After posting the previous entry (see below) I got a reply which amongst other things stated:
“I don’t think there is anything particularly insidious about the narrative, or its structure, and think it is there to be taken for what it is: Two or so hours of entertainment, escapism from the harsh reality of the world”
Sure, narratives are an extremely valuable part of any culture – I’m not disputing this. However, what shocked me about Slumdog Millionaire was the fact that I came out of the cinema with two completely antithetical and irreconcilable responses: one emotional and the other intellectual. I had enjoyed the film, I felt emotionally uplifted yet I was acutely aware of a serious ideological problem. Sure, we could simply say that this is a well-made but highly problematic and exploitative film and leave it at that. In fact a simple search on Google for the words “Slumdog Millionaire” and “exploitation” will soon convince anybody of the outrageous cynicism with which the young actors have been treated.
But, as I was trying to explain in my post, I don’t think it ends there.
Narrative film, photography, language or any other medium or process which sets itself up as a “transparent” representation of the world has to be scrutinised incredibly carefully. Narrative itself is not a natural phenomenon – it’s a construct, a product of culture and we “take it for what it is” (or rather for what it seems to be ie “Two or so hours of entertainment, escapism from the harsh reality of the world”) at our peril.
Most of the time it’s all well and good simply to immerse ourselves in the diverse pleasures of narrative. We can even become highly engaged and critically aware of the complex encounters and ideas contained in narratives, but as makers, consumers and teachers of narrative we often have to look beyond these internal processes and examine the bigger picture. This is often fairly straightforward, in fact it’s often initiated for us by the work itself. But sometimes, and this was my experience with Slumdog Millionaire, the story is so gripping and so well told that you get caught up in the flow of it. This is one of the great strengths of narrative expression but I would argue that it’s also be one of it’s most insidious qualities because it can mask all kinds of iniquities.
