Bordwell and Thompson's Symptomatic Meaning

Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name Date Symptomatic Meaning Symptomatic meaning of films, as stated by Bordwell and Thompson, connects the viewers with the wider scope of society's current issues while illustrating the prevailing or the trending culture at the time the film was made. There is an emphasis on the context of the current social ideology about the film as a reflection of the broader social conditions such as political opinions, economic conditions, and religious beliefs are manifested by society as a whole (62). Added by Bordwell and Thompson most symptomatic meanings of the movies may be unconsciously added by the filmmakers since most of their ideas about the current social constructs continually preoccupy their mind (63). In the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum, its symptomatic meaning is not easily be understood since the main synopsis of the film is just about the journey the main protagonist, Dorothy, through the magical world of Oz with the help of her friends as they pushed through the different faces of adversity to find her way home. The Wizard of Oz was an allegory about the great economic depression of the United States of America. From 1929 to 1939, the worst crash of the stock market in history happened, and the event wiped out many investors in the US. As a result, the country’s industrial output had deep declines, causing a further decrease in employment. During that time, the gold standard was still in command. According to Lioudis, the great depression was the result of the country’s adherence to the gold standard where the money a country has is relative to the amount of...