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| Don't Look at Me! |
The prompt asks me what I have found in a scene from my film using the critical model, and I just didn't have time to re-watch the film then. Things are better now, so here goes.
Looking at The Four Feathers from a shame point of view is amazing -- and I'm not exaggerating. I can't believe how much stuff in it connects to shame theory, and a lot of it doesn't even involve dialogue. I already know that I'm going to use the moment when the men get their orders. In this scene, Harry's reaction is radically different from the others. They are all excited and eager to go, and they get pretty loud about it. While they're whooping it up, he goes absolutely blank-- no facial expression, no speaking-- he kind of closes in on himself (you can see it in the picture above). None of the other men seem to notice that something is wrong with him, but the camera is on him, so the audience is very aware that his reaction is not what it should be, but they probably can't tell what's wrong.
Well, I can. What he is doing is the withdrawal script. He is feeling shame (or one of the shame emotions, like guilt or embarrassment), and this withdrawal is the method he habitually uses to restore his pride. What's really interesting is that he is the only one who knows he's ashamed and why at this point. Since my notes on shame say that it usually involves exposure, meaning that somebody witnesses the shame in action, this is pretty unusual.
And, now that I've given some thought to it, what's causing his shame can't be that he knows he is not going to go to war. He decides that later, and it's a shame event all by itself. I think the most likely cause is that he is just realizing that he doesn't want to go, that he's afraid to go, and he is ashamed of himself. A couple more thoughts: is he also afraid that the other men can see this in him? Could be. Is he ashamed because he's bought into all the gung ho attitude that the others feel? Maybe, and if that's the case, what does that tell me? Not sure yet, but I'll work on it.
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