Boy and the concept of polysemic bimodality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwqfR8g-Qow

Sarina Pearson's concept of polysemic bimodality explores the idea that a text, in particular comedic texts, can be a complex discourse, one which can involve multiple and simultaneous interpretations depending on who the audience is at any given time. I want to look at a film which topped the New Zealand box office in 2010, Boy and its relation to Pearson's concept. Boy was New Zealand's highest grossing film in 2010 grossing approximately $NZ 9,294,500. A film set on the east coast of New Zealand in a small Maori community of Waihau Bay about a young boy who was coming to terms with a new addition in his life, a colourful but more or less failure of a father. The film warmed the hearts of Maori and New Zealanders alike with Boys struggle to get through primary school in small town New Zealand in the 1980's. For many Maori, Boy was a satirical look at the hardships of coastal life which many Maori have suffered, hence their large migration to city centres. The innocence of Boy himself and the outrageousness of Alamein his father was a colourful combination which was impossible to turn away from. But although many Maori and possibly other minority groups in New Zealand felt a close connection to the relationship, the concept of polysemic bimodality raises issues of potential concern. For many, in particular the dominant Pakeha group, Boy confirmed stereotypes which mainstream media have relied on for a long time. Alamein, the father who is absent from his children's childhood, was violent, gang affiliated, and was a drug abuser, was more or less a stereotypical Maori father in the eyes of many New Zealanders subject to the mainstream representation of Maori males in news and media texts. The fact that the film walks on a fine line of comedy and drama is the reason the reception of it is hard to fathom. The film comes in and out of satire and seriousness, humour and furor. It is no denying the fact the many New Zealanders enjoyed the film. The question is why? Did they engage with the eighties culture, empathise with boys abandonment issues or did they enjoy it because it showed a minority group taking the mickey out of themselves which reaffirmed their preconceptions of Maori culture from previous media engagements? Boy is a beautiful film. Its reception however, may be a good laugh at the cinema for most but it also may come at an expense for the Maori identity in New Zealand in particular Maori males, which is a shame, although I would not seek to blame the creators of the film at all.