcock likes to corrupt his protagonist a bit so that they are never the same again. 

The “Apparatus Theory” (Bettinson and Rushton) does not entirely make sense. Christian Metz’s article “The Imaginary Signifier” as summarized by Bettinson and Rushton, states that “every film is a fiction film” because the “mode of presentation in the cinema, unlike that of the theatre, is itself fictional.” As in a chair in a play can be touched, while a chair in a film is just light rays projected on a screen. How does this apply to film theory? That is not made clear.

However, Jean-Louis Baudry’s “Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus” is easier to understand. Bettinson and Rushton summarize it in four points: government apparatuses vs schools, developing a sense of self, ideology makes people into subjects, and ideology can be countered by science (Marxism, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and structuralism). In short, cinema makes us subjects of the bourgeois class. It creates contentment among the lesser classes and promotes the bourgeois ideals. This was often true with earlier films, but today’s films, with many independent filmmakers making films, it is not so true.

In conclusion, there are many different film theories, even among the same ideas, like ideology. Which one is right or wrong has more to do with the person watching the film. They may believe as McLaughlin does that there is incest and metephorical deaths in the film. They believe as Wood does that you can not just study one theory or one film alone, but most take everything into context through several aspects and films. Or they follow the apparatus theories, that film creates a lazy contentment among the audience. 

Works Cited