I AM SAM ANALASYS

SHAUN YORK
Senior seminar
 Movies in our popular culture can be a way to fully

understand communication theories. In this paper I will be

summarizing the movie I am Sam : using two different

communication theories. The first theory used is muted group

theory. Which will apply to the story of the movie. The second

theory is cognitive dissonance theory. It will apply to the movie

and the subjects with which it deals. Through this study, the

events in “I am Sam” will shed light upon the theories with which

it deals.

Recap of Movie

Sean Penn plays Sam, a developmentally challenged man in ”i

am sam” . One night he takes in a homeless woman. During this

night they make love and conceive a child. Sam takes on the task

of trying to be a husband to this homeless woman. He gets a job

at a local Starbucks, and helps this woman through all the

difficulties of pregnancy.

When labor begins Sam leaves work like a dutiful husband. He

stays with the woman throughout pregnancy and is there when the

baby is born. When it comes time for all of them to go home,

Sam, the proud father, collects the child and all of the items

from the hospital room. He turns to look for the mother to find

she has vanished. He rushes outside of the hospital to find her

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wandering the streets. She looks at him fearfully and claims “I

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just wanted a place to sleep for the night”, and runs off. Not

knowing what to do Sam gathers the baby and goes to his

apartment.

Sam is in charge of a baby girl. This would be very daunting

for a man who was not mentally challenged and yet Sam, with the

help of his friends at his apartment complex, manages to raise

the child with little to no serious complications. When the girl

is six years old Sam is turned into the Department of Human

Services. The Department of Human Services threatens to take the

girl away from Sam.

Sam, in a mad dash through the Yellow Pages, finds one,

Michelle Pfeiffer. He manages to convince her to take his case.

He has no money so he persuades her to take on his case pro bono,

meaning that she is taking on his case at no charge.

Through a series of courtroom battles, the viewer is not lead to

forget that Sam has a serious mental disability, in fact the

prosecutor in the case for the state brings it up at every

possible moment. Sam eventually wins back the custody of his

daughter.

The movie definitely pulls on the heartstrings of the viewer

through communication theories. The first theory is that provides

insights to the movies psychology is muted group theory. When

applied to Sam and his group of developmentally challenged

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friends. The second theory is a persuasive theory called

cognitive dissonance that is used to persuade the audience as to

which side of the argument they should be on. The theories will

be described and applied in the following paragraphs.

Muted Group Theory

Muted group theory explains why minority cultures deal with

circumstances differently than the standard male culture. The

process of the theory is that language is mostly a white male

created concept. Because language is white male centered, the

concepts to do not completely convey the experiences of women or

any minority group (Dainton, Zelley, 2413,4).

Sam and his group of “buddies" are all developmentally

challenged. This group of friends also includes one woman who has

severe Agoraphobia. They are a group that has had different

experiences and understand things much differently than the

normal white male understanding of the world. It is because of

this that the problems Sam has with the Department of human

services comes about.

Sam is a loving honest father who does all that is needed to

raise his intelligent daughter. The problems, are when the people

from the Department of Human Services find out there is a

mentally challenged man (the word used in the movie is

“retarded”) raising a young daughter. The district attorney and

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the other members of the Department of Human Services cannot

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conceive of a mentally challenged explaining the romance man

being able to raise an intelligent child. Muted group theory

helps to explain why a man’s court would dismiss this mentally

challenged individual.

To complement his experiences as a parent, is Michelle

Pfeiffer’s character of the lawyer. She has difficulties in

raising her son. There is a line from the movie where she says “I

feel like I am the one who has learned from you” (I am Sam). Her

difficulties with raising her son juxtaposes with Sam’s almost

innate ability to raise his daughter. They use several lines from

Beatles movies to exemplify the way in which Sam raises his

daughter. Muted group theory tells us that Sam is is using music

and popular culture to help relate to his daughter. The daughter,

played by Dakota Fanning, is asked at one point how her father

will be able to provide everything she needs in life. She

responds with “all you need is love”.

Thus far in the movie two minority groups have been

represented. First we have Sam and his “buddies”, then we have

women with Michelle Pfeiffer’s lawyer. The entire movie revolves

around two severely muted groups trying to make the powers that

be understand different perspectives.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

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 Cognitive dissonance theory was developed by Leon Festinger.

This theory deals with how the brain deals with incongruous

information. For example, you may really enjoy red meat than you

are confronted with an article that tells you how red meat raises

cholesterol and increases your chances to have a heart attack.

The brain tends to do one of a couple things. Most of the time

your brain will rationalize, thinking something along the lines

of “well it was just one study”. Thereby relieving any guilt at

eating red meat. Or you can change your patterns. Maybe you will

not eat red meat anymore. Cognitive dissonance theory helps to

explain why and how opposing views can be maintained (Dainton,

Zelley,). In the movie is cognitive dissonance can be applied in

several ways.

The first way cognitive dissonance can be applied, is the

majority view that mentally challenged or disabled people are

nearly incapable of caring for themselves let alone a child. The

movie proceeds to show how well the character Sam cares for his

daughter Lucy. Once they have given enough evidence that Sam is

an excellent caretaker, the rug is pulled out from the audience

and the Department of human services separates Sam from Lucy.

This action causes the viewer to go into a state of dissonance.

This happens throughout the movie.

The movie as stated above is a tearjerker and sends people

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into states of dissonance throughout the movie. One second

everything is going great for Sam and Lucy and then something

will happen that will crash the entire feeling to earth. One

scene towards the end of the movie definitely portrays this.

Having gone through several trial scenes things were getting

tough and Sam has an episode. He hides himself in a makeshift

fort, made out of couch cushions and bedsheets and stays there.

This scene drives home the point that Sam will have difficulties

with raising Lucy. However Michelle Pfeiffer’s character is able

to calm him bringing the viewer back to a state of congruence.

The movie the force is with a happy ending continuing the Beatles

motif of the movie with the song “Blackbird”.

Conclusion

This paper has accomplished three goals that were laid out

in the introduction those being: to recap the story of the movie

and to apply two communication theories, Muted Group Theory and

Cognitive Dissonance Theory. These two theories are clearly and

easily applied to this movie and its content. The application

shed light upon the theories and even the subject of the

challenges of a parent with a mental disability.

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 References

Dainton, M., & Zelley, E. (2011). Applying Comunication Theory

for Proffesional life (2nd ed.). Thound Oaks, CA: Sage.

Nelson, J. (Director). (2001). i am sam [Motion picture].

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