Essay, Research Paper: Meet Me In St. Louis!

Jim Stone
Art of the Film
November 29, 1997
Fall 1997
Paper Assignment 2

Meet Me In St. Louis!

What exactly makes up a great movie? Is it the dramatic storyline or the heart-pounding pace? Is it the collaboration of talented actors or the smooth cinematography and sharp camera angles? In rare occasions all of these element above are found as well as an often overlooked component: form and meaning. The emotions and feelings of the characters and what drives them to their goals can be more prevailing than any other factor of the film. Meet Me In St. Louis brings to screen a wonderful sense of referential, explicit, implicit, and symptomatic meaning and form in a very effectual method.
At first look the referential meaning behind Meet Me In St. Louis is very easily spotted.
During the days before the famous World Fair and 100th Anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase a happy family is threatened by the father's new job and having to move away. After everyone accepts the change the father decided to put his family before his job and keeps the family home.
The referential meaning is an very basic, TV Guide way of describing the plot summary of the film. The viewer simply associates what he knows of this time period in order to understand the feelings and actions of the characters and what they are going through. The time that this story takes place is centered around the buzz that was in the air over the World Fair of 1904 along with the anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Everyone was excited and patriotic for the home and the family. People can further relate to the characters of the film not necessarily through similar emotions as in explicit and implicit meanings but through a separate relation can be established by referring to the time and events of the day.


The explicit meaning of the motion picture also remains reasonably concrete while pinpointing more of the moral of the story. St. Louis displays this as well:
A father looks to seek advancement through his job but in the end decides that his family's happiness is more important.
In the explicit meaning of Meet Me In St. Louis goes deeper into the story than the referential meaning does. Here the true feelings are further expressed and examined. One could read the plot summary and could gather what the story is about but the explicit meanings deepen the understanding of the characters and deepen the enjoyment of watching the film. The explicit feelings behind the story isn't always as obvious as other elements but nevertheless contribute greatly to the altogether form of the film.
While the referential and explicit meanings are more obvious the implicit meaning behind the film is not always so easily noticed.
A family wishes to comfortably stay the same and keep out unexpected change but eventually accepts the change for the good of the whole family.
This is not the only implicit meaning that can be derived from the story. Implicit meanings are not so concrete, as they can differ from person to person. As one could arrive at the conclusion above another could see Meet Me In St. Louis as:
A father and leader of a family sees that his family's happiness as a whole is more important this his own alone.
Neither of these two analysis are more right than the other. They can both be derived from different viewpoints accepting the story in different ways. That is part of the beauty of the movie experience; being able see things differently.
Finally a symptomatic meaning can be concluded from Meet Me In St. Louis.
In a society where value of life is measured by money and success the home and family are the true sources of happiness.
This message is very similar to the implicit meaning but takes a more ideological, sociological approach. Here is where social values of the time are further introduced. During the time of the story family was very important and the happiness of the family was of great significance. The symptomatic meaning of a film is more general and abstract than the other three meaning mentioned but still holds a powerful position when examining the film.
Referential, explicit, implicit, and symptomatic meanings to Meet Me In St. Louis all work together in an artistic form. Each one of the four key meanings individually are very effective but when put together as a whole a more effectual product is displayed.