The Platform:

     When talking about ideology. we often think of a cultural group's perceptions about the way things are and the assumptions that come with it.  Neo Marxist critic explains ideology, to be “a false set of ideas perpetuated by the dominant political forces.” Interestingly enough, according to Sellnow in Marxist Perspective, oppressed groups often participate in their own oppression by allowing things to happen a certain way. Which brings me to the film on Netflix called: Platform. A little backstory to the film, talks about a man who finds himself in a large tower style building called “Vertical Self-Management Center. This center is something he voluntarily asked to be in, in exchange to getting a degree after 6 months. The tricky thing about the center is that every 30 days, residents are moved from each level and placed at a random level every month. They are fed on a platform that goes down to serve a level for two minutes each day. This system becomes a conflict for the residents since the top levels can eat as much as they can, leaving the leftovers for the bottom levels with little to no food.

    The movie Platform shows an abundant number of examples of how the dominant group (in this case the higher levels) often get to be in charge of the situation within the center. Oftentimes dominant cultural groups can often be defined by socioeconomic status, race or gender. In this case, it depends on what level the characters find themselves in every month. The ironic thing about this is the fact that each person in there gets to be higher or lower than the people above them within a couple of months. This causes a conflict with those who end up above you,  better than everyone else. For example, those residing in level 6 might mess with the food for those living in level 7. Interesting enough, I was able to identify oppositional readings towards the end where there was a character named Goreng and another character named Baharat wanting to change the status quo. Normally, those who are in the upper levels get to eat freely and those in the lower levels get scraps and sometimes nothing to eat. The characters named Goreng and Baharat attempt riding the platform to evenly distribute the food by rationing food to all the 250 levels. This becomes oppositional because of how they challenge the dominant ideology that everyone accepted in the center. Which was: those who were randomly placed on top for the month may eat freely and those who were in the bottom would suffer.In my opinion, Goreng & Baharat's actions resulted in a Marxis Critic view perfectly, resulting with an up-rise from the oppressed.

My question to my fellow Classmates:

1)      Would you challenge the status quo if you were in this situation? What might you do differently if you had a Marxist Perspective?