Great Movie
The most impressive thing about this movie is how it manages to be both left wing and right wing propaganda.
I should say one of the most impressive things.
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MovieChat Forums > Captain Fantastic (2016) Discussion > Great Movie
Can you give me an example of Left-wing or Right-wing propaganda in this movie.
And as propaganda, what was the message it was trying to convince people of.
I thought this movie was be a great story, but instead the more I saw of it the
more confused and incoherent it got on all levels.
Was Viggo's junk left or right wing? ;-)
Left wing: Living in a commune and not part of society.
Ring wing: Public schools are bad.
Left wing: The trappings of weath should be eschewed.
Ring wing: Boot strap yourself out of life's problems.
Ling wing and Ring wing ;-)
OK, I see there is a bit of a point there, but it was not so direct because the movie happened mostly in the head of someone who was very deluded and a total loser so that by the end of it, and I am going from memory there because I saw it when it came out, but what happened that I recall was that he was imagining all the kids being with him when he left. That seemed to be the consensus of the IMDB boards when the movie came out and was being discussed.
I thought they were mocked the "Left" with the Noam Chomsky day celebration. That was symbolic nonsense and just what Sean Hannity would write in a novel if he wrote novels. The mother getting sick seemed to be also an edict that the "organic" natural way of life was a lie. The subtext seemed to be that the Viggo character was really harming his children.
They children were better off with the rich relatives. And the burning of the body was just bizarre.
Other movies that have this theme have a sort of optimistic attitude but CF definitely steered deliberately away from that. I recall a movie from my youth, "My Side Of The Mountain" where a kid goes off alone to live in the wilderness. That was a great movie to a little kid, and it had a positive message, but Captain Fantastic had an unreal and ambiguous quality to it that hedged any possible message it might have had.
There was also the point that, who were the kids socialized to interact with? Who were they supposed to marry or have a family with, they were so weird and uncouth.
I really disliked it ... and also making the Viggo character kind of creepy pervert standing there with his junk hanging out. When I look at YouTube videos of people approaching this kind of life, they are generally humble smart positive people, but what was shown in this movie was pretty much child abuse. Also this spin was given to some other movies of its kind. I cannot remember the name of the movie, but there was a man living with his daughter in a national park. They were found and removed, and basically his daughter rejoined society and he was left alone. Got it ... "Leave No Trace". Have you seen it?
To me this was a really ugly movie with no point or coherency.
Just because it shows extreme points of view doesn't mean it's "propaganda".
shareIt was enjoyable. I thought the kids were a bit too intelligent, I mean they were all incredible at everything, and they made living off the grid look easy, but I liked it.
I do agree with some others that the last part of the film may all of have been in his head; even though I liked the feel good ending. I also thought it was strange that he just gave up on his kids and didn't stay near them. Why couldn't he stay relatively close to the area that his in-laws lived? Obviously he loved his children and some were still a young age so that didn't seem right that he just left so easily. Anyway, it was good film that creates some discussions especially about our modern way of life for industrial societies.