Is Film Always Escapism?

It’s a situation we all find ourselves in. You sit down in front of the TV. You ask your parents, significant other, whoever your trusty film companion is, the key words: “What do you want to watch?”. Their answer: “just something “easy”, “light” even.

There’s no going about it. Films are a great way to switch off and escape whatever difficult reality we’re in. Given that high-profile streaming services such as Disney+ have released films such as Mulan or Raya and the Last Dragon, the dark, lethargic cloud of Covid-19 has certainly whet our appetite for films that can provide some sweet relief from our dreary day-to-day life.

But let’s not forget the social commentary that lurks behind films of all genres, not just in documentaries. The allegories of war, especially WWI, in J.R. Tolkien’s now legendary franchise have been frequently analysed within the context of his experiences in the trenches. The Truman Show, a meta-film that exposes how real a superficial world can seem, also stirs an uncanny feeling in the spectator as they enjoy watching people watch a TV show at the expense of another person’s privacy and at times, dignity. The setup already brings the structure of several reality shows to mind.

Jordan Peele’s recent genre-bending films such as Us and Get Out incorporate racial tensions into their plots and symbolism, terrifying us, and yet, at the same time, it’s not quite the cut and dry experience one might still expect from watching and finishing a film and then promptly going to bed or switching to your next task. Peele has stated that the film reflects both his fears as well as real issues he has faced before in his life.

Snowpiercer, directed by Bong Joon-Ho in 2013, also touches on subjects of oppression and discrimination but within a very different setting. His film is located on a train that perpetually travels around a dystopic, ice-covered Earth. Only 1% of humanity has survived what appears to have been the end of the world. Far-fetched? On paper, perhaps. But the strict, suffocating hierarchy enforced through political rhetoric, education and violence, keeping the ‘tail’ end poor and the other sections well-off, resonates troublingly with issues of class within capitalist societies. His newest and much-lauded film Parasite closes the gap between represented reality and the world today, veering further away from the stereotypical idea of escapism and bringing us closer to a very real world of bunker basements, poverty and yes, also class division.

Ciara Dempsey of the University Observer remarks that ‘even in the moments when we are utterly immersed in a film, and feel totally alienated from our own realities, somewhere beneath this absence of mind, lies a place where deeper connections are being formed. Connections to our own emotions, to the lives of the characters we invest ourselves in, and to the deeper human consciousness on a whole.’ It is true that people still sit down to watch a film, especially fantasy or sci-fi, with the intention to be transported elsewhere or entertained. The connections they make between the fictional world and characters they see on screen and their external world are a testament to the creation and fabric of film as well as to the human mind. There is always a nugget of real there. Just as with books, the innate human tendency to make connections ensures that films are always more than just a means of escape, however impossible or bizarre the scenarios seem.