Brunerian Film Analysis of the movie “Big”
The film Big is about Josh, a 12 year old boy, who makes a wish to be “big” while using the fortune telling carnival machine “Zoltar Speaks”. Overnight, Josh’s prepubescent body is transformed into an adult (played by Tom Hanks). Never anticipating that his wish could come true, Josh finds himself trying to revert back to his younger form, he is quickly propelled into the unfamiliar world of being an adult which includes getting a job and experiencing first love.
The use of Bruner’s narrative feature of canonicity and breach as a framing mechanism sets the stage for Big’s storyline. Canonicity refers to a narrative being accepted as general, generic or inconsequential; if not for a breach the canonicity might not even be worth mentioning. We can all relate to canonical narrative as it is something we have experienced. This narrative feature needs this canonical detail as the background to set the stage for the breach. The breach is recognizable and occurs when the story line suddenly changes and takes a turn in a direction that goes against our canonicity and results in a new perspective which had never been though or dreamed of previously.
The canonicity in Big is established in the beginning of the film. Two boys walking home from playing baseball in an average suburban town. Josh and his parents decide to go to a traveling fair that is in town for the week. While at the fair, Josh runs into a cute girl that he has a crush on and they get in line to ride the roller coaster. They reach the front of the line, but the operator will not let Josh ride the roller coaster. He is too short! While banned from the ride, the girl gets on the ride with another boy, a taller boy. Josh walks away from the situation humiliated and frustrated, when he comes across “Zoltar”. Aiming for Zoltar’s mouth, Josh drops in a coin and makes his wish…to be “big”. Even though unplugged, when the coin entered Zoltar’s mouth, the machine lit up printed out a ticket stating: “Your wish has been granted.” After reading the ticket he goes home, positive that his wish was not truly granted.
The next morning josh wakes up. Here, the director, Penny Marshall, makes good use of focalization as the canonical story is breached. The camera focalizes on Josh’s feet dangling off the edge of the bed; the audience follows his feet, which are no longer kid sized, into the bathroom. While standing in front of the mirror, the camera pans up to his face for a close-up, at the very moment he realizes that his wish has come true; Josh is in fact “big”! He now looks about 30 years old but not a day has passed in his life. Upon realizing he was “big”, Josh is scared and the first thing he tries to do is find a way to revert back to his 12 year old body and immediately rides his bike to the sight of the traveling fair but it has already moved on! This very effective use of breach turns Josh’s world upside down and takes the audience by surprise as they project themselves into his situation, simultaneously propelling the narrative away from the norm.
This breach enhanced the film’s narrative. At some point while growing up, all of us “wished’ we were “big”! Now, thanks to this effective use of breach from the canonical storyline that everyone could relate to, we were able to experience, through Josh, a unique and intriguing perspective of some consequences that might have occurred if our “wish” to be big had been granted.
