When asked why they love a movie or series, most people will mention the actors, visuals, story, tension, or that it was funny and entertaining.
However, there is an important factor that empowers stories, makes movies successful, and even shapes our belief systems: Norms&Values.
As the system of values and norms operates more under the surface, it is often not the first thing that comes to mind, even though values are often literally expressed in dialogues. More importantly, however, is how the values and norms in a movie interact with the viewer’s own systems of values. This is a crucial parameter for any project assessment.
If a character in a movie does bad things, we usually don’t like him. We empathize with the good guy who restores order. We all know that things have become more complex over the years, and in good movies, the value system is often challenged.
The core value in the movie
But most of us have a clear idea of what’s right and wrong. This is what the core value in a movie is about (not to be confused with the core value of a movie). The core value is what is negotiated in the movie and is defined by a set of norms. Oversimplified, it is the story’s morale.
Horror movies are traditionally often cautionary tales: If you go alone in the woods at night, you won’t come back, or there is a conservative norm: forbidden sex leads to violent death. Today’s movies are much more sophisticated but often still centered around some simple norms and values. Some older movies proposed pretty conservative norms and rules.
In the Movie classic “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” the value and norm are obvious – you can’t get away with guilt. Stephen King wrote a lot about the underlying norms and values, and sometimes their political intentions – the 50ties Paranoia movies with their message “Watch The Skies!” came as a result of the Sputnik shock and were supposed to raise awareness about the communist threat.
Sometimes, there is an “agent of the norm” in the movie, correcting the mindset of the characters. That norm might not be what the writer/filmmaker agrees with or what the audience agrees to, but it is a way of showing a character arc, of how perhaps an inner voice deep inside us, which has a completely different attitude compared to our mindset on the surface, shows up and demands “correction”. The famous cowboy scene in David Lynch’s example is a good example for shaping values and attitudes when the idealism of the character is broken apart by the no-nonsense Cowboy:
If the intended value or morale is too obvious, the story becomes propaganda. But in most cases, where there is a political intention, it is delivered in a much more subtle, manipulative way.
In good movies, often the core value of the protagonist (and the audience) gets challenged. This creates an inner journey that could deeply impact the viewers, for example, the transformation of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, where values are shattered.
The shattering of values and beliefs in modern movies
In classic movies with their clear distinction of good vs evil, the world is often restored in the end. The belief in the superiority of goodness is confirmed. A good example is The Lord Of The Rings; however, in modern storytelling, the opposite is not only possible, but there are cases, which are at least thought-provoking, or where the whole belief system lies in bits and pieces, and ethics are shattered. This is the case with Game of Thrones, and it is an important question what kind of new values arise.
Movies portray political undercurrents in society
Movies and series can portray undercurrents and changes in society in an excellent way by showing how values and norms are deconstructed and falling apart; there is, however, an inherent danger that dangerous messages are promoted, even without intention. A movie or series can involuntarily promote even barbarism if the creators exploit the shock and awe moments of violations of our fundamental human ethics, where there is also often a hidden fascination, even if the authors just use these ontological shocks for effect or as a simple portrayal of how things break apart. No need to moralise, but there is a huge responsibility for what kind of value a movie promotes. The Walking Dead is great in describing how things fall apart, but in the later development, the question arises as to what kind of human value is still defended. We are in danger of promoting the law of the strongest or the law of the jungle. If we give in to such messaging, we lose everything.
The management of the system of values and norms is not only a question of morale, but it is also a question of long-term value and commercial success. The audience must be able to relate to the values that are at stake in the story. If we do not any longer relate, there might be still sensations of shocking moments, wenn evil is even more evil as we have assumed (Joffrey in Game Of Thrones) but in the end we lose interest, because the story teller has to drive the effects to the extreme instead of an intelligent development of the systems of values and norms in a movie and series.
How do values work to keep the audience engaged?
If we focus our attention on the system of values and norms, we would be surprised how much dialogue is centered around values, norms, and what is right and what is wrong. In the classic movie Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and his partner discuss what’s legal and not for a long time, even though they are killers.
Values and norms add to the market potential of a movie because they engage the viewer, and he starts to think about his own values, and the reaction is often an emotional one.
We can detect important norms and values in a movie, often in dialogue lines that stick, lines that we never forget, and are similar to what a parent said in childhood days about rules. A few examples are: Cinderella’s “Have courage and be kind”, “It’s not our abilities that show what we truly are… it is our choices.” — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, “With great power comes great responsibility.” — Spider-Man, “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
The values often express what a character has learned about life. It can also be the worldview of the author:
“In Robert Towne’s Chinatown (1974), the central set of values revolves around a cynical, corrupt, and nihilistic worldview where power, corporate greed, and sexual depravity (symbolized by incest) triumph over moral, social, and legal justice. The film depicts a world where honesty is a myth, and traditional, “respectable” public figures hide vile, private, and predatory behaviors.
Chinatown suggests that the very notion of an honest, trustworthy leader is a myth. In Chinatown, people in positions of power are never what they seem to be, and their true nature is always harmful to the people beneath them. ” (Sparknotes)
What values are at stake
We should not begin to lecture audiences; we should intelligently entertain them. In that regard, it is important for the successful development of movies and series to understand what the story is supposed to present in terms of what values are at stake here. This is also a key criterion for rating and improving movie projects: Is there a compelling conflict? Values and norms have always to do with conflict. Values at stake mean conflict. Will the hero live up to his moral standards, or will he get corrupted? What if two values are at odds with each other? That’s conflict, and conflict is money in the bank for storytellers.
Beginnings
What we need to have in the first place is an incident, an event, or a plot point that creates a strong emotional response by the audience. A very common story element is that somebody becomes a victim of injustice or the main character witnesses a scandal, which activates them. For example, in a movie about pollution, a character like Erin Brokovich decides to take action. It is important to have something with potential that triggers an affect, an emotional response.
From there the conflict deepens, and the main character might be even conflicted between different values. Sometimes a protagonist has the best intentions but makes a horrible decision. Perhaps because he wants to live up to his values. A person with good deeds might be vulnerable to unforeseen evil that a bad person brings upon him, because sometimes evil is beyond our imagination. This is how we keep the audience engaged.
The importance of the message at the end of the movie
In the end, the most important question is: what is the way out of the conflict? Whether we want it or not, it is here where we deliver the message of the movie. Is it worth fighting for your values, or does that no longer work in a broken society? Sometimes we can’t avoid being pessimistic; in that case, the ending of the movie might be more of a wake-up call that things must change, or everything gets worse. Or there is no hope, and the author leaves it to the audience to think what can be done. The famous line in Chinatown is: “Forget it, Jack”.
In Chinatown, the sobering message is about “The Helplessness of Common People in the Face of Evil
No matter how good a character is or how noble his or her intentions are, Polanski is careful to show how impossible it is for the common people to overcome or even escape the corruption that is so pervasive in the world of the film and the world itself. Unlike what Jake and so many other characters tell themselves, corruption isn’t confined to just one area. ” (Sparknotes)
Whatever it is, what kind of values are either questioned or reinstated in the ending, it is good for writers and filmmakers to know in the first place, before starting to write the whole script, where the story is heading.
It is furthermore good to have an antenna for the discourse about values in the real world. Often, we ask ourselves why a certain movie was so successful at the time of its release when it looks less relevant from a contemporary perspective. For commercial success and artistic relevance, it is an incredible advantage if a movie hits a nerve, if it addresses issues that are meaningful for the audience.
