A universal theme applies to anyone from anywhere, regardless of cultural differences.
Universal themes are used to connect ideas and people in forms of art and is a vital tool in storytelling and so is therefore prominent throughout the medium of film. It is mostly a central idea about the human condition. To begin the session, we looked at 3 seemingly different films and talked about the themes in each, and it was only once we had watched all 3 through that we were able to easily connect up the universal themes and I was surprised to see the level of similarities in the themes of the films. I think it’s a lot easier to get your head around the concept when you understand just how many ways a theme can be explored and in varying subtleties in a film. I find the concept of it really interesting as I’ve always believed that the best way to get a message across is to fictionize it, that way you come to your own conclusions instead of being told what and when to think about certain themes. I think having universal themes in your films gives it layers that bring a whole lot more meaning to the story you are trying to tell.
We then went on to look at ‘The Hero’s Journey’, which is a reflection on the traditional stages to a narrative:
- Exposition
- Inciting Incident
- Conflict
- Crisis
- Resolution
There are varying forms of this with different levels of detail but this one is the most basic and can be found in so many blockbuster films made in the past and the present. It’s also an interesting structure to keep in mind if you’re planning to write a different narrative, you can use it as a template to subvert expectation and to break the rules rather than follow them.
Another discovery we made was what themes are used the most in films and we had some discussion about why that is. The films we watched that day were very focused around acceptance, prejudice and perseverance, I find these themes in a lot of art that is produced at the moment and I think it’s probably due to current social and political environments e.g Trump & Brexit. I find perseverance is a theme that comes up a lot in blockbuster films, a lot of what I see in the cinema today has this theme somewhere in its subtext, especially in action films. Perhaps its due to how truly universal this theme is, it applies to every aspect of every person’s life and its one that is easy to grasp for all ages. The theme also fits into the ‘The Hero’s Journey’ very well and so is a tale as old as time really.
List of just some of the films that I think have the theme of perseverance in:
- Schindler’s list
- Shawshank Redemption
- The Hobbit
- Cast Away
- Braveheart
- Rocky
- Unbroken
- 12 Years a Slave
- Taken
- Star Wars (basically all of them)
PCA Isobel Wilkinson - BA Film 