Drama movie analysis-I AM SAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWA4bwsfP3U 0.10-1.20

I AM SAM revolves around the story of a mentally handicapped man as he fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter, and in the process teaches his cold hearted lawyer the value of love and family”.

Usually at the start of a scene there is an establishing shot to associate the character(s) with the location and set the scene. However at the beginning of this scene we get barley any indication of where this scene is set or any establishment. Instead we have a point of view shot (which we may not discover so early on) from the female in the scene looking through a hole in the wall at Sam. This could also be interpreted as a close up as Sam's face is tightly framed in the hole. 

The directors may not have chosen to use an establishing shot because this shot in contrast shows how Sam feels separate to the society and world he lives in. This directly links to how disability is portrayed in the film because it triggers pity from the audience. The hole itself almost represents Sam- firstly because it is missing a piece-just like the fragile Sam can break easily and his disability leads him to be missing pieces (or qualities) that ‘normal’ people have. It is also a very limited view of Sam through the hole- showing the very limited, stereotyped view people would have of people like we Sam.

In this part of the scene, as Sam begins to talk about how he feels and his disability affects him he faces away from the camera- this shows his body language expressing his feelings however it is still a fairly close up shot and when he turns back round the camera zooms in more so the close up shot expresses his expressions and feelings more. Included in the close up are just his hands and face-however Lucy's (his daughter) name remains in the background so this may connote that she is always involved in the story line and his life. The camera is not held very still in

this scene which may relate to his nervous feelings and replicate the quivering, stress and sadness he is going through. It also makes the movie look less staged and false and is original from many other movies, as well as this it reinforces the reality and truth behind ideas of disability and how people just like Sam think and feel.

This lighting shines on Sam almost highlighting him as the prominent character in this scene. The natural lighting also shows realness and reality (not just light from a bulb) and we connote sunlight with happiness and brightness. Although Sam's presence juxtaposes this idea of happiness as he is crying in the scene, we see Sam as a bright, intelligent human who is fighting for his daughter and what is right. The usage of no backing music or sound also takes away any distraction from the importance of what Sam is saying.

In this conversational scene, an over the shoulder shot has been used which is very common when two people are talking and it almost gets the audience involved in the conservation. This scene has a huge prominence in the film because it starts to reflect on the flaws of a normal, regular person that the audience can associate to and flaunts the flaws that she has which in many cases outweigh Sam's. Sam's lawyer talks of her struggles and we see her break down with close up shots framing her face that reinforce that even if you have everything- you can never be perfect- everyone's lives and personas will have flaws. We see Sam try to console his lawyer, as any normal person would do and we begin to dislodge the pity we feel for Sam and think of him just like we would think of anyone else. This subverts to the usual representation of disabled people as Sam is proved to have abilities and achieve great things, he is also directly associated and compared to a normal person who has great inabilities and problems also.

The very direct and emotionally grueling usage of language allows the dialogue in the scene to reinforce the sadness and moral point the scene is trying to get across- that everyone is the same. The only action in the scene is the crying of both characters- however this is enough to reinforce the sadness of the situation and create an effective piece of film.

To conclude:

In this clip of ‘I am Sam’, there is both a positive and negative portrayal. It is firstly negative as Sam feels distraught that he was ‘born like that’, with a disability, and feels like he is different to everyone else. This conforms to the typical representation of disabled people because in many television programmes and dramas, disabled people are portrayed as different and act as a contrast for the ‘normal’ characters.

however, the portrayal of Sam contrasts with society ideas and subverts to this usual representation because the issues he talks about are over-powered by the issues of somebody we would consider ‘normal’. Although we see Sam as fragile and weak in this clip, he is also seen to be strong, supportive and similar. All characteristics of a typical, ‘normal’ person.