I just stumbled upon the movie The Marching Band, and loved how the characters explore themes of social class, chance, opportunity, and culture in quiet and moving ways.
The movie is the story of two brothers who never knew about one another until adulthood. Thibaut is a cultured semi-celebrity who travels the world and basks in others' respect and admiration. Jimmy works in a cafeteria in a dying mining community.
They meet and soon realize that they share the same distinctive [likely genetic] gift. For Thibaut, early recognition of that gift led to an excellent education and a very privileged career. About Jimmy, a character says "there was no one to even tell him what this meant".
I've been thinking of how I'd teach this movie and the questions I'd ask college students to consider as they watched. Among them:
- How do we understand the brothers' initial wariness of one another? Beyond the personal experience of discovering one another's existence, what do we see about them engaging with one another's social worlds? What does each have to learn about navigating the other world? Where does each err? What are the consequences for each of getting it wrong?
- What visual markers do the film makers use to designate social class? Are these visual cues stereotypes or something else?
- How does each brother understand his right to respect and admiration? How does social class shape this understanding of self?
- Each character speaks to how they have had to work hard. How does each understand "work"? How do they each understand the likely rewards for hard work?
- As Jimmy tells Thibaut about his life, we learn about many other actors/factors whose decisions shaped Jimmy's life – his family, the resources at his school, the politicians in his community, his employer. Explore some of these. When did Jimmy have agency and control over his life? When did others exercise elements of control over the opportunities that Jimmy would have? Contrast Jimmy's agency with the control that Thibaut had over his life.
- Why does the movie show us less about Thibault's trajectory to adulthood? What might this suggest about the anticipated audience or the viewpoint of the director and writers?
- Throughout the movie, each brother learns things about the other that makes clear how chance was a major factor in their lives. Recount some of these scenes. What is each brothers' reaction as they encounter these new revelations about their lives?
- In one scene, Jimmy acts on Thibaut's advice to dream big and to not give up on himself. Would Jimmy have been right to ignore this advice? Was it in his interest to follow it? Given this scene, rewrite Thibaut's advice to Jimmy.
- Stories of cross-class interaction often include stories of characters saving one another. The wealthy man saves the poor/working-class woman. The wealthy person is saved when they learn from the authenticity of a working-class character. There is an obvious story of salvation in this movie but beyond that major story line, how does this movie approach the common narrative move of cross-class salvation?
- Throughout the movie, who has access to beauty? How is this access shaped by social class? Is this fair?
- We explore several different musical genres in the film. Which are associated with social class? Which are not? How do we know? How do we imagine these social class associations came to be?
- Why is the film named after Jimmy's experiences, not Thibaut's?
Clearly, I've been thinking about this film a lot, but I'll stop there.
To understand more about brass bands in England's working-class communities, check out this news story. Note especially the reporting on where government funding for culture and the arts is invested, given Jimmy's and Thibaut's lives.
The Marching Band is on several streaming services (in French with English subtitles). If you watch, I'd love to hear what questions it evoked for you.