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Looking at the film What's eating Gilbert grape through historical,cultural and social contexts

The film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape directed by Lasse Hallstrom reflects social context through family relationships and how these relationships have rules and expectations, which influence the behaviour of the characters. The film reflects cultural context through the behaviour of the characters towards each other and how Hallstrom shows the good and bad of society throughout the film. The film reflects historical context through the setting and how a small mid-western town in America is slowly becoming outdated and is falling apart.
The social context reflected in the film begins with the Grape family. The whole family is weighed down with the responsibility of their mother with her six hundred pound frame pressing down on them keeping them clutched tightly in her desperate clasp. The narrowness of their lives begins with Gilbert and Arnie’s yearly ritual as they wait for the Air stream trailer club to pass by. While they are waiting the camera angle is directed down on ...

Posted by: Chad Boger

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