Respond to these rapid questions in our Captain Fantastic quiz and we will tell you which Captain Fantastic character you are. Play it now.
The television series “Captain Fantastic,” written and directed by Matt Ross of “Silicon Valley,” tells the story of a family that has hidden away from the outside world in the uninhabited regions of the Pacific Northwest. They are not connected to the grid. They go on hunts to find food. They are able to fend for themselves. It’s either “The Wilderness Family” or “Swiss Family Robinson,” both of which are film franchises from the 1970s. Breath of new air No consumerism. Absolutely no materialism. Okay, that makes sense, even if it is a little bit unrealistic. Such utopias require a strong leader, and Viggo Mortensen’s character, Father Ben, fits the bill. He instructs his five children just as if they were enlistees in the military (as well as PhD candidates). They are children, and because they are isolated from other influences, they repeat his words verbatim and they accept his perspective on the world without question. The family has become a cult. All of this is very intriguing, and it reminds me of movies like “The Mosquito Coast” or “Running on Empty,” both of which featured close-knit families with charismatic, authoritarian fathers who were doing their best to protect their children. However, “Captain Fantastic” handles the situation (as well as Ben) with such lack of criticism and warmth that there is a complete disconnect between what is actually happening onscreen and what Ross believes is happening onscreen.
At the beginning of the movie, the mother of this small family, played by Trin Miller as Leslie, has been admitted to the hospital because she suffers from bipolar disorder. This leaves the father as the “captain” of the ship. He initiates his eldest son Bodevan (George MacKay) into manhood by having him stalk and kill a deer on his own as a rite of passage into adulthood. He also puts the younger children through fight training and boot camp drills. At night, they gather around a campfire, and the children read aloud from works by authors such as Dostoevsky, Middlemarch, and Guns, Germs, and Steel. They are arguing about exploited classes and capitalism while sounding like little robots, as Bodevan informed his dad at one point in the conversation “I used to be a Trotskyist, but I no longer am. I’m a Maoist.” (This is a family in which the term “Trotsky-ist” is used as a compliment, whereas the term “Trotsky-ite” is used as an insult. The situation in the Soviet Union is eerily similar to that of 1929.) The children are concerned about the absence of their mother and want to know when she will be returning. When Ben learns that Leslie has committed suicide, he tells the children in no uncertain terms and in a straightforward manner.
Leslie’s parents hold Ben responsible for everything that has happened and forbid him to attend their daughter’s funeral. Ben, who has structured his entire life so that he is never required to answer to anyone, loads the children into their enormous school bus and heads off to crash the funeral in order to guarantee that Leslie will have the Buddhist cremation ceremony that she has always desired. It will be a very long drive. They break away occasionally; once to steal supplies from a grocery store (they’ve run similar drills before), and once for an annual family ritual known as the celebration of Noam Chomsky Day. Both of these occasions involve running drills. What will happen in the future if one of the young people comes to the conclusion that Noam Chomsky is full of it? Will that even be permitted to happen? The irony in this situation, which is a terrible irony, is that Ben is teaching his children to question the status quo and to not take any information at face value, but at the same time, he is cultivating an atmosphere in which it is impossible for anyone to question his authority.
But you shouldn’t waste any more time and start this Captain Fantastic quiz.
The family pulls over and spends the night with Harper, played by Kathryn Hahn, and Dave, played by Steve Zahn, along with their two children, and the ensuing clash of cultures is intense. The children of Ben are completely uneducated in contemporary popular culture. Ben wants to prove that his children were adequately educated even though they did not attend traditional schools, so he makes his son, who is only six years old, deliver an impromptu speech on the Bill of Rights. The objective of this speech is to embarrass the cousins who attended public schools and who know nothing about anything. It’s supposed to be cute and funny, and a “high five” moment for the family when the child starts reciting facts about the Bill of Rights, but it’s also supposed to be educational. I guess. It seemed more likely that Ben was acting in a self-righteous and bullying manner toward the people who had invited him into their home.
Captain Fantastic Quiz
In “Captain Fantastic,” some of the problems that Ben faces as a character are acknowledged, including the following: Bodevan is forced to submit his college applications behind his father’s back, and Rellian, played by Nicholas Hamilton, openly defies his father’s authority over him. At one point, Rellian makes a decision that seems like a win, but then he changes his mind and apologizes to his father for disobeying him. Ben does not respond to his apology by saying, “I’m sorry too.” He utters the words “I love you.” It is intended to be emotionally moving. It is not that. The age of Rellian in years is ten. He is not required to offer an apology for anything. In a nutshell, that sums up the problem with the show “Captain Fantastic.”
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Captain Fantastic quiz.
When Frank Langella appears in the role of Leslie’s father in “Captain Fantastic” and expresses outrage at the way Ben raises the children, he comes off as the voice of reason because “Captain Fantastic” is so easy on Ben. Despite this, the movie treats Langella as though he is the antagonist, portraying him as a self-satisfied Fat Cat who is representative of everything that Ben and his wife (and their drone-children) despise. “Look at the unethical use of space!” chirps one of Ben’s daughters as they look at the backyard that belonged to their grandfather.
About the quiz
All of the children, including Hamilton, MacKay, Charlie Shotwell, Shree Crooks, Samantha Isler, and Annalise Basso, perform exceptionally well and help to create a family that is believable. Mortensen gives Ben’s authoritarian bent shadings of softness and openness, especially when he encourages his kids to think their thoughts through. This is one of the many examples where this occurs (forcing his daughter to go deeper in her literary analysis of Lolita is a nice little scene). Mortensen is an incredibly powerful actor, and he is capable of doing more in a close-up than the majority of actors are able to do with their entire bodies. The problematic aspect of the movie is its perspective on things.
Also, you must try to play this Captain Fantastic quiz.
The notion that returning to nature as a means of achieving happiness was not first proposed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Since the time when Adam and Eve played in the garden, it has always been a part of human history. The conventional wisdom holds that if only people could “return to nature,” then perhaps all of the issues that plague our planet could be solved once and for all. However, you’re making a mistake if you think in that way. People who live in countries that are plagued by poverty are already forced to exist in a “natural” state because there is no running water, no modern agriculture, and no modern medicine. They could probably teach the hippies a thing or two about how “nature” in its purest form is not all that exciting, and how a cozy bed and a relaxing soak in the tub are not to be sniffed at in the least. However, the mentality does not change, and it cuts across ideological lines. The Amish and the Mennonites are two distinct religious groups. There are people who call themselves “survivalists,” and they hide out in isolated compounds with their weapons and various conspiracies. There are some radical offshoots of Christianity that prioritize being “in but not of” the world and support homeschooling as the primary educational option. The most extreme example of what can happen when people cut themselves off from the outside world is what happened in Jonestown, but there are other examples with equally catastrophic results. The issue is not with the society. The issue lies with man. Only if there is only one person living in a utopia can it be considered successful. As soon as there is even one more person present, you are going to run into difficulties.
Would Ben’s behavior be portrayed as endearingly eccentric if he were a “Jesus Camp” type, deeply rooted in a political brand of Christianity, and preparing his children for the apocalyptic Rapture? Would a movie portray a survivalist father who is holed up with his children and his weaponry in the same uncritical way? It’s the same mentality; different ideologies just frame it differently. Ben is not exempt from being a jerk despite the fact that he is a lefty. There should have been a great deal more skepticism in “Captain Fantastic.”
For more personality quizzes check this: The Young Messiah Quiz.
