Film Analysis: I Am Sam

Introduction

This paper focuses on analyzing a family unit featuring in one of the movie selected from the provided film list. In particular, the family behaviors, developmental characteristics, and health patterns and practices, among of other family characteristics featuring in the selected movie are analyzed, then compared and contrasted with the concepts, themes, and theories featuring in the class textbook. The film family analysis is backed by class noted and the ideas garnered from the class textbook and other sources, along with being validated by specific examples.

Movie Setting and Story

The selected film is I Am Sam, which is an American-based drama movie that was produced by its writer and director, Jessie Nelson, in 2001. The movie’s

Education, language, marriages and divorces, and politics are examples of diverse cultures characterizing the film’s sociocultural environment. Sociocultural practices pronounced in the film include discrimination against those with health challenges, promiscuity, and social cohesion and disintegration, among others. While societal discrimination against people with disabilities is depicted by Sam and his friends with disabilities, Rita’s husband is an example of promiscuity as a sociocultural practice owing to his philandering behavior. Regarding communication as a family process, communication breakdown is a factor attributed to familial ties disintegration in the film, something that Martin (2003) attests to. It is possible that Sam’s developmental disability made him a poor communicator based on the homeless woman’s judgment, and this perhaps was the cause of the latter’s dissatisfaction that eventually culminated in the abandonment. Decision-making is another family process revealed in the movie, where Sam expresses fatherly power by adhering to decision of retaining custody of his daughter to an extent of seeking legal assistance when authorities sought to compromise his decision. With respect to roles, family Sam plays his fatherly

It gives a clear picture of different aspects associated with family functioning, and how relationships and logistics compare to theoretical models that explain them. These notions have also been the thought of those who praise the film’s production and unimpeachable purposes. Nonetheless, some have criticized the movie on the basis of its narration predictability and inexorable