Daughters of the Dust and Monsoon Wedding V.S. Hollywood Convention

Daughters of the Dust, Monsoon Wedding, and even a classic Hollywood film like Casablanca have all had different narration styles. Casablanca displayed the traditional Hollywood style of film, while Daughters of the Dust and Monsoon Wedding displayed different types of narration styles as both of these films were independent films.

In the conventional Hollywood film narration style, a common characteristic is to focus on one person (mainly the protagonist). Daughters of the Dust challenges Hollywood convention by focusing on the entire Gullah family instead of just one person. This difference goes to show how many different characters can impact the plot and the outcome of an independent film. The conventional Hollywood film narration style often ignores many secondary characters and focuses only on those characters that clearly stand out as significant in the film. Another difference between the conventional Hollywood style of narration and the style of narration that independent films use is the person who is narrating the film. For example, Daughters of the Dust is narrated by a child who has yet to born or in other words. In a conventional Hollywood Style of narration, the narrator of a film has nothing to do with what happens in the film or the narrator is simply one of the main characters (either the protagonist or the second - most important character). A film that instantly came to mind when saying that the narrator has nothing to do with what happens in the film is the comical film Anchorman starring Will Ferrell. That film is narrated by a man who at the end of the movie hires Ron (played by Will Ferrell) and Veronica (played by Christina Applegate) as the first mixed - gendered network anchors.

In Casablanca, the main characters of the movie, Rick (the protagonist), Ilsa (Rick's love interest), and Ilsa's husband, obviously stand out. The audience can easily identify who the main characters are. In fact, the movie makes it quite obvious who the main characters are. In an independent film like Monsoon Wedding or Daughters of the Dust, it is very confusing who the main character is. In Daughters of the Dust, the focus is on the entire Gullah family. The same thing in Monsoon Wedding. The focus is on the family of the bride.

In conclusion, independent movies, such as Monsoon Wedding and Daughters of the Dust, and traditional Hollywood films such as Casablanca have very different narration styles. There are many arguments mentioned in this blog that accentuates this point.