I am Sam Director: Jesse Nelson Written by: Kristine Johnson, Jesse Nelson, Brenda Wac hel The film shows the transformation of personas due to situations enforced on the subject, in this case, Sam, Lucy (Sam’s daughter), Rita (Sam’s lawyer).
Sam is in his late thirties and lives as a person with the thinking capacity of a seven-year-old. He becomes the sole parent of his child after impregnating a homeless women who leaves him alone with their new daughter. Sam enters a new world; the bright colours from the first scene suggest a familiar world he has created, then the blue and black colours in the hospital show the contrast to the different world he is about to enter; the unfamiliar. Sam is now forced to change from a child-like person to a father. This new role however changes as Lucy grows older and asks questions in which Sam cannot answer, this is a pivotal moment because Lucy discovers he is different, “you ” re not like other daddy’s.” This causes a change in position between Lucy and Sam; Lucy now adjusts herself to become a nurturing “adult-like” person, for instance when she drew a picture of herself and Sam, she is taller and he is smaller.
And Sam begins to rely on Lucy emotionally more becoming the child in the relationship. We can see the latter when Lucy attends school, avoids showing signs of intelligence because she thinks her father needs her to reflect him in order for Sam to have equilibrium, “I don’t want read it if you can’t.” Once society realizes that Lucy is containing her growth as an individual in the world they separate the two. Sam undergoes a change in persona because he has to now prove that he can be a competent parent for Lucy, at the same time he is also changing the way society views him. Hence Sam becomes more independent with the absence of Lucy.
The Homework on Youth in a changing world
As society changes, so do people. Life now moves at a rapid paste that is often set by ever-changing technology. More and more everyday youths get caught up in this fast paste world. This is not a problem we face locally, more so one that threatens us internationally. Many factors contribute to this change, such as problems and challenges, responsibilities and lifestyle and geographic location and ...
Lucy herself begins to assimilate into what’s considered a normal way of growing up; one example is when she joins the Scout Girls Club. The time apart causes them to change roles yet again. Rita who is Sam’s lawyer experiences transformation as she re-evaluates her own life during this case. At first we meet Rita as a woman with a perfect life, pretty, successful and rich. The composer shows there is a contrast between her life and Sam’s through the camera techniques when filming the two. Sam has a tendency to focus on objects and people.
Whilst Rita’s world moves too fast to concentrate on anything, she’s constantly moving. Sam notices their differences by saying “Do you know you ” re driving faster then everyone else?” Her character tries to avoid feeling and being emotional until she is pushed to reveal how fragile she really is. Rita’s transition is made apparent when the camera starts to slow down when filming her and also the colours she wears soften as the story proceeds. The change in the characters causes the responders to change their original views as well. First we see Sam as someone who deserves sympathy due to his disability but by the end of the film we have a deep respect for Sam and an understanding of him. Showing Sam’s journey is not just to illustrate the problems that people with Sam’s limitations have, but to show how common these problems are for all parents.
The hand held camera techniques gives us a view in Sam’s eyes to show that some processes in life are alike for all humans. The composer also hints this theme through the line where Rita says “moments for all parents… where the job becomes so hard that you think you ” re retarded.” Words: 503.
