Family Values

One of the themes in the film “Family Values” that i felt was important, was sorrow. When they are discussing the different jobs that they have had to clean up in this line of work, the son who also worked with them, talks about how what was worse than the actual cleaning for him, was the mother of the suicide victim crying downstairs. Although the movie did portray upbeat music, the entire movie was shot in black and white. The black and white never goes away, it is constant. This shows you that the subject matter of this movie is not exactly a happy one. Also, when the film is showing the actual cleaning of a trauma scene, there is no music at all, no sound at all besides the sound of the scrubbing and other sounds created bye the cleaners. The dead silence is set to express the total seriousness and reality, that they are cleaning up the remains of a dead person, and doing that is not a happy mood, it is filled with sorrow.
Another theme in the movie was that of overcoming obstacles. There is a reference to Barbara Streisand in the movie and how these women admired the fact that even though she was kept down by disadvantages such as her looks, she used her powerful voice to overcome those obstacles and become a success. This is directly related to how even though this couple must face the low opinion that society has on homosexuals, they are able to be married and live a happy life. The cheery music played in the movie was there to show that although they had such a dark part of there lives, they could live happy as any other family would. But again, when they talk about a specific low time for them as a couple, the music is gone, and there is only silence.
Something that I would have done different would be to change the shots around a little more. There are to many different scenes saying the same thing about how it is difficult to clean brains and skull. This is reiterated to many times and I think the time could have been used more efficiently. I also would have added still shots that were a little longer than the ones in the film, to stress the drama of a situation.