One could view Son of Rambow simply as a film about the positive expressive power
of film: young Will Proudfoot, already an artist with his biblical sketchbook,
finally discovers the medium through which he can truly exorcise his
demons. Along the way, he overcomes a
domineering mother, first through disobedience and then by winning her over to
his side when she cuts ties with a puritanical sect known as “The Brethren.” Acceptance of what was once thought to be
corruptive is arguably a theme of Son of
Rambow, but the inclusion of another character, Didier, makes the film’s
presentation of media effects more complex.
Film functions differently for Will than it does for Didier and thus
reflects a prediction made by Charters: “If it is established that children are
moved by pictures toward dislike for one social value and toward liking for
another, and if it is shown that both facts and errors are learned and
remembered, it is apparent that motion pictures have fundamental influences
which may be exerted in any direction” (6).
Son of Rambow presents two
case studies, one in which a character is effected by media, while the other is
merely affected.
First
Blood effects Will tremendously; visiting Lee Carter’s home for the first
time, he views it voyeuristically from a canoe, while Lee records bootleg
copies for his brother. This experience
is Will’s first with multimedia—he is not even allowed to watch educational
documentaries about fire or the wheel when he is at school—and it proves to be
the missing ingredient for the narrative he is constructing to reconcile the
loss of his father. After watching First Blood, Will becomes “the Son of
Rambo,” a role of empowerment. Though he
begins to wear a headband and other accouterments from time to time, his
adoption of the role is more psychological than outward. His first declaration, after all, happens in
a dream during an exchange with a villainous scarecrow:
“Who are you?” the Scarecrow asks.
“I am the Son of Rambo. What have you done with my dad?” Will becomes muscle-bound and proceeds to
rescue his father as the dream unfolds.
He publicly announces his role for the first time when filming screen
tests with Lee, who is more technician than artist. Manipulated into performing stunts, Will
falls out of a tree while being filmed, and when he gets back on his feet he
runs in circles, screaming, but in control.
Lee asks, “Wait, what are you doing?”
Will approaches the camera for an
extreme close-up, and with as much malice as he can muster he says, “I am the
Son of Rambo.”
“Hang on. You want to be the Son of Rambo?” From that moment onward, the boys’ screen
tests become less derivative of Rambo
and more like Will’s imaginings from his sketches. Rather than reenact scenes that have already
been filmed, the boys do something much more praiseworthy: they become
creators.
While film inspires Will to work out his problems through creation, it
has a different effect on Didier, who seems to be a superficial result of
media. Part Michael Jackson, part Robert
Smith, and part Patrick Swayze (albeit self-proclaimed), Didier arrives with
much fanfare at Will and Lee’s prep school with a group of other French
exchange students. His power as opinion
leader is evident as he quickly gathers an entourage that follows him through
the school grounds, adoring his every move.
He and Will cross paths eventually, at which point Didier discloses his
greatest wish: “Well, to be star of movie is my dream, my friend.”
Will obliges Didier, partly out of
necessity; Lee has been suspended and, therefore, unavailable to film for a
time. As soon as Didier enters the
picture, though, the film starts to lose its integrity. It becomes all Didier, all the time. The focus of their film shifts from the
protagonist, the Son of Rambo, to Didier, also known as Wolf. Around the school Will begins to enter the
spotlight, though not because others know his name; instead
he is “that little boy making a film with Didier.” To the chagrin of Lee, other kids become
involved in the film for the same reason as Didier: to be seen.
 |
Didier and crew, reminiscent of a shot from "Beat It" (below). |
Jealousy aside, Lee takes issue
with Didier and others’ inclusion in the film because they are ruining
something that was once more pure.
Though the film was not without its own obvious influences, Didier gives
the boys’ Son of Rambow an MTV-like
infusion, in effect mainstreaming it.
From a study group standpoint, he gives the boys’ movie the sex appeal
it was lacking and completes “the process of apparent convergence of outlooks”
(Gerbner 181). The problem with Didier,
though, is he seems to have been created by a study group, as if he were the
result of a survey, circa 1985, asking teens what they most like and dislike about
the pop stars of that era. He is “the
theoretical elaboration and empirical verification of television’s cultivation
of common perspectives” (183). He meets
the coolness criteria for teenage boys, while also being attractive enough for
girls; his supposed brooding and dangerous nature appeals to both groups. However, he is also boring and bored, as he
tells his followers. Didier functions as
a critique of the in-crowd, in all of its contradictions. As an opinion leader, he funnels current
trends to his entourage, but he emphasizes style over substance. His inability to appropriate these styles in
an original way makes him a rehash, a retread, which does not go unnoticed by
his fellow French exchange students, who are not blinded by his exoticness like
the British are (who, by the way, gradually become more like him as the story progresses). Will, on the other
hand, fashions First Blood into
something all his own. Intellectual
property reasons notwithstanding, he and Lee create Son of Rambow, different on the surface--its title--and in content than its inspiration, a
claim that Didier cannot make.
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