Dominated of the Dominant Class-Field Log 4

The Dominated of the Dominant Class

Journal and Field Log #4

Pierre Bourdieu alleges "that artists and writers...are a dominated fraction of the dominant class" (145).  Thus it wouldn’t be much of a semantic stretch to say that film directors and actors are likewise the dominated of the dominant class.   So, in discussing, 10 Items or Less, I want to, at first, look at it from a Marxist perspective because I think the movie brings up numerous class issues.  

The story roughly is Morgan Freeman’s character, “Him,” doing research for a small film role he’s being offered after being “out of the game” for a while.   As part of that research he visits a working class market in Carson, California.  There he becomes intrigued by a cashier, named Scarlet, played by Paz Vega.   In a way the movie is sort of city mouse/country mouse premise.  Him is in no way prepared to be unceremoniously dumped in Carson, and comes only equipped with his Diner’s Club card.   Paz takes pity on him and they set off on a series of small adventures.

From a certain perspective, it can be argued that the director, Brad Silberling, is trying to cast the regular folks of Carson as funny, quirky, and noble.   Paz Vega’s role is certainly the most dominant one, and she is cast as someone who’s merely been dealt a bad hand and has sort of given up “at 25.”   Thus, it’s up to Him to sort of coax her on, restore her confidence as she tries to move on from a bad relationship in which she failed because she didn’t produce off spring (while her exes next girlfriend—who also works at the market—does).   She’s clearly cast as aspiring and worth more than being the only who works at a very slow supermarket.  

Morgan Freeman’s role is cast as a likeable, however bourgeois, successful actor who doesn’t even know his own phone number, carries nothing more than Diner’s Club, and is in awe of the world of retail work.   His fascination with the East Indian manager who moves at an animated snail’s pace, Scarlet’s ability to know the prices of the items before they are even unloaded from the basket, the dance of the cleaning crew at the car wash, the pitch and nuance of a mop sales woman, and the office receptionist suggest that while he wants to be sympathetic to their experience he will never have to live their experience.   His experience mimics the audience’s viewpoint as the film maker stages these shots under the full glare of Hollywood lights.   They’re staged, however fascinating, and while they “uplift” the people performing them, they also point out how different “him” is from the people in Carson. 

Yet, Him’s relationship with Scarlet seems to be the real highlight of the film.   Morgan Freeman, who is usually cast in roles where he has to display a lot of gravitas, is charming and playful.   The chemistry between him and Paz Vega seems genuinely authentic, and I bet some of the exchanges were improvised.   While I think the director was wise to cast someone with the same sort of “wattage” as Morgan Freeman, their chemistry and ease with each other made it seem a little unbelievable, which brings up the obvious flaw in the movie.   Paz Vega is expected to play this undervalued worker at a store and at the same time be able to go toe to toe with a famous actor who dances through life as if nothing concerns him.  While I don’t think the director means any disrespect to working class people, he applies the usual Hollywood gloss as if displaying them as sort of the downtrodden nobility.   There may indeed be people who through bad circumstances are not living up to their potential, but to cast the whole world of the retail worker as sort of fascinating suggests that people, real people, want nothing more than to work the check-out line at a supermarket or enjoy the actual work of washing cars or the mindless drudgery of office work.   Had the director actually talked with people who work retail/office jobs he may not have been so easily enamored with the job duties but with, perhaps, the relationships people forge with their co-workers that provides some sort of payoff for working a mindless job. 

Work Cited

Bourdieu, Pierre. In Other Words, Essays Towards A Reflexive Sociology. Stanford University  Press, 1990.