Moonrise Kingdom Movie Analysis

Finnley Maier

Eng. 225

Film analysis paper

Moonrise Kingdom

Title: Gender boxes wrapped in 60’s tartan, khaki, and nostalgic whimsy.

“I love you but you have no idea what you are talking about!” These are words spoken by Sam Shakusky to Suzy Bishop. Sam, a 12yr old former khaki scout, played by Jared Gilman and Suzy, a 12yr old, semi-depressed girl, played by Kara Hayward are young lovers on a journey of freedom and romance in the director, Wes Anderson’s whimsical landscape of 60’s nostalgia. Suzy is a young rebellious girl that yearns to break free of her parent’s Walt Bishop, played by Bill Murray, and Margot Bishop, played by Frances McDermott, home and troubled marriage. Sam is an orphan, who leaves the Khaki Scouts to elope on a

Though Moonrise does more subtly than most movies, it still is a present factor that reinforces gender binaries. The first example of this is the cinematography choices. From the start of the film, Suzy, is always in the center of the scene, there is a combination of wide shots and close ups of her face. The shots of Suzy highlight her body and beauty not what she is doing. In contrast, when Sam is filmed, his actions are highlighted over his appearance. Male gaze is also present in the film by how the male characters in the story put women in their gaze while they spectate. When Sam and Suzy look at each other, Sam’s eyes move up and down Suzy’s features whereas she looks at him in the eyes. When Sam and Suzy first meet during the play, Suzy is the actress on stage while Sam is the spectator and watches her, then after they talk in the dressing room and she goes back on stage the camera starts at a wide angle as if they were in the audience but then zooms in to focus on her face to show that she is the object of the gaze. Male gaze is typically thought of as having sexual motives and connotations however in this case though Suzy’s value is being placed on her looks, the age of the characters is more innocent and not necessarily strictly sexual. There are parts in the film where the male gaze is shifted and Suzy’s view is shown however. Suzy takes control of the gaze when she uses her binoculars. The binoculars represent the male gaze, and therefore is why Suzy takes such pleasure in looking through them because she has control. She even tells Sam that her superpower is using the binoculars to see things differently. Suzy’s use of the binoculars can even be seen as an innocent form of voyeurism. She is able to spy on her mother and the