critical thinking movie

critical thinking movie

The Power of Critical Thinking in Movies

1. Introduction

Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A critical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how to make use of information to solve problems and to seek relevant sources of information to inform himself.

– Understand the logical connections between ideas. – Identify, construct, and evaluate arguments. – Detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning. – Solve problems systematically. – Identify the relevance and importance of ideas. – Reflect on the justification of one’s own beliefs and values.

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following:

2. Analyzing Characters and Storylines

Theme is a broad idea, message, or moral of a film. Understanding the theme is the best way to connect the story and the characters to why the film has so profoundly affected its viewers. Theme is usually something abstract like love, disillusionment, or the price of greed. A film may make a comment or many comments about a theme using the story and the plot as a vehicle. This is where the viewer must begin to think critically and not merely take what they see at face value. It is common for two viewers to have two different interpretations of a film and both be able to present ample evidence to support their views. This is because the viewer and the critic are attempting to determine the director’s intentions in making the film. Often times it is hard to know why a director chose to do something a certain way, but it is fun and challenging to speculate. Theme is a good time to use critical questioning that tests the internal logic consistency of a movie towards its intended message.

Understanding the storyline or the plot of the film is essential to a good analysis. Often viewers will remember plot easily, but will complain that they did not understand what the point of a movie was. Plot is merely the sequence of events telling the story of the film. It involves what is happening and why it is happening. Some movies will have more than one story happening and it is a good exercise to try and tie them all together. A story is the complete set of all the events of the film, although there may be some events that are not shown, but rather implied. Understanding the story involves linking events and determining the logic behind the action of the film.

As in other disciplines, we apply critical thinking to movie analyses. Most of this involves developing a sound argument for a particular movie’s quality or failure. Often we pay attention to a movie because we are curious about the behavior of its main characters, the plot, or the issues it portrays. We may ponder the motivation of characters in an attempt to understand their actions. Sometimes our empirical question might be “Do actions of character X follow logically from what we know about him?” and we might test the plausibility of some event by showing that it is (or is not) consistent with the personality traits of an individual involved. Character motivation often leads to asking why certain events have occurred. This exercise helps in developing or picking out the central theme of a film and sets the stage for writing a critical paper. In asking why, we are attempting to identify the cause or reason that led to an event or action.

3. Evaluating the Use of Logic and Reasoning

This is supported by a study which found that American audiences are particularly uncomfortable when they are unable to decide whether there is a cause and effect relationship between two plot elements. For British audiences, cause and effect is more important when the film is complex and they need to keep track of its various plot strands. This is indicative of the conditioning effect of narrative because Britain has a rich tradition in literature with a heavy focus on cause and effect driven plots.

When evaluating films, we tend to focus on the plot elements and the narrative structure. However, there is a distinct difference between the two. The plot is simply what we see on screen (events presented in an order), while the narrative is the framework used to present the plot to us – the cause and effect logic that arranges events in a pattern designed to evoke specific audience responses. Japanese movie Rashomon is the best example of this technique, as the narrative structure differs depending on the account given by each character regarding the same murder. Western cinemas heavily depend on the use of cause and effect to drive the plot and guide the audience through the film.

4. Uncovering Hidden Messages and Themes

One of the interesting aspects of learning to be a critical thinker is uncovering messages and themes in films. This is important because while many people watch films and enjoy them, they may not be aware of what the film is trying to tell them. This happens a great deal of the time because people simply do not take the time to analyze the film and see what it could be saying about the world around them. Again, the point here is not to necessarily find ‘the right’ answer when it comes to what message the film is conveying, but rather to generate educated opinions that are based on solid evidence. One point that is stressed in the text Critical Thinking is that when searching for messages it is important to ask a series of questions that can help you find the message. An example of this is when the book describes an experience a teacher has with his students analyzing a familiar movie, The Wizard of Oz. The instructor asks his students a series of questions about the film and what it could mean, which in turn helps him find the messages that the students are receiving from the film. These messages will vary depending on the person watching the film, so it is also a good idea to ask others if the messages or themes you have found are similar to theirs.

5. Impact of Critical Thinking on Audience Perception

This skill is very necessary to increase the quality of audience perception before and after watching a movie. Increasingly, the transition from basic thinking to structured and critical thinking will increase the clarity of analysis on information and conclusions reached. The ability to analyze and critique something makes a critic able to make a parallel comparison between similar movies with different quality, and finally, a critic can give a structured recommendation and solution. Through these steps, they have worked more compared to the past where a critic just gave a rapid review without clear backup, although now it is a different matter. A good review should lead the reader to the correct and same conclusion as the content of the writing. This is the work of perception. By increasing a critic’s ability to a higher level compared to the past, it has been proven that the level of film and audience should be reached.

Originally, it was described that one skill which could be involved with watching movies is critical thinking: the ability to think, analyze, or evaluate an issue which can be affected by his/her experience or information. As another skill, critical thinking also has an impact. When it was compared with immediate skill, the result of critical thinking sometimes was not immediately caused shifted the mode, sense, or idea, but critical thinking can cause perceptive changes. Usually, in between the change, there is a positive and negative frequency line.