Captain Fantastic: Issues and Ideologies. (Pt. I)

Captain Fantastic: Issues and Ideologies. (Pt. I)

The film Captain Fantastic discusses many issues and ideologies that are very well justified through the character’s beliefs. The way the children are being educated may be the main disagreement between Ben and the rest of the family. Ben, as a father of six without their mother, believes that the state education is not fit enough to make his children learn about survival and how to think by themselves. Throughout the film, the audience is generally encouraged to side with Ben, as they see the result of very intellectual and strong children from his educational methods.

The kitchen scene of Ben and his sister alongside her husband demonstrates that, in spite of his extreme methods, his children are intellectually smart and that is something that the state education would never be able to achieve. 

Ben and his sister have two different points of view about how to educate their children: she believes that kids should not be training and/or hunting, and should be in school instead, where they could make friends and be considered “normal”. It is also seen that the school education that her own sons receive is not effective, and we can see that in this scene, where the audience is encouraged to side with Ben through the camera angles, the dialogue and the performance in general. 

Ben’s sister seems desperate. She has a loud and hysterical approach towards her brother when she confronts him about his methods. She believes that he is “going to get them killed” if he keeps their training up. But her approach towards the topic does not help the audience side with her, even less with the kids appearance: both of her children are called down by Ben to ask them a simple question about the “Bill of Rights” (which comprises the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution) and neither the teenage boy nor the younger kid knows how to answer. Ben then proceeds to call down his eight year old daughter and asks her the same question. The eight year old demonstrates to know what it is and is able to dive into an opinion about it, showing that Ben’s method may be radical and unpopular, but it works. At the end of this scene it is obvious that the married couple have lost the argument, and to the audience's eyes they are the antagonists, even though we then learn that there is no such thing in this film. 

Both of the methods defended in this scene have something positive that the other lacks, meaning that none of their educational methods are perfect: Ben’s radical method is based on intellectual but lacks a social approach, while his sister’s method (the state educational system) is based on being able to socialise in school even though the kids will, most likely, learn nothing. They are two very different approaches towards education, Ben’s being very radical and his sister’s (and the whole country) not being completely functional. In spite of this being a peculiar situation, the family disagreement is something that the audience can identify with as well as the teenage boy opinion of high school: “It’s whatever”. Many people can identify with his basic response.


The scene of Ben and his son Bodevan shows spikes of the main issue that is seen later in the film between Ben and his family. How his son resents him a little for not teaching him how to be “normal” and less socially awkward. It is easy to see that Bo is an intellectual in spite of not being able to talk to girls, as he references socialism and Marxism as a way of explaining that he has nothing to talk about with the group of girls. The audience can feel the slight resentment that Bo has towards his dad for not being able to teach him anything useful for the “real” world, where other people and societies exist, and being able to speak to them is a necessity.

After Bo’s extensive explanation about his only talking topics being politics, socialism and/or economics, Ben seems to feel, as well as the audience, that his son is exaggerating. It is true that he has not had enough experience nor chance to socialise with other individuals of the society, as his family is so voluntarily marginalised, but Ben does not see it that way: he is not marginalising his family, but teaching them the essentials to survive and to think by themselves.

The audience can relate with the girls reactions to Bo’s awkwardness just like they can relate to the father and son’s relationship, in spite of it being distinctive from other families. The moment Ben tries to encourage his son to go talk to the group of girls, the audience can relate to this distinct family and the small exchange between father and son.


In this last scene of Jack and Ben, the audience starts changing their opinions about Ben as they are now seeing the full picture with the grandfather’s perspective. Until this scene, the audience were siding with Ben, as he seemed to have everything under control and knew what he was doing with the kids, but Jack does have a point. For starters, Ben had lied to Jack telling him that the kids were in school. The father of six tried to defend himself by saying that he was their teacher and that he taught them everything that a simple school would never be able to. Jack attacks again and confronts Ben about the supermarket they stole earlier in the film: “Mission free the food”. Ben tries to defend himself by using the excuse that the kids were depressed for the mother’s passing and that they needed a distraction. Jack attacks again by saying that Ben gifted the kids with weapons, and again when he brings up how Rellian fractured his hand, and again when he accuses Ben of child abuse. Throughout this scene, the audience's perspective changes drastically. Most likely the audience did not notice the fact that the kids stole from a supermarket because, from Ben’s and the kids point of view, it seemed fun instead of a felony. Ben tries to excuse it by saying that it is part of their training as well, but it is no use: it is clear that Jack has the upper hand now and that he was not as bad as it seemed in the beginning.

The director plays with the colours and the angles of the camera to magnify their disagreement and differences. Jack, an upper class citizen that shows through his house and the way he dresses the power he owns over Ben. From Jack’s angle, Ben seems small and silly dressed colourfully while trying to make a serious point about the education of his kids. The grandfather calls out the absurd point that Ben is defending instead of seeing that he is wrong and that the kids are not going to be prepared for the real world based on what he is teaching them. Jack believes, just like Ben’s sister, that he is going to get them killed at this pace.


At some point during these three scenes, the characters have shown their disagreements with Ben’s methods and have demonstrated it through different approaches. The sister with her husband for instance. They teamed up to discuss the children’s safety but still, their arguments were not good enough and Ben still made a point about his method being better than the state education system.