The Cider House Rules Blog

The Cider House rules is an classic movie that I really enjoyed viewing. I had never seen this movie until I watched it this week. This film touches on a few very difficult issues but was placed in a time frame when it was not socially talked about. I recently completed reading chapters 12 and 15 in the text book “The Art of Watching Films”. In the text I learned how to fully analyze a film for the message it was trying to portray.

The first difficult issue that the film touches upon is abortion. During the film a doctor running an orphanage performs several abortions. During the abortion process he tries to teach his apprentice that the art of abortion is okay and it actually helps save lives. The doctor’s apprentice is absolutely against abortion. He is against abortion because he is an orphan himself, and claims that he would not be on earth if abortion was always acceptable. Later in the Film the apprentice is forced to perform an abortion himself.

The second difficult issue that the film introduces is inbreeding. The apprentice is forced to perform an abortion on harvester’s daughter who had been impregnated by her father. The girl had threatened to take care of it herself.  After the apprentice hears this he is forced to make a very tough decision. Let her injure herself, or go against his morals and perform the abortion himself.

The third issue that the film addresses is adultery. Throughout the film the apprentice ends up falling in love and having relations with a married woman. The married woman’s husband was away at war during the events.

I believe the last issue the film touches on is the plagiarizing of a doctorate degree. Before the doctor passed away he forged a doctorate degree for his apprentice. The apprentice has had no formal medical education and by the end of the film is able to perform as a gynecologists in the orphanage.

The cider house rules is a very touching movie that I would definitely recommend to anyone to view. I only wished I had the opportunity to view the film earlier.