Kramer vs Kramer: A Battle of Opposing Forces

Kristiana Purnama Sari

53646494

Screenwriter and director Robert Bentons Kramer vs Kramer is an intriguing

anomaly. This highest grossing film of 1979 swept 5 Oscars out of 9 nominations
(Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best
Director). Blockbuster movies are often panned by film critics for giving in to the role
of being insubstantial crowd-pleasers. Kramer vs Kramer an immersive, real film
about the aftermaths of parental separation, which challenges both box offices and
societys stereotypes and cultural norms especially gender roles, told from the
unconventional perspectives of both sides of the coin.
A close up shot of Joanna in pitch-black darkness serves as the opening of the
film. Sadness is apparent on her exhausted face, with her hand supporting the side of
her face. The blatantly displayed wedding ring on that very hand gestures toward the
source of her agony. The hard lighting technique employed highlights both the
sharpness in her face and decision. The mise en scne of this shot echoes her feeling
of isolation and loneliness in her marriage of eight years with Ted Kramer, and her
determination to leave her emotionally absent husband and her son, Billy.

Joanna started off as a housewife. She was the embodiment of conventional

feminine quality, a quintessential devoted full-time mother. A passive force, later in
the film she claimed that her whole life shes always had roles assigned to her and
that didnt go in line with her repressed true self. This was the source of her
depression, which triggered her exodus from home. She abandoned not only Billy, but
also her maternal instincts albeit heavy-heartedly. Later, she sent a letter to Billy
saying, Sometimes in the world daddies go away and mommies bring up their little
boys. But sometimes a mommy can go away too, and you have your daddy to bring
you up." She was aware of societys common expectation of separation, how no
matter what, a mother will stick with her kid while being abandoned by the father
yet she proved that in reality, the other way around is just as plausible. Used to live
for others, the new Joanna is confident and self-centered, determined to find herself.
By the end of the film, she became a sportswear designer with annual income even
more than Teds at that moment implying that she was more than capable to become
primary breadwinner. As the film progresses, she came to develop qualities associated
with stereotypical masculinity.

But by the same token, Id like to know, what law is it that says that a woman
is a better parent simply by the virtue of her sex? In the custody battle, the reformed
Ted Kramer voices out his frustration toward a system that heavily favors the mother
in the matter of children upbringing. Ted was introduced as a distant workaholic, an
embodiment of the conventional masculine qualities associated with bad parenting.
His work was his first priority stating his boss could count on his 25 hours a day, 8
days a week. He didnt know where the pans are in the kitchen. He was insensitive,
ignorant, and self-absorbed. Joanna was greeted with a quick kiss her as he got back
late to the apartment from work yet even after such intimate gesture, he failed to
sense her great distress. Glancing at the mirror, he purely focused on himself with
Joanna on his rear view as a mere reflection he didnt even notice.

At first glance, it mightve been seen as a classic symptom that often plagues
upper socioeconomic class families: the career-obsessed parent fails to fulfill his/her
familys emotional needs and trades it off with excessive financial support instead.
While Ted might have been an absent parent and didnt bond much with Billy in the
start to the extent of not knowing what grade his son was in, he never did, and never

will, abandon him. For instance, he ignored his bosss suggestion of sending Billy
away to stay with relatives for a while so he could focus more on his work. At that
moment, he was struggling with juggling his new private labor of being a father and
public labor as an advertising executive but he didnt shy away from it. In his
process of becoming a better father for Billy, he learned to stop becoming I and
started becoming we. When he brought Billy to his new office, gesturing to the sign
Kramer on his door, he asked Billy who is that. To Billy reply: Thats us!, he
smiled and claimed, Thats right. He learned to be tenderer and compromising, to
be more sensitive to his kids and others needs, listening attentively to Billys story
when taking him to school instead of merely dropping him off. As the film
progresses, he increasingly developed more traditionally feminine quality.
The immersive, real atmosphere of this film strengthens the themes, which are
close to our mundane life, brought up in this film. Two apparent factors that support
its success is the improvisations of most dialogues between Ted (Dustin Hoffman)
and Billy (Justin Henry) and the lack of non-diegetic background music existing in
the film, which occurrences could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
The narrative structure of the film utilizes symmetry to highlight its characters
growth and development. Similar situation in similar setting happening to the
characters in different timeframe, or with different character occupying the scene,
gauge the characters different, contrasting reaction. This parallel style is evident in
Ted and Joannas elevator scenes. In the scene when Joanna left, she was unstable and
distraught. The out-of-focus, slightly opened elevator door acts a barrier but only
shows up in shots of Joanna showing how she had already viewed herself as being
separated from Ted. Her face was full of sorrow with leaving as her only option. The
scene ends with the elevator door closing, slowly obstructing Teds shocked reaction

of Joanna saying she didnt love him anymore. This scene marks the start of conflict
between Ted and Joanna, for the then-blindsided Ted, at least.

In the last scene, Ted opened the elevator door for Joanna in contrast to the
earlier scene where Joanna whom frantically pressed the button by herself in her
effort to escape from Ted. The elevator door is no longer visible in the shot, replaced
by Ted showing that Joanna no longer feels the barrier separating them. She was
caught up in herself in the past and no longer respect Ted enough to acknowledge his
existence. In the end, not only she acknowledged him; she even asked for his opinion.

Mark that the Joanna and Ted here are reformed Joanna and Ted whom have growth
no longer are they their old selves in the previous scene. Joanna was again distressed,
at first, but she regained composure in the end. As the finale, once again the elevator
door closed slowly but now on Joanna and Teds smiling faces. At first, the sharp
focus on both Ted and the elevator door symbolizes the closing relationship
between Ted and Joana. In the last shot though, the shallow depth of field of the shot
focusing purely on Ted with the closing elevator door out of focus indicates that this
time, it serves as closure; a clean or at least, a start of resolution for them.

Kramer

vs

Kramer

is

film

that

reexamines

the

line

between

masculinity/femininity, which are qualities and male/female, which are genders.

Society and cultural norms suggest that as a man, father should be the masculine force
and mother should be the feminine. But as Ted and Joanna prove, masculinity and
femininity are not opposing forces. Ideal parenting requires balancing both qualities,
disregarding the gender that expresses these qualities not just in capacity as parents,
but also to become a whole human being.