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Film Identification

The analysis of Vertigo stressing identification is important because this is an often overlooked facet of film. Blakesley writes "Film is an especially powerful medium for cultivating this desire for identification, and of course, not just between film and spectator, but among characters on screen" (117). While Vertigo is an excellent example of this, identification is at play in pretty much every film, as I believe the job of a film narrative is to create identification between audience and protagonists.

Nathaniel and I have been discussing how this is especially interesting when movies ask us to identify with characters we would normally despise (Dave has also been discussing this with the switch that Hitchcock pulls in Psycho that successfully identifies the audience with Norman Bates in only a few minutes). Films can get us to identify with gangsters, theives, killers, etc a lot faster than we might like to admit. While it may seem like this is a manipulation by film, I argue that when used properly, this can have extraordinary effects. Consider Eastwood's recent admirable project (which I haven't seen) telling the battle of Iwo Jima from American and Japanese perspectives. He is deliberately trying to create identification between former enemies for the purposes of broader views and reconciliation. Many films, such as Israel's Divine Intervention and India's The Terrorist attempt similar unexpected identifications. While I'm not arguing that film is the key to world peace, I think it can create identifications and unity that other processes cannot.

Submitted by Ryan on Sat, 2007-03-31 11:48.
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The Dangers of Identification
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Submitted by David Blakesley on Mon, 2007-04-02 14:12.

You've raised good points. There's this desire to identify that's almost irresistible in film so that you can quite easily find yourself rooting for the bad guy in spite of yourself.

I think the process is related to what Aristotle had in mind with mimesis also, with the pleasure resulting from our ability to experience without experiencing, to participate vicariously/symbolically and thereby feel the effects of catharsis. (There's the promise that we can always retreat from these identifications.)

Perhaps one of the keys is to appreciate this process (like any rhetorical attempt to foster identification) so that we know when it's a bait process (and jaw-ripping food) or a food process (for our betterment).

In his novel Libra, Don DeLillo is masterful at getting us to identify with Lee Harvey Oswald (and other characters) so that rather than simply projecting ourselves too much we feel the alien-ness of the identity.

D.