Title: 10 Classic Movie Themes With Examples - 2021 - MasterClass
Headings: 10 Classic Movie Themes With Examples
10 Classic Movie Themes With Examples
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What Is a Theme in Movies?
What Is the Purpose of a Movie Theme?
What Is the Purpose of a Movie Theme?
10 Classic Movie Themes and Why They Matter
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Content: We all struggle to become independent from our parents and invariably inherit a great deal from them, both literally and metaphorically. The Godfather begins with Michael Corleone firmly committed to a life distinct from his father’s, but over the story’s long arc, Michael assumes Vito’s mantle. In Back to the Future, Marty McFly feels an unbridgeable gap between himself and his parents and scorns their ideas for his future—until he travels back in time to meet them as teenagers, and realizes he has much more in common with them than he thought. Reason vs. faith. Raiders of the Lost Ark is as thrilling and action-packed as any James Bond movie, but its thoughtful theme elevates it above most other adventure films. Indiana Jones is an academic and a skeptic, a man of reason (for all his derring-do) who rejects “superstitious hocus-pocus.” But over the course of the film, he’s forced to confront a divine force that defies explanation, embodied by the Ark. In a quite rare turn for an action hero, he seems to fail in his quest to defeat the villains and save the heroine when he can’t bring himself to destroy the holy relic. And yet in the film’s climax, Indy succeeds by closing his eyes and accepting an otherworldly power. The musical motif that John Williams dedicates to the Ark is simultaneously haunting, ancient, and grand, perfectly evoking this feeling of a God who can never quite be known or rationally explained. Justice.