Film Review

Loana Keckeisen
Special Education
Autumn 2015
09.10.2014

Analysis of Sam and Suzy in Moonrise Kingdom

 Index

1 Plot Summery...........................................................................................................................1
2 Sam Shakusky..........................................................................................................................2
2.1 Character...................................................................................................................2
2.2 Contextual Factors....................................................................................................2
2.3 Emotional Development in Connection with Suzy...................................................2
3 Suzy..........................................................................................................................................3
3.1 Character...................................................................................................................3
3.2 Contextual Factors....................................................................................................4
3.3 Emotional Development in Connection with Sam....................................................4
4 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................4
5 Message of the movie and its relevance to education/special education.................................5

References
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1 Plot Summary
Due to their circumstances a twelve years old boy and a girl who fall in love with each other
runaway from their homes.

At the beginning of the movie 'Moonrise Kingdom' produced by Wes Anderson the viewer
sees Suzy's home and a first impression of the relationships between the family members.
After that you get to know about Sam's surrounding who lives in a scout camp right now. The
camp master embodies discipline and strength. All children have to wake up to eat breakfast.
In this moment they noticed that Sam is missing. He left a note in his tent which says he left
the camp and he will never come back. The scouts start a posse to find Sam. Meanwhile
captain Duffy Sharp who helps to find Sam contacts his previous foster parents. In this
conversation the viewer catches a lot of information that Sam has emotional problems and is
not longer welcome in the house of the foster parents.
Sam and Suzy, got to know each other on a theater play, meet on a meadow to escape
together to an unknown bay. On their adventure trip through the nature Sam takes care of
Suzy that she does not hurt herself. They converge and begin to trust each other. In the
meantime every scout khaki, the police as well as Suzy's parents are looking for the two
adventurers. Thereby the relationship between Suzy's parents and their attitude towards their
own daughter becomes obvious. When they are found by the scout khakis they defend
themselves and manage to flee to their secret bay. Out there Sam and Suzy enjoy their
togetherness and come closer. In the next morning the scout khakis find them again in their
tent and they have to go back. Both become separated from each other. Sam is threaten by
going into the orphanage and Suzy's mother reacts uncomprehending and prohibits any
contact to Sam. Before Sam has to leave to an orphanage the other scout khakis start to think
about his situation. Their result is that Sam is not so different from themselves and that
everyone has blemishes. They resolve to help him to flee again. Together with Suzy Sam and
the scout khakis flee to St. Jack Wood Island where Sam and Suzy get married. All children
hold together. The situation gets out f control because everyone is looking for the troop. Plus,
the long-awaited storm arrives. Sam and Suzy's last chance to escape is to jump from a
building, but Duffy Sharp save them by telling that he adopts Sam.
In the end the viewer can see Sam hanging around at Suzy's place. When his new
adoptive father picks him up Sam says to Suzy: 'See you tomorrow!'.
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2 Sam Shakusky
2.1 Character
Sam is an twelve years old orphan who has an emotional disability. He cannot deal with
feelings or react to personal issues. Although he is a clever child who knows how to survive in
the nature and to think logically. He also asks a lot of questions and is curious, sometimes it is
too much and he offends people with his curiosity. This points out his missing emotional
abilities, because he does not think that people could be offend or hurt my his questions or
statements. It is obvious that Sam is well structured and factual. You can see this for instance
in the case that he makes an inventory. He likes to have everything under control and to give
instructions, for example to Suzy when he says 'Wait here!' or 'Follow me!' (Moonrise
Kingdom, 2012). His teacher describes him as a brisk and interested boy who likes to know a
lot about the islands and their natives.

2.2 Contextual Factors

Endorsed on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (1979) Sam's Microsystem is
rather complex. In his past he lost his parents and lives with foster people who were not very
sympathetic and called him crazy because of his emotional problems. In the opinion of the
foster father Sam is complicated and insane. Due to this the foster parents decide not taking
Sam back after he will return from his summer scout camp. In addition, Sam does not have
any friends and because of his decease no one wants to talk with him. The other scout khakis
speak badly about Sam, backbite and call him a maniac. He is described as the most disliked
child in the camp. The Microsystem also includes health services which were not given in
Sam's case. No one and no institutions cares about his emotional problems, instead he is
excluded because of that. The Exosystem which influences sam shows similar problems like
the Microsystem. Sam gets no social services and even the local politics provide that he has to
go to an orphanage without any further efforts. Moreover the cultural attitudes which are part
of the Macrosystem indicate that people with cognitive and emotional weaknesses are strange.
The circumstances of the ecological systems affects that Sam as an individual does not have a
sheltered home, feels alone and is dubious about his own personality.

2.3 Emotional development in connection with Suzy

Persons can be described as an open system (Capra, 1996) and so is Sam. To maintain himself
react to changes is necessary so that he can regulate himself. Suzy is a big change for Sam and
it is a process how he develops in his behavior because of Suzy. In the beginning Sam keeps
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an emotional distance towards Suzy. He is polite, but very factual. You can notice this for
example in the way how Sam ascertains that Suzy smells like perfume. This utterance was not
meant as a compliment but as a statement. Another example is the situation with the
inventory. Suzy shows her personal stuff and tells stories about it. Sam does not react to this
stories and is just busy with writing notes about the inventory. The moment when Suzy talks
about the book Coping with the very troubled child she is very emotional (Moonrise
Kingdom, 2012). Sam does not know how to react and starts to laugh. He is not able to
respond to Suzy's feelings. Although he says sorry later and tries to show sympathy. At this
point you can see that Sam tries to understand and feels with Suzy. It is a dynamic change in
his behavior. A further instance that shows that Sam is first not interested in Suzy's hobbies is
the situation that he always falls asleep when Suzy reads stories out of her favorite books.
Later he listens to her stories very attentive. Sam develops learning abilities how to react
emotionally to Suzy's statements and her condition. Over time Sam starts to open up himself
and to talk about his family background and about the fact that no one likes him under which
he suffers.

