MARXIST FILM THEORY:
Overview:
Marxist Film Theory comes, of course, from the Russian film industry following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 when the Marxist communists came into power. It has little connection to the political ideals of Communism, however, and is named more for the fact that its innovators were Marxists. Developed, promoted, and expressed in the 1920s mainly by Russian filmmakers, Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Dziga Vertov, Marxist film theory sees filmmaking much more closely tied to language (or textual communication) than to other artistic communications like painting or musical composition. Each shot, according to this theory, has a concrete meaning like a word, and so each shot can be put into context with other shots to "assemble" the meaning of the film (in the same way that a writer builds or "assembles" a sentence or a paragraph. The theory promotes the editing of the film as the most important aspect.
Marxist film theory greatly differs from other theories in that it is less about analysis of film and more about production. Marxist theory filmmakers attempt to create a concrete, realistic, and unbiased structure to promote ideas (especially political ideas) in a convincingly truthful way. These films use "deep focus" cinematography to avoid "forcing" audiences to look at a particular character or object; their plot-lines are not character driven (in fact, there is rarely a protagonist or antagonist), and groups of people move the narrative forward rather than individuals; and they use jump-cuts and other harsh editing techniques to clash images together in order to avoid lulling audiences into a suspension of disbelief (or a feeling that the film is real and not constructed). This theory, then, attempts to explain the relationship between the film and its audience while also describing a relationship between the filmmakers and the film. It is nearly the direct opposite of Cave Theory.
Marxist film theory greatly differs from other theories in that it is less about analysis of film and more about production. Marxist theory filmmakers attempt to create a concrete, realistic, and unbiased structure to promote ideas (especially political ideas) in a convincingly truthful way. These films use "deep focus" cinematography to avoid "forcing" audiences to look at a particular character or object; their plot-lines are not character driven (in fact, there is rarely a protagonist or antagonist), and groups of people move the narrative forward rather than individuals; and they use jump-cuts and other harsh editing techniques to clash images together in order to avoid lulling audiences into a suspension of disbelief (or a feeling that the film is real and not constructed). This theory, then, attempts to explain the relationship between the film and its audience while also describing a relationship between the filmmakers and the film. It is nearly the direct opposite of Cave Theory.
Method:
Writing a Marxist Film Theory analysis involves two things: first, identifying and describing the structural techniques the filmmaker uses to avoid biasing the film and manipulating the audience; and second, evaluating how successful the attempt at an even-handed portrayal of the events has been. Did the filmmaker allow the audience to feel they could interpret the film however they wanted? Did the filmmaker manipulate the audience with the structure? These analyses should include very specific structural examples from the film as support for assertions.