From Crisis to Control: Analyzing the Origins of Oppression in Dystopian Cinema

• In Event: Roundtable: Media

Abstract

The recurring portrayal of dystopian governments in film raises important questions about our collective anxieties and fears surrounding power. This study examines how dystopian films frame violent state interventions as necessary through cinematic techniques. While these films often conclude with the dismantling of oppressive regimes, they also present such conditions as essential for societal control. The research focuses on how power structures justify these interventions using social controls like criminalization and punishment. Using a multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) approach informed by cinema studies, this paper analyzes The Creator (Edwards, 2023) and V for Vendetta (McTeigue, 2006). It explores their portrayal of oppressors versus oppressed, particularly through scenes that justify violent interventions. The analysis includes dialogue, visual elements, and sound to understand how they convey the necessity of violence. Findings reveal that both films use news-style footage as cultural documentation to construct identities of oppressors and oppressed. They portray minority groups as existential threats that must be eradicated for societal benefit and the state as the savior. These constructed identities are supported by language in dialogue and cinematic elements like costumes, set design, lighting, vocal delivery, body language, and omissions within the dialogue.

Author

• Katarina McGuire, University of Tennessee, Knoxville