Analysis of power in Fresay Chocolate movie (Movie Review Sample)

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Analysis of power in Fresay Chocolate movie
This movie introduces a new idea of how politics shapes relationship among these characters. The Cuban revolution has brought political struggles to the Cubans since the Castrol regime turned out to be a dictatorial regime spying on people, and there is no privacy. When David takes his fiancé to a cheap motel, the room has many holes and this is evident that the Cuban government has surveillance everywhere. David as a young communist activist believes the Castrol revolution will fulfill all the promises it made and he will be able to keep his promise to his fiancé and take her to five star- hotel. Nonetheless, due to the economic struggle in Cuba, David loses his fiancé to an older man who has money, and has the ability to give Vivian the life she deserves. Political struggle is profound in this movie and it brings Diego and David together and they end up great friends, but with different ideologies. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the element of power and how the government uses its power to influence the lives of Cubans politically, socially, and economically.
According to Michel Foucault," power is everywhere" and power interactions are rooted in social life (Foucault, 93). This means that power begins to influence a person right from birth till his or her death because almost all social, political and economic events are influenced by power directly or indirectly. For instance, people around us exercise power on us and this shows that right from the time a person is born till when he dies, power controls daily life events. Antoni Gramsci claims that power is featured in ideology, and it operates on mutual relations of politics, culture and economy in a hegemonic dialogue realm (Daldal, 150). This means that power is influenced by norms, culture and morals within a hegemonic society. This explains why in the Cuban revolution the element of power is intertwined with political, economical and social life of the Cuban people. The Cuban revolution is directly influenced by political power of communism, which affects and the economic and political struggle of Cuban nationals as Castrol is uses his ideologies to exercise power on others. For instance, Diego is anti-communist because the Castrol government is using power to deny people many basic things, and social rights like homosexual rights, and this is making life extremely difficult to people like him. For example, in Diego’s apartment there are many paintings that belong to a friend, but the government has denied the artist the permit to display the paintings. Paintings are seen as propaganda that will ruin communism (Deaver, 1).
The aspect of power everywhere is seen when Cuban authority decline to give Diego the permit to open a paint exhibition. It is usually said that a picture speak a thousand words. Hence, these painting are seen as threat to the Cuban regime since painting s is widely acceptable in the capitalist nation. Thus, they are seen as negative forces that seek to ruin and undermine communism. This is a negative use of power because denying people the right to pursue their dreams and exhibit paintings means that people are denied an opportunity to make a living, and have a descent life. Diego believes that officers trying to thwart the exhibition are doing so because of their political differences because Diego is against Cuban revolution and communism government because these revolutions have not yielded anything positive, but only making life more difficult (Deaver, 1).
The aspect of making life even harder through political ideologies shows how power is everywhere since government ideologies are influencing how people like Diego and his artist friends live. They are denied freedom and this shows that even in the social and economic life, power is influencing how people pursue their dreams and engage in daily life. In addition, power is everywhere and the government ideologies are making life more complex and people are living in absolute poverty. For instance, David promises Vivian that he will wait and consummate their love after marriage and this will be in five star- hotel. However, his dream never comes true because Vivian marries another man and the harsh economic status in Cuba limit Cubans from enjoying such luxury hotel. The concept of power everywhere is seen in the social life of Cubans because they are unable to enjoy life because of the harsh economic ideologies that seek to create utopia in Cuba (Deaver, 1).
Gramsci perception that power has a direct relationship with ideology is noteworthy in this movie because the communist ideology largely influences power. More, Gramsci claims that power has a relationship with political forces (Daldal, 151). This is the politicization of social class, which in the case of this film, Castrol, use his political party and position as Cuban leader to influence others, and use his power to spread his interests and agendas. Castrol ideologies influences how people live and interact in economy, politics and social life because his ideologies influences daily life interactions (Horowitz and Jaime, 13).
The concept of power having a direct relationship with ideology is seen through David and Miguel who are strong supporters of the socialist ideologies. Hence, Miguel believes that Diego is dangerous because he does not share their communist ideologies with the rest of the country. Since Diego have American record album, he is seen as a threat to the socialist regime and this demonstrate how power and ideologies are directly related. These elements suggest that Diego is against communist, and that he supports American capitalism ideology to be the only revolution that will redeem Cuba from Castrol regime (Deaver, 1).
Power is dominate in this movie because the communist government uses coercion so that all people accept their ideology in creating a utopia Cuba. However, from the social, political and economic struggle, it is evident that a utopia Cuba is a dream that cannot be actualized since ideologies passed are not supporting development but rather they are coercing people and basically isolating Cubans from the rest of the world in terms of development and politically (Deaver, 1).
According to Foucault theory of power, power is not always a negative aspect because it ensures that people are discipline or risk going to jail. This is evident in the movie because though people have mixed reaction about power and politics in the Cuban revolutions, they do not engage in negative activities because they understand the consequence and power creates order. He adds that where there is power there is usually resistant (Foucault, 94) and Diego is the best form of Cuban communist revolution resistant forces.
Gramsci also states that power is centralized, and this shows that working class and government officials are controlling production and economic structures of the state with the rationale of creating a better economy or social life (Daldal, 155). People like David and Diego are cut off from production and economy since they cannot take part in the building the economy through their hard work like opening painting exhibition or person busi...