Objectivity and Interpretation.

It would be a privilege to think that true objectivity exists in any art form. Certainly it can be argued that with the introduction of the photographic process artistic interpretation could be dissolved and the mechanical/chemical process would take over. But lest we forget, someone still had to set up said camera. Let’s expand to film, where we have and endless combination of still and moving images laid atop sound. Certainly, given the compound nature of film, objectivity would be flushed out with the chemicals in the developing process.

So, then, is the interpretation of what is seen suggested by the artist? This would seem the logical explanation. But if this were the case, everyone should take the same thing away. This is very rarely, if ever, the case. In one of the more interesting essays I have ever read, “I Panic the World”: Benevolent Exploitation in Tod Browning’s Freaks and Harmony Korine’s Gummo by Jay McRoy and Guy Crucianelli, the following is stated, “The artist or director may choose what we see, may even manipulate how we view it, but certainly the final interpretation is determined by us, the film’s spectators.”

It is undoubtedly true that the director is paramount in choosing what we see and don’t see. And it is usually true that how we view it is purposefully directed. But undoubtedly, as the authors state, it is up to us to decide what we take from it. Eisenstein experimented heavily with forcing an idea on the audience; unfortunately for him much of the audiences of the time didn't get it. On the other hand, the realists called for ambiguity, they wanted to give the audience as much freedom as possible. Does this mean there is less objectivity in formal films, where the vision is more controlled? Hardly. Every single spectator comes in with their own viewpoints, expectations, prejudices, and experiences which shape how they see things and why they see it a certain way.

This is not to say that things cannot be firmly suggested. Propaganda, in that case, would not exist. However, even in the case of a purposefully and forcefully suggested idea constructed through the formal elements of cinema, we have freedom. We can choose to fully interpret the content in the ways the filmmaker desired. Or we can completely ignore any attempt at persuading our senses and combine the content to fit our own ideals. Or we can combine the two anywhere along the spectrum. Like Captain Planet says, “The Power is Yours.”