Spoilers Alert*
Have you ever watched “The Platform” movie which is a Spanish movie? For me, this movie is quite interesting and after watching that movie, so many questions popped into my mind. I wonder if this movie kind of shows our society? Because of my professor’s gratitude, I used “The Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Skills” and analyse with my own questions and my own answers. There are 6 titles in this thinking skill and I will add two questions with two answers in each title so that you could understand my perspectives.
Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy
KNOWLEDGE
- How many levels are there in the platform?
There are 333 levels and each level has 2 people. So there are 666 people in this prison.
2. What happens to the room when you keep the food?
If you keep the food, your room temperature will go extremely high or low.
COMPREHENSION
3. What is this movie about?
This movie shows our social class on different levels. In the prison of this movie, there is a food table that goes down to every stage from the 1st stage to the 333rd stage. There are 2 people at each level and obviously, the people from the upper level can get various kinds of food. However, because of their greediness, they ate a lot and didn’t care about the rest of the people below their stage. So the people below level 200 have nothing to eat. Finally, they eat human flesh by killing each other.
4. How is it related to our society?
In our society, there are different classes based on their income, religion, nationality, and social standards. Our planet gives us full natural resources to all humans but we can’t get it enough, some can get more than they want, and some are less than they imagined. In this movie, Let’s say the food table is the resource that our earth gives us. But we, humans, kind of differentiate our classes. So that became unfair and it leads to serious poverty, racism, stereotype, and discrimination. Nobody wants to think about other people because they are too busy helping themselves. When a person who talks about fairness and equity appears, they reject, neglect, and give nasty words to that person like in this movie.
APPLICATION
5. How can we solve this problem in our society related to this movie?
In this movie, Goreng and Baharat are riding with the food table together to give an equal amount of food so that the lower level can eat it. They didn’t give any food until they reached level 51. From that level, they start to share the food equally. If anyone tries to eat more than their share, they will kill. They managed to carry panna cotta ( a dessert) to level 333. There is a girl who is the daughter of Miharu at level 333. Her mother used to send the food to her daughter by riding a food table. This little girl can provide the perfect message for those on Level 0 and the administration that something needs to change.
In our society, people like Goreng have been living in this system too long and experienced injustice. So they can only fight for a better future. However, the youth can do that like a girl in this movie. She is a symbol of humanity’s resilience through unfairness and cruelty. Therefore only the young can run.
6. Can we apply this movie message in our real lives?
In my opinion, yes, we can apply. This is the main reason for this movie to apply in the real world. Youths are the future and we need to make a constant effort to improve our youth’s mindset. It’s our responsibility to guide the youths to walk on the right path because only the youth must play an important role in changing the world.
ANALYSIS
7. What is the critical analysis of “ The Platform”?
This movie shows the main messages about poverty and society. It is the story of the hole that prisoners live in each level- one level 2 person. There are 333 levels so there are 666 prisoners. Every month they rotate the level. In the first part, it gives a simple message; if the people at the top restrain themselves, then there will be enough food for everyone. But they don’t, so there are a lot of people who are starving. The whole system is run by the Administration which controls everyone on all of the platforms.
It shows the contrast between two different forms of government: Communism and Capitalism. When Goreng said to ration out our food, his first roommate said “ Are you a communist?”. And then her second roommate suggested that we need to give an equal ratio of our food to the above level, Goreng said “ You can influence what is beneath you, but not above”. It shows the reflection of real lives: they can see what is going on beneath them, but that doesn’t impact them, and so they don’t restrain themselves. Moreover, it shows the capitalist concept “ I will give you as much information as you give me”, the same meaning of you give and you get.
He and his last partner decided to preserve a panna cotta perfectly because they believe that it is the only way to appeal to the people on level 0. When he found the girl on level 333, he gave them food and he realized that the girl represents a younger generation of hope. So this movie points out that the young can make a change and that it starts with one person.
8. What truly is the value of money when people are facing death?
I think it’s nonsense when we are facing death. Money can’t do anything. In this movie, we can see that one of the men is throwing money at Goreng and that is the real image of money. We can’t rely on money. Simply, since people from the stone age, we only rely on food, clothes, and shelter.
SYNTHESIS
9. Why does youth play an important role in changing the world?
Youth is any person between the age of 15 and 30 years regardless of gender. The role of the youth is simply to renew, refresh and maintain. Youth have the role to renew, and refresh our current social status including leadership and innovations. And also it needs to maintain our cultures and all good values in society. So, I want to say that youth plays an important role in changing the world because of these reasons.
10. What skills do the youth need to develop?
Basically, they need to develop
- Planning
- Focus
- Self-control
- Awareness
- Flexibility
They also need to develop outside relationships and social responsibilities.
EVALUATION
11. Do you like this movie? Explain your answers.
Yes, I like this movie because it can show a real reflection of our lives and human nature. Furthermore, it highlighted political issues, different styles of thinking and behaviors which are quite interesting, and the importance of youth roles in the world. If you ask me to give the rating of this movie, I will give it 3 out of 4 stars. Although some scenes are quite disgusting, it is kind of related to our real world.
12. What do you think about ‘Capitalism’?
This movie shows a lot about capitalism which is an economic system in which the private owns and controls. There are many positives of capitalism: it ensures efficiency because it is self-regulated through competition. It promotes innovation, freedom, and opportunity. However, on the other hand, it is not good for the poor people and it leads to unfairness, inequality, unstable and unsustainable. Only the individual capitalists mostly benefit from capitalism. So it is a controversial issue and everyone needs to identify their own conclusion whether it is good or bad to our society.