In Carl Franklin's depiction of Rudolfo Anaya's critically acclaimed novel Bless Me, Ultima, Franklin uses some techniques to convey the theme of nature. Although Franklin effectively uses a lot of techniques in the film, it is very overwhelming and distracts the audience from the story. Franklin's film follows a young boy Antonio and his journey through childhood, he is split between understanding what to believe. In contrast to the book, Franklin did not choose to focus on Antonio's choices between which family he should follow. Franklin chose to give the focus to Antonio and his connection to Ultima and nature. He effectively uses transition and scale techniques to illustrate the connection between Antonio with Ultima. For example, the first time you see Ultima and Antonio together there is a burn in and out transition between the two as they give gracious glares to each other. Franklin gives the introduction between them like they were mother and son, almost as they knew everything about each other already. Also as Antonio is guided by Ultima through childhood, many scenes have Antonio walking away with an owl looking over. The owl is representing Ultima watching over Antonio as he leaves home. Franklin lets the audience feel the guidance of Ultima over Antonio throughout the movie thoroughly. Franklin used some different techniques as he tried to also illustrates Antonio's connection to nature. Using techniques like the diegetic sound and foreground shots made the feeling of nature overwhelming in important scenes. For example, as the people of the town are ready to blow away Lupito, Antonio watches. Franklin puts him in the foreground of the scene putting the river and bushes more in focus. It intentionally pulls the attention of the viewers seeing Antonio witnessing a death to a scene of a man dieing. The audience doesn't feel the full effect of the event has on Antonio. The attention is also pulled away from Antonio witnessing a death when Narciso is killed. Franklin films this scene through a heavy rainstorm, using nature again to distract the audience. Franklin was able to effectively use techniques to convey certain themes to the audience, but a lot of the techniques were useless and distracting to the interpreted themes of the movie.
Review of Bless Me, Ultima
