The Tale: Film Analysis Essay

Introduction

The Tale is an expository film with a dominating theme of rape starring the protagonist, Jennifer Fox who is also the film's director. The film exposes the harrowing act of sexual abuse and its cross-cutting impacts on the victim. The inhuman act takes place during Jennifer's childhood when she is manipulated and molested. She finds herself struggling to recollect the whole incident during her adulthood fully. The film also describes themes closely related to sexual molestation. In particular, it represents the theme of trauma. In several occasions, Jennifer distraught in the face of repeated concerns of her mother, Ellen Burstyn. Principally, the Tale is a compelling movie theme and exposes specific social issues that are mostly ignored. It also elicits much reaction from the public, a situation that surprised the director who least expected the film to gain popularity. Therefore, this paper summarizes the movie The Tale, highlights the social problem it addresses, states the most appropriate theoretical perspective for the problem, and discusses possible solutions to the identified social problem.

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The Social Problem

The Tale majorly describes rape and child molestation in the society. The identified social issue is not a conventional case of rape where the victim readily recognizes the injustice but involves defilement of a minor. The problem is further compounded by the fact that the victim does not immediately understand it as rape but as ordinary mistreatment. The above situation also brings out manipulation as a social issue because the alleged rapist takes advantage of Jennifer's emotions. Reportedly, Jennifer was raped at a tender age by Bill, her athlete coach (Erbland, 2018). During this period, Jennifer perceived the act as something very 'beautiful' and thus continues with her relationship with Bill. However, the issue is brought to light by her mother who retrieves a piece of writing that Jennifer wrote years back. Manipulation is also seen when Mr. Bill initiates an environment of "let's tell each other secrets" with the rape victim. This is part of the broader mind-tuning process by Bill before he molests Jennifer. The fact that Jennifer only gets to recognize the issue as molestation when she is an adult reveals the inability of her mother to inform her daughter early on her rights (Debruge, 2018). The film The Tale also discusses how people in power breach the rights of others especially children and those marginalized.

Synopsis

The film begins when the main character, Jennifer asks her mother to allow her to deal with her feelings personally. The request follows the concerns that her mother has shown severally regarding abrupt changes in daughter's attitudes. This scene sets off a series of fact-finding events and framework for a complex narrative. The case of rape is first brought out when Jennifer's mother calls her in an upsetting mood about her middle school writings she has found in a box. The better part of the story comprises a series of recollections that Jennifer made regarding how her coach molested her when she was young. Jennifer is attracted to the charismatic personalities of Bill, a situation that one of the audience, Mrs. G. We sees at the beginning as sexual predators waiting for a chance to pounce (Erbland, 2018).

The Tale presents numerous conflicts that pit the main protagonist, Jennifer against other characters. First, Jennifer is in battle with her mother when she is confronted to open up and discuss the reasons for her sudden changes in her attitudes. Jennifer is later taken to task to recollect a string of events. The next instance of conflict occurs when Jennifer struggles to recall her childhood events. She is not sure whether the coach truly loves her or exploits her. At the same time, Jennifer tries to confront the frustrations she faces. As such, she turns inward to know the truth by conversing with her 13-year-old-self, Isabel Nelisse. This is evident when Jennifer is asked on several occasions: What do you remember about that summer?" "What did you think, Mom, when Bill picked me up at the door?" "Who is that in the picture?" In a massive show of a visual coup, Jennifer is brought out in a split-image. One of the images features her remembering her relationship with the coach although it has consigned it to the shadowed recess of her mind (Debruge, 2018). The other image depicts Jennifer as a teenager. Principally, The Tale is one piece of interrogation that involves Jennifer as a character and as the film's director (Erbland, 2018). The film ends when Jennifer comes into a zone of calmness with the full exposure of Bill's atrocities that she experienced but finds a relative sense of inner peace.

Theoretical Perspectives

A broad sense of deception by the main character is the likely driver of most of Jennifer's actions (Kingston et al. 2009). In most occasions, Jennifer feels uncomfortable with those around her, especially during her adulthood. This necessitates directors to frequently use flashbacks to depict Jennifer's feeling of insecurity with her environment. Inequality is also a likely source of motivation for most events in the movie. Principally, inequality heavily relies on the level of exposure of individuals in question. The first level of inequality entails the age difference between Isabel Nelisse and Bill that brings out the immaturity level of Jennifer and how it drives her thoughts and actions of her coach. The functional perspective is also essential to understanding the relationship between Isabel and Bill (Kingston et al. 2009). Isabel might have been convinced that it was part of Bill's responsibility to help her to discover her sexual viability. This is further supported by Jennifer's shock on why her mother viewed the relationship as defilement but failed to act.

Solutions to the Problem

The solution to rape and molestation can take both socialization and cultural approach. Children should be taught about rape at an early age by informing them that rape is a social vice and they should report immediately when faced with it. Intuitively, it hardly matters whether rape is consensual or forced. Secondly, a culture of celibacy in young children should be enhanced to sufficiently train infants to shun perpetrators away. In particular, more avenues should be created for reporting rape cases to parents or relevant authorities to assist prevent and control rape and other forms of sexual harassments. More importantly, parents should always be available for their children. Besides, they should be friendly to their infants as this will enable their children to trust them thereby reporting any case of rape or sexual harassment. Doing this entails parents closely monitoring their children and preventing third parties from interacting with their children.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the film The Tale is an accurate representation of the sexual molestation of a minor by trusted and influential people. It also describes the long-term effects of rape on the victim. More importantly, the film explains how sexual harassments such as rape can change the victims' views on significant aspects of their lives. Therefore, parents should always pay close attention to the needs of their children to avoid such cases.

References

Erbland, K. (2018). The tale: Sundance's most controversial sex scene is also it's most powerful. New York: Penske Business Media, LLC.

Kingston, D. A., Malamuth, N. M., Fedoroff, P., & Marshall, W. L. (2009). The importance of individual differences in pornography use: Theoretical perspectives and implications for treating sexual offenders. Journal of Sex Research, 46(2/3), 216-232.

Debruge, P. (2018). Film Review: The Tale. New York: Penske Business Media, LLC.