Decision in cinema: On socialization in the discourse of freedom

What is it about?

All movies have decisions. The decision is a key step in mainstream movies to lead the hero to success. The article analyses many children's films and explains the popularization since the 80's of the decision in the final act. In this way, each film can participate in a discourse of freedom upheld by numerous social institutions: anything can be achieved as long as nothing hinders the individual or his/her power to make decisions and be "authentic".

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Photo by Nabil Saleh on Unsplash

Photo by Nabil Saleh on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The process of normalization and socialization is an important key to ideology. The advantatge of normalization is to reinforce the ideology unconciously. Freedom is depicted merely as an unobstructed space where the decision represents people with yoyal reliability. Despite the problems and dysfunctions pointed out by its critics, this is a normalized discourse that has infiltrated our everyday lives, appearing everywhere in slogans like ‘the freedom to be yourself’ or ‘if you want it, anything is possible’. The article shows how writers and cinema participate from this discourse even without necessarily being aware of it.