INCEPTION ESSAY

Outline a variety of spectatorship responses to the film 'inception' and then explain three techniques that the filmmakers have used to manipulate a spectator into having that response.


One element in Inception that might affect the different responses that spectators have is Ariadne's character in the film, because she is represented as one of the most dominant characters this may evoke different responses for spectators. For example, spectators who are older may have a negotiated response to her character as they may believe that stronger females wasn't the norm in a society when they were growing up but they may accept that in today's society there is more equality and freedom for women and are gaining to dominance, because of this the older generation of spectators may still disagree the representation of her character but accept that this is what todays society is like. Also Ariadne's character might evoke a different response if the spectators are feminists, because of this they might have a dominant response when responding to this film because her character is portrayed as the stronger character in comparison to Cobb's character, they would completely agree with the way her character is presented because this reflects today's society.

Another element in Inception that might affect the different responses that spectators have is the theme of Capitalism. This is portrayed negatively in the film because the storyline is the destruction of capitalism by corporate espionage, because of this people from working class backgrounds or people who have no knowledge of what capitalism entails they may not respond in the same way that someone from a more privileged background would because those who understand capitalism or are a capitalist themselves would have an oppositional response when watching this film because they would completely disagree with what Cobb's jobs is and what the film is about. Whereas those who aren't capitalists or aren't aware of the capitalistic society may have a dominant response when watching Inception because they believe that the portrayal of capitalism in the film is bad and so may agree with Cobb's views.