Internal conflict of Citizen Heroes: American democracy vs individual freedom reflected in The 20th century fox’s The Fantastic Four by Tim Story (2005)

Oleh :
Vita Dewi Raras Asianti - C0302011 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

ABSRTACT This thesis entitled “Internal Conflict of Citizen Heroes: American Democracy VS Individual Freedom Reflected in The 20th Century Fox’s The Fantastic Four by Tim Story (2005)” is based on a research conducted within the framework of American Studies in understanding the internal conflict aspect of American Democracy VS Individual Freedom beyond the significance of citizen heroes as reflected by the movie The Fantastic Four (2005). This study emphasized on two research questions. The research is intended to explain how the conflict between the myth of American Democracy and Individual Freedom is embodied in the Fantastic Four characters of citizen heroes in The Fantastic Four movie. It is also to give a description of how the conflict is resolved by each of the Fantastic Four heroes as reflected in The Fantastic Four movie. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. The main data are the characters, the setting and the dialogue, and all aspects of cinematography of the recording of The Fantastic Four directed by Tim Story and distributed by the 20th Century Fox. This research was also supported by additional data outside the object. The supporting data were the resume and article, which could support the object of analysis. Internet was the source of the supporting data. As the study was carried out within the framework of American Studies, it employed interdisciplinary studies which brought the consequence of applying several approaches. The approaches that are used in this thesis are cultural approach, semiotic approach, and socio- psychological approach. These approaches were helpful to conduct the analysis so that the answer to the research questions could be revealed. After conducting the analysis, the conclusion of the first research question is that the internal conflict is experienced by the character that has already had the characteristics of citizen hero and the characters who experience the lost of personal identities. Ben Grimm and Susan Storm, the characters who loss their personal identities, have greater internal conflict compared to Reed Richard, the character who has the characteristics of citizen hero from the beginning. Meanwhile, the conflict cannot be found in the character of Johnny Storm who has a dominant independent domain. Based on the analysis of the second research question, it can be concluded that the resolving process of the internal conflicts is contributed by the significance of a villain, the significance of a leader, and the close- relationship characteristics among the characters. This thesis hopefully inspires further researches of citizen heroes from different perspectives to improve American Studies as a field of study.