Cheaper By The Dozen: A Film Analysis

For the purpose of this film critique, the barrel model and visual anthropology were used to aid in the comparisons of two movies that are decades apart. Both films were based on the novel “Cheaper by the Dozen”, but the two films are vastly different. The method I used to blend these two anthropological frames of reference was to fill out a few questions that relate with the films corresponding layer of the Barrel Model (Harris). This allowed me to analyze the films in depth, which challenged my understanding of anthropology. The main questions from each layer of the barrel model are used to further open the dialogue and grasp the true nature of what the audiences were expected to take away from the films. When looking at the superstructure …show more content…
This differs in the 2003 film where the story line plays out that one of the children runs away, and the family, which prior to this scene were fighting, form an alliance to find their brother. The final question that came to mind for superstructure was: How did each movie explain the ideology behind having twelve children? This was not explained the same way in each movie. The 1950 movie explained that the couple wanted an even dozen children. In this film, birth control is mentioned for more of a comedic reason. A representative from Planned Parenthood was directed that the mother, of the even dozen, would be a great spokes person for the missions and goals of the company; then the couple gracefully show the representative the children, who is mortified by the couple’s offspring; the scene ending with the family laughing away the woman from Planned Parenthood. The 2003 film describes wanting only eight children, so, at the tenth child, the father gets a vasectomy, however the couple did not wait the allotted time to let the vasectomy take effect, which lead