What’s Eating Gilbert Grape Essay Example

mother but she doesn’t realise that Gilbert is doing his best. Gilbert is an unusual teenager; he has way too much responsibility for his age as he had to take over the role of man of the house after his father died, which was suggested as a suicide.

Gilbert has a little brother, Arnie who is mental slow which causes him to be immature and he has an inability to understand death. Doctors estimated that he wouldn’t live past the age of 10 years old but he is now about to celebrate his 18th birthday. Arnie has a very short attention span which causes him to get into a lot of mischief. Arnie plays silly little games such as hide and seek and loves the water tower but police say that it is too dangerous for him to be climbing up there, Gilbert tries his best but Arnie continues to slip away from Gilbert and climb up the water tower.

Hallstrom uses camerawork such as low angle, long shots to show how far Arnie is up the water tower. Point of view shots and reaction shots are also used to show Gilbert’s reaction to seeing Arnie up the water tower. Once Arnie comes down Gilbert tells the police officer that this is the last time, Arnie is childlike and repeats Gilbert’s words to the officer saying that this was the last time but a few seconds later Arnie forgets what he told the officer and says, “ I want to go back up there”.

Lasse Hallstrom uses dialogue to show the challenge that Gilbert is faced with, Arnie often moans like a

child and always wants his own way. It proves to be difficult for Gilbert to always have Arnie under control. Gilbert is trapped in Endora but he dreams of being free with Becky who he starts to fall in love with. She shares her stories with him about her travelling the world and having the freedom to go where she wants. Gilbert longs for this and almost brings himself to leave Endora but he couldn’t go through with it because of all the pressure and responsibility on him.

Lasse Hallstrom uses imagery and camera work to show that Gilbert longs to be free, the film cuts to a shot of Gilbert with the sky as a background symbolising that the sky means freedom. At the end of the film Gilbert is finally free as his mother suddenly dies. Gilbert acts as if a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders, Arnie asks Gilbert what they are going to do now and Gilbert responds, “We can go anywhere if we wanna. ” This show that Gilbert now has a choice to go anywhere and be free of Endora as he once has trapped but now he is free to go out and live his life.

In the film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape directed by Lasse Hallstrom Gilbert Grape overcomes some of his adversity as he is now free to do what he wants. In this film you learn that adversity is a hard thing to live with but if you stick through it there will be something rewarding that comes out of it. Gilbert’s reward was getting his dream, being set free of

Endora. Living with an obese mother that puts a lot of pressure on you can be hard or looking after your mentally slow brother but people stay in situations that are hard because they love their family and that’s why Gilbert stayed in Endora until the burden of his mother was gone.