The Cider House Rules

The Cider House Rules

“The Cider House Rules” is an American Drama set at an orphanage in Maine. John Irving wrote the story and screenplay and the film was directed by Lasse Hallström. Protagonist, Tobey Maguire ‘Homer Wells ‘ grows up at this orphanage and never gets adopts, but doesn’t let his life go to waste. The doctor and unofficial father of this orphanage, Michael Caine ‘Dr. Wilbur Larch’ teaches him the tricks of the trade until he finally decides it is time to move away from the orphanage and discovery a new career, love, and numerous ethical dilemmas.

The Art of Watching Films concludes that: “the humanistic approach focus[es] attention on the statement the film makes because the best films are built around a statement that teach us something.” The film “The Cider House Rules” had numerous themes of moral, philosophical and social significance. Throughout the movie’s screenplay ‘Dr. Wilbur Larch’ and ‘Homer Wells’ are faced with the moral dilemma to complete abortions or to not complete them and risk the mother getting harmed or killed. I believe ‘Homer’ is a dynamic character because he develops from knowing what’s right and wrong about abortions to knowing what’s better for the good of people, in example: giving Erykah Baduh (Rose Rose) an abortion.

The director did a tremendous job of incorporating the humanistic approach of social significance through  ‘Dr. Wilbur Larch’s” character. This supporting actor takes a fall from grace when he becomes addicted to the same drug that he gives all of his patients as an anesthesia, Ether. This could be interpreted as a symbol that drug addiction can happen to the greater people of a society and possibly that a more accepting culture could have prevented the secretive and accidental overdose of this character.

There is a very important theme of this film that I believe passive viewers could easily miss. From the beginning of the film the audience knows the title is “The Cider House Rules”, but through half of the film the orchard isn’t even mentioned. When ‘Homer’ finds the cider house rules and begins to read them, he is interrupted by Delroy Lindo (Arthur) who exclaims that those rules were written by an outside source and don’t apply to them. The hostility of his voice makes the audience aware that racism is still alive, but I believe the meaning is deeper than that. The social significance of not following those rules serves as a symbol to create your own rules, especially when the rules are not written to your benefit. The apple-pickers were, in a sense, excluded from society, were not taught to read, and most-likely suffered from low wages. Even though not all characters had those standards of living, the symbol of creating your own rules can be applied to ‘Dr. Wilbur’ who risked losing his license by doing abortions to benefit pregnant woman from going somewhere else and being treated in less desirable conditions.

Boggs, Joseph, & Petrie, Dennis. (2012). The Art of watching films. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill College.