Ideology in Captain Fantastic

 The Bill of Rights scene focuses on the social/political idea on how to raise children and the education system. In this scene, Ben is approached by Dave and Harper as they state the idea that "kids need structure and stability" and that they need to go to a "real school". While Dave tries to calmly explain this to Ben, Ben is extremely dismissive of this idea. Harper is much more aggressive when trying to get her point across. In this scene, the debate is mainly between Ben and Harper, with Dave acting as a middle man, despite being on the side of Harper. This argument utilises shot-reverse-shot between the two opposing parties, and while Ben is made to look powerful by being calm and composed within his own close-up, Harper is made to look like the irrational one as she must share a shot hiding behind Dave, and as we can tell by her movement and tone of voice, she is very irate and impatient, which signals to the audience that she is of lesser understanding of the subject matter. Harper tells Ben that he is going to "get his children killed", to which he responds "I'm saving their lives", which Harper responds to by calling "ridiculous". This is another way of getting the audience to side with Ben in this debate, as Harper is much more aggressive and disrespectful towards Ben's views. Another reason this line will get us to side with Ben is that she doesn't give any reasoning as to why it is "ridiculous", while Ben responds with some rhetorical questions such as "Is knowing how to fix a broken bone or treat a severe bone ridiculous?" and "Knowing how to survive in the forest with nothing but a knife, that's ridiculous to you?". This continues to make the audience side with Ben, as Harper has no argument of any substance back towards Ben, however, when thinking of these ideas without the context of the scene, the idea that a child should know how to treat a severe burn or survive in the forest with nothing but a knife is in fact ridiculous, as a child shouldn't have to know these things realistically, and he has put his own children in a situation where they need to know this by himself. Ben then proceed to call Dave and Harper's children, Jackson and Justin to ask them what the Bill of Rights is. The Bill of Rights is a very mainstream part of American education that is seen as essential to American culture. Jackson gets this question wrong entirely, yet Dave still praises him by saying it's a "good guess". Then Justin, who is said to be in high school, meaning he is between the ages of 14 and 18, proceeds to give a very vague, confused answer. Justin is wearing what to be a skateboarding themed tank top, and Jackson is wearing a branded tank top, specifically Adidas which is a very common brand. Also, the names "Jackson" and "Justin" are very typical of white American suburbia. This shows that the writer/director Matt Ross could have been criticising the standard American education system through this scene. Ben then calls his youngest daughter, Zaja, to ask her the same question, despite being significantly younger than Jackson and Justin. Zaja immediately begins giving what seems like a perfect textbook definition. Ben then further humiliates Harper, Dave, Jackson and Justin by stopping her and asking her to say it in her own words, which she competently does so. After this, Harper appears defeated, as if she has no more arguments to make, despite not making any from the beginning of this debate; she gives in and tells Zaja that the fact she can define the Bill of Rights so well is "very impressive", before she quickly corrects herself by saying "all of you were very impressive", praising Justin and Jackson, even though both their answers were not impressive in the slightest, furthering the idea that the American education system may be unproductive.

A scene that draws many similarities to the one of the previous paragraph is the argument between Ben and Jack. However, when Ben argues with Harper, he holds all of the power, in this scene, the roles are reversed. From the beginning,  Jack fires an arrow at the door as Ben is leaving. This startles both Ben and the audience, and puts him in the antagonistic position from the beginning, making the audience side with Ben. However, Jack then immediately delivers the line "You told me they were in school.", followed by a silence. He has lied about his children's education, which causes us to think about Ben's actions up to this point within context, as we realise how irrational, crazed and cruel they are. One of the most striking things about this scene is the way it is framed; Ben does not get close-ups and is instead shot from behind Jack, so we see him form a distance, putting them both on equal footing. He looks much less imposing when shot this way and we see his both defensive and slightly more erratic body language, so we take him less seriously. Jack then furthers the fact we are now questioning Ben as a father by putting a specific scene from earlier back into the context of reality. He talks about how he taught his kids to steal from the supermarket earlier in the film, which, because of the use of upbeat music and bright lighting, we saw as a joyful scene. When Ben tries to explain himself by telling Jack how he made it Noam Chomsky day to help cheer up the children, Jack responds with "I don't even know who that is", while the immense knowledge of his children is undeniable, the importance of it is put into question here, as a man as rich and powerful as Jack doesn't even share the same knowledge, making it seem unnecessary, especially for children of their age. A technique that is used to show the power dynamic between these characters is that when Ben makes a point, he must ramble defensively to find the right words, when Jack can make his point in short, concise, one-line statements. Jack then asks how Ben's son, Rellian broke his hand, to which Ben responds by fabricating the truth, leaving out details and lying, when we know that it was his fault. Jack calls this "child abuse", through the use of this term, it suddenly hits the audience how severe Ben's actions are. This causes the audience to leave Ben's side, and give up on trying to sympathise with him and justify his actions. At the beginning, we see the fact that Jack is dressed in all black, and Ben is dressed in a colourful outfit as a reason to side with Ben,  however, we now see their outfits within greater context. Jack is a man who has just returned from his daughter's funeral and is looking out for his grandchildren as he fears that their father is irresponsible and incapable of taking care of them. Ben is wearing bright colours, which reminds of his attempt to crash the funeral, which is disrespectful regardless of intent. After calling the police on Ben, Jack sits down casually, to show that he has won this argument and has complete power over Ben without even trying. This hich balances out the likability of the two characters before the end of the scene, so we can continue to route for Ben and not completely despise him until the end of the film, while acknowledging the severity his actions.