Little Miss Sunshine Film Essay

Little Miss sunshine released in 2006, directed and produced by Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Farris represents many complicated family issues. The film establishes these in many situations by the use of film symbolic, written, audio and technical codes and convention an issue that arose was that the main character Olive’s brother is in an oath of silence. That the family have many complicated ambitions, and that Olive wants to participate in a young girls beauty pageant ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ which breaches many moral values through out the film, Throughout the film you can see the family draw closer together and begin to over come many of their issues as a family. The film Little Miss Sunshine focuses on a young girl whose life was altered by the changing nature of society whereby â€Å"Child Beauty contests† define physical attraction and personality at as young as 8 years old. The pressure of the â€Å"beauty myth† is an onset for young children to follow societal expectations whether it be through beauty contests, fashion aimed at pre-teens or young adult celebrities acting as role models. An example of low self-esteem is shown through the restaurant scene where Olive is self-conscience when ordering ice cream. This provides the audience with an understanding of the new-formed issues faced by young women in today’s society due to the expectations of the â€Å"beauty world.† Dayton and Faris use the visual techniques of costuming, whereby the children are spray tanned, lathered with makeup and expose their bodies to exaggerate the young children to physically look older. This has caused sudden dispute within modern day society as expectations for women have started to occur at much younger ages. All of the characters have an ambition that is highlighted throughout the movie, for instance Dwayne takes an oath of silence on behalf of a German philosopher Frederick Nietzche, Dayton and Faris chose not to explain what connection Dwayne had with this man but does show he is dedicated to this mans beliefs, having a poster of him, a shirt with Nietzches face on it and shows him reading a book titled after him. Dwaynes ambition is to be a test pilot for the u.s army which is cut short when they find out he is colourblind, through his sheer anger and rage he gets out of the car and breaks his vow of silence, later in the film Dwayne talks to Frank film conventions create an issue of dysfunctionality and happiness through the use of symbolic codes In the film the old yellow Volkswagen represents happiness represents happiness with an unappealing aspect which connects inextricablly with the family. The van symbolises the family very well as they