3 Suzy Bishop
3.1 Character
Suzy is a quiet girl who observes everything with her spyglass. For her everything feels far
away which is why she tries to zoom things so it feels closer. The reason why everything feels
far away is that she does not have any friends. No one understands her. She feels alone,
misunderstood and has depressions. The deep sadness is the effect of her bad family
background. She knows that her mother cheats on the father and that her parents think she is a
troubled child.
Moreover she loves books about kingdoms and music. Her books helps her to escape
in a better fantasy world. In contrast to Sam Suzy is very sensitive and likes to talk about her
hobbies and herself. For instance she speaks about the plot of her books and the fact her
parents think she is crazy. After the bad reaction of Sam she cries. The books she has are
stolen from the library. She steels because she feels unique and has a special secret then.
Further, she has sometimes aggressions which she has not under control. Because of that she
has even more self-doubts.
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3.2 Contextual Factors

Suzy's physical environment (Kylén & Frank, 1995) seem to be very good. She lives in a very
wealthy house with a piano, a radio and lots of vinyls. Her home seems to be cultivated and
high-classed. The family lives in a countryside with just nature and the sea around it.
Unfortunately, all that glisters is not gold. Her Microsystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)
has bad impact on her. Suzy's mother smokes in the house and is always in a bad mood. She is
strict and grumbles a lot. Plus, the relationship between the mother and the father is very bad.
They do not talk with each other and the mother has an affair with an police officer. Suzy's
brothers exclude her and even her parents do not bother about her. Suzy's father seems to be
unconcerned about her. At the time when Suzy disappears the parents are not worried, just
angry. Even when they find her, the mother is just insensitive and violent. There is no personal
and emotional relationship between Suzy and her mother. Later when Suzy is in the shower
the mother talks to her, but only in an non-sympathetic way and ignores the feelings of Suzy.
Only when Suzy disappears the second time the parents start to talk about the circumstances
and admit that they behaved wrong. The situation persuade the parents to think about the
current situation and about a change. Therefore there is a positive change in Suzy's
Microsystem, so that her individual being becomes more content.

3.3 Emotional development in connection with Sam

In the beginning Suzy is quiet and feels misunderstood by everyone. She never talks about
herself, because she wants to protect herself. She tries to regulate herself in the way she thinks
is the best. It is her way to maintain herself as an open system (Capra, 1996). Her loneliness
causes depressions. Due to the contact with Sam she starts to become happy. Suzy as an open
system defer to this change that Sam is in her life now and shift in a dynamic way towards an
open and talkative girl. Now she has someone she can talk to and trust. She is not alone
anymore and is sure that she can build on Sam. In addition, at the hand of Sam Suzy becomes
strong and stands up for her wants.

4 Conclusion
Suzy and Sam have a quiet good physical environment (Kylén & Frank, 1995) which fixes
well to their hobbies. Sam likes the structured and survival way of life in the scout khaki
camp. Suzy likes books, music and creativity. But unfortunately both have a very bad social
environment (Kylén & Frank, 1995), their family background and the fact children in their
age do not like them. They are more or less in the same situation. Non of them have friends.
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They feel alone and misunderstood. Their social environment is a sociocultural risk factor
(Garbarino & Genzel, 2000) for their cognitive and emotional circumstance. The fact that
people are angry to them reinforce Suzy's depressions and Sam's emotional problems. The bad
backgrounds therefore contributes to a negative behavior. Only the two can understand each
other and care about mutually. The two constitute their social opportunities (Garbarino &
Genzel, 2000) for each other. Their relationships helps them to have a happier life and acts as
a protective factor.

5 Message of the movie and its relevance to education/special education

In my opinion the main message of the movie is if you get support you will change in a
positive way and learn how to deal with things. First Suzy and Sam did not get any support or
understanding so that there were stuck in their behavior. But when they get the special needs,
in this case the mutual understanding and the feeling someone cares, they decrease their
emotional problems and learn how to handle things better. Another important aspect is the
changing attitude of the Microsystem, the social environment. At the point the scout khakis
start to care about Sam he feels more comfortable. As far as I can see there is a conjunction
between integration and the movie. If people do not exclude you anymore, start to integrate
you and take you like you are, because you experience how it is to be treated like a regular
child and not as an outsider anymore. This shows obviously the relation between the
individual and its cognitive, emotional and biological condition as well as the physical and
social environment (Kylén & Frank, 1995). The big change in the social environment causes a
shift in the emotional condition of Suzy and Sam.
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References

Capra, F. (1996). The Web of Live: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems
[electronic resource]. New York: Anchor books.
Garbarino, J. & Ganzel, B. (2000). The Human Ecology of Early Risk [electronic resource].
In J. P. Shonkoff & S. J. Meisels (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood intervention (pp.
76-93). New York: Cambrige University Press.
Kylén G. & Frank, K. (1995). A Holistic Model of Interaction. Individual and the
Environment. Teaching materials for teacher educators. Not for publishing.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012). Movie by Wes Anderson.