“The BFG”, the film, whose screenplay was by Melissa Mathison, shows the story of Sophie, an orphan girl, and of a giant named the big friendly giant (BFG). This film begins with the meeting of Sophie and BFG, whose relationship ends up becoming a friendship. While BFG may look like a threat since he is a giant, different aspects of his personality shine through to show that he is different from what people would expect. Throughout this film there is an important message conveyed. Through the portrayal of BFG, this films message is that everything is not what it seems to be on the surface and that in order to truly know or understand something it must be looked into further than just at the level of appearance. 

In order to portray this message the film begins by showing the appearance of BFG and then goes into aspects that contradict what someone would think of him based on his looks. One of the first scenes in this movie shows a frightened Sophie looking outside of her dark window, where she witnesses a huge hand picking up a trash can and then she runs back into her bed in the orphanage. Along with suspenseful music, this frame zooms in on BFG’s face as he grabs Sophie from her window. It is very evident from this scene through the details shown, that in Sophie’s eyes, she would always be afraid of BFG and could never come to be his friend. This scene is surrounded by a lot of fear as to emphasize how Sophie feels and to show the viewer how BFG appears to be. From the looks of this whole scene, Sophie has just been kidnapped by an evil giant. When in reality, as revealed later, the BFG is a nice giant who took Sophie to ensure that she doesn’t tell anyone about him. To further showcase that appearances can be deceiving, Sophie becomes friends with the giant to the point where she wants to stay with him rather than return to her orphanage, where she states she has no friends. Sophie did not have one friend at an orphanage with tons of girls her age, yet she became friends with BFG. On the surface BFG appears somewhat frightening being extremely big, however his portrayal in Sophie’s eyes changes as seen by how he is later shown in the movie to represent his true nature or his personality.

Throughout the film more information is revealed about the BFG, such as that he has morals which he lives by. He’s not just a friendly giant, he actually has a certain mindset on things which develops his personality through the film to show that he is very different from his appearance or from how people could view him as Sophie did in the very beginning. While speaking to Sophie, he explains how he can never eat a human, as the other giants do, because that is cannibalistic. This shows how he considers himself and the humans to be the same and that he has somewhat of a strength to follow through with this belief, as his whole diet is revealed to consist of vegetables. To be able to follow through with this belief shows that BFG has strong morals and is not just friendly but also has a good moral character. To display his character, BFG is also shown to have a job, he is a dream catcher and maker. There is a scene which shows him giving a pleasant, silly dream to a young boy while Sophie is watching. This scene is significant as it shows the BFG dedicated to his job of giving good dreams to humans, of which he could be eating like the other giants. The creator’s purpose in showing these characteristics is to emphasize that a physical look may not be a true representation of someone. BFG has good values and a job, just as a human would, even though his looks can be misleading or frightening. 

Other than showing BFