Light My Fire

Ejura, Group 1, Film review - LIGHT MY FIRE

By Eastwind-Blessmann Jewell

BFAMPP28029

Course Code NAFC102

Light my fire is a short film directed by Bobb Barito and written by him as well. The film begins with a medium shot revealing a white building with an American flag and a sky filled with fireworks on the left frame of your screen. A man bolts out of the house in a red Lacoste shirt, angry and fuming while cussing at the same time. He moves straight to his garage for his car and drives recklessly to a boys house holding a bat, but he’s confronted by the father of the boy and upon revelation, the boy put his hand on the girl child of the red shirt father. The boy’s father is wearing a blue shirt, he demands the red shirt father puts down his bat, he calls his son and gives him some severe beatings and tells him he’s not done with him yet. I do not understand the constant barking of the dog, which irritates me, but at the same time I feel the dog senses that there’s a stranger or danger looming and that’s why it was barking constantly. Because I noticed the dog stopped barking when the red shirt father puts the bat down, and right when the blue shirt father calls out his son with an angry tone the dog begins to bark again. When the boy was violently beaten the dog kept barking, when the beating stopped the dog stopped barking. I can’t tell if it’s just me overthinking it, however from my point of view there’s a symbolic meaning to the fireworks that I see. Red fireworks is fired up when the red shirt father was angry and violent, while the blue fireworks represents the blue shirt father punishing his son. This is what I deduced from the color symbolism of the short film with regards to the colors from the fireworks and I think it’s genius. The abused girl was never shown until the end when the father came home and her swollen face tells it all.

This movie left me feeling unsettled and reflecting on a lot. It tells how fathers are protective of their girl child, how fathers punish to correct. But then I’m left to ask myself if this means of correction is the right way. Because when correction isn’t well done it looks like abuse and I can say that the blue shirt father was violent to his son with the way he handled the issue, it could be it’s something the boy does often because he was asked by his father if he hit another girl again. I also noticed emotions were high, and mostly we should keep that in check because in anger you can cause another harm. Firstly it’s the way the red shirt father drove across a stop sign and nearly hit a car and secondly it’s the way the blue shirt father corrected his son. Which ever way spare the rod, spoil the child.

Also the story is engaging, and I was invested from the start, I was curious on why the man was angry in the first place and why he was cussing through out. To summarize the film, I’ll say on a faithful morning, a protective father goes after his daughter’s boyfriend to seek justice for beating his daughter. This movie speaks of toxic masculinity and the way it fuels violence and it was well portrayed. Two fathers understand the essence of correction, however I wish the girl was present to witness the correction, I feel that would’ve given her peace, but on the other hand when you’re a victim, mostly it’s hard to confront your oppressor.

The characters in the movie are naturals. The father’s anger, the fear in the boy’s eyes registers raw honest. And these actors delivered well. The father and the son paints this vivid picture of an angry man and a venerable son. And the father verses boyfriend paints an image of generational values and how we should protect the girl child or women as a whole.

The cinematography is awesome as well. The kind of shots, the natural lighting and the indoor one that hides the environment however reveals the important aspects that needs to be seen creates a certain calm but sad mood. The sound is also on point and it’s minimalistic, not too over the top. And the dialogue balances it all, like the father telling the other father if he knows what god son has done to his daughter instantly informs the viewer why the man was angry from the start of the film.

The film actually surpassed my expectations. It’s one with a message. Talks about how we should treat people. I call it purposeful emotional visual story telling. Speaks of gender abuse, fatherhood, toxic behavioral traits, moral values and justice.

To bring it home, Light my fire is a short film that reflects the society we live in and how we can make it better.