A Cinderella Story, or A Communist Story?

by Michael (totse)
Recently I saw "A Cinderella Story" with two associates. The movie was a romantic comedy aimed at a teenage audience. The actors used, the soundtrack and the slang used in the script reflected the film's target audience. The target hit it's aim, at least when I saw it, the vast majority of the audience being teenage girls. It was directed by Mark Rosman.

At first glance the movie was superficial and frivolous. It was about a girl, Samantha whom was trampled on by those around her and placed into stereotypical role which benefited those whom placed her in it. Her stepmother stereotyped her stupid and ugly in order to keep her working at a family business. Because of the rigid social structure of her school she was stereotyped as stupid and ugly by her peers because of the rigid social structure of her school, for example the derogatory nick name "diner girl" that her peers gave her. She fell in love the school football captain, Austin whom is also, like her trampled into a stereotypical role by those around him. Sam seduces Austin and after many trials and tribulations caused by the community around them they unite as lovers and break free of these roles in the liberating last scenes of the film. It was very loosely based around the Germanic folk tale.

After analyzing the film's plot, it was not superficial nor frivolous. The themes of the story were liberation and the power of love in overcoming the obstacles to liberation. The movie proclaimed to its audience that with love one does not have to bend to the rigid expectations placed on them for others' selfish purposes. This was shown though Sam finally telling her stepmother "I quit, I'm sick of this!" she would not work in her diner anymore and coolly blowing of her peer's opinions of her.

These themes in themselves did not make the movie stand out in my mind, it was their application and the Marxist viewpoint expressed through their application that did. Karl Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto that the workers in Europe were being exploited by businessmen. They were being exploited through the backbreaking labor thrust upon them in factories and the very little money they were being paid for this labor. We must remember he was writing in the 18th century during the industrial revolution of Europe. "The more the division of labor and the application of machinery extend, the more does competition extend among the workers, the more do their wages shrink together."- Karl Marx

Through looking at the theme of liberation and oppression in the movie we can see an incredibly Marxist application of it. Sam was oppressed by her stepmother and made to work long hard hours in her diner for room and board "Sam you are working tonight!" said Samantha's stepmother repetitively throughout the movie. She was shamelessly exploited not being paid fairly to her contribution to the diner. When looking at her through this light it is apparent that she is an allegory for the factory workers of Europe in Marx's time, under paid and over exploited.

Marx's also prophesized that the workers at the time would become so frustrated with their exploitation that they would revolt and kill their capitalist captors. They would then start a Utopian society in which everyone would be equal and work to a common good. The world would be broken into small communities where each individual would work for the greater good of his/her community. "In a higher phase of communist society... only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."- Karl Marx. Although Marx's prophecy was never fulfilled in a "Cinderella Story" it is. Towards the end of the movie we see Samantha, the metaphor for the European worker stand up to her stepmother, the metaphor for the factory owner quit her job, leaving her stepmother in a dire circumstance when all her other workers quit with her. She then coolly rejects the labels her peers thrust upon her. Austin does much the same thing in the same manner and together their life gently falls together and becomes a Utopian bliss. This movie is in effect showing the viewer it's interpretation of what would have happened if the worker's of Europe had revolted.

These Marxist undercurrents now being exposed I believe it is important to express why these views expressed in a movie like "A Cinderella Story" are incredibly dangerous. The teenage audience whom the movie is being aimed at are still (obviously) young, impressionable individuals whom are more likely to be vulnerable to insidious political theories being presented to them through a sugary romance. These theories are not proclaimed to the audience but are subtly implied throughout the film, so as to work straight into the audience's subconscious. Freudian psychoanalytical theory tells us that suggestion is much more powerful than direct proclamation, and more interesting. A teenager whom has seen this movie will have been subjected to the idea that a revolution, personal or sociological is the way to get rid of his troubles.

Impressionable young people are much more likely to take these theories to heart and act them out. This is because of their age and inability to clearly see into the future. This being the case and the audience believing revolution will get rid of their hardships, a revolution of the youth of America, and wherever else the movie has been showed could occur. It is highly possible that those whom have seen the movie could rally together and violently revolt for a change of government. Although this is very likely it is not a certainty. The revolutions could occur individually, with millions of teenagers just deciding to walk off their job and leave home, or set the family house on fire. Whatever the form of revolution, the movie is highly dangerous.

Those opposed to this theory will argue that no one is stupid enough to act out what they see on a movie screen. I believe they are, especially when the movie conveys its message through insidious, indirect means and when the target audiences are teenagers, whose minds have not been developed fully, in terms of not only experience but biological growth.

Why would someone write a movie like this? I think it is safe to say that the reds' are back out from under the bed.