Spellbound (2002 film)
Spellbound is a 2002 film that focuses on the efforts of eight teenagers to win a spelling competition. The movie centres on how culture plays an important role in shaping language skills of the children as well as their parents and teachers. All the children that participated in the competition came from different backgrounds and school and received varying training. The determination they had as well the support they received from their parents, siblings, other relatives and teachers. Apart from the simple fact that the movie is entertaining, it has more of an academic touch whose audience are the stakeholders in the academic field. After watching the film, I realised some sociological attributes that would invite different reactions from three philosophers. The reactions of the philosophers are based on their teachings and what they believed to be of paramount influence when it comes to behaviour and performance.
Comte believed that sociological growth takes place in three stages which include theological, metaphysical and positivity. That has a direct influence on how the teenagers would perform in their spelling competition. The theological stage describes the parental influence that the children had when they were still young. This has to do with culture and the influences that the children were exposed to at an early age. Those who showed good performance in the spelling contest had parents who minded about their written and spoken language. As the children grew, they were exposed to metaphysical stages where the influence of their teachers came in handy. Here they compared their knowledge to what their teachers had. At the last stage of positivism, the teenagers get to carry own their own research and adopt what they believe is right according to their thoughts.
Karl max would take an economical view of the characters in the movie and how it influenced their performance. The belief that good performance equates to economic growth serves as a motivating factor for the parents, teachers and the teenagers. Those who performed well on the spelling context could have had their eyes fixed on the prize rather than the knowledge they had. The desire for the teenagers to win the award motivated them to study hard and even remember the spelling of the words they had forgotten. On the other hand, the teenagers who cared less about the economic gain of the competition may have delivered poor results. Their parents who promised them an extra reward if they performed well may have also motivated some of the children.
Durkheim thought on integrity and coherence can be used to explain the performance of the teenagers. Each family, school and individual student has a personal integrity that he/she needed to prove and maintain in the competition. The social standing of the teenagers representing different families and school played a role in determining how they performed. Students with a lower self-esteem may have nothing to be proud a bout and, therefore, showing least performance in the spelling context. There were, however, those students whose expectations were high depending on their social ranking. The status motivated their performance where they were obliged to produce fruits so that they do not suffer shame or embarrass their various schools and families. Even though the movie focuses more on the academic intellect of the student and their backgrounds, a philosophical analysis would look out for more factors that influenced their various performances. The reasoning of the philosophers would lead to a specific ideology to explain how each student performed.
