Attention: This film response is an optional one. If you choose to do this response, the file name should be "LastName.FirstName.OFR.The.Squid.and.the.Whale.S20" NOT "FR6"--if you have any Film Response grades that are "Falls Short," this is a chance to raise one of them. However, this Optional Response cannot replace an "Incomplete" grade. Also, please read the instructions for film responses again, very carefully, so that you can be sure to meet all requirements.
The Squid and the Whale seems determined to penetrate the core or our emotional sensitivity in order to reveal the real pain of family crisis--in this case, an ugly divorce mixed with the awkwardness and unpredictability of adolescence. When bonds break, energy is released. The opening tennis match, with the ball flying around, does help us see the hostility beginning to boil between Mom and Dad and that the two brothers are not exactly gracious toward one another.
Are the parents the squid and the whale? We should consider the possibility, but that interpretation is not satisfying enough by itself. It seems too simple. The film contains many more subtle conflicts that are too ambiguous and complex for such an easy connection: two monsters of the sea fighting with each other to the death = hostility between Joan and Bernard that leads to bitter divorce. The idea makes sense, but Joan and Bernard are also human and vulnerable, and although Joan says, "It has nothing to do with you," the two brothers are part of the battle.
Walt says that he is so frightened by the gigantic museum display as a child that he can only look at it with his hands over his face. He also says that the sculpture became less scary when his mom described it to him later. For some reason, description helps soothe the sharp fear he feels, and hearing about is "fun." And now that Joan only seems capable of the opposite (saying things in a way that he doesn't want to hear them), Walt must cope with reality more directly. Maybe he needs that confrontation in order to mature, but on some levels, he seems ill-equipped to do so (another parental failure, perhaps).
Now here is your prompt: First, as an audience of this movie, can you watch the conflicts that unfold on the screen without wanting to shield your line of sight? What makes the film difficult (or not) to view head-on, confronting the disturbing realities of a dysfunctional family? Second, does this film make us experience some frightening reality more or less directly, like Walt looking at "scary fish" in the museum, or is this film more like a description of that reality that can help us face the "monsters" of life, like when Joan used to describe the squid and the whale to Walt at home?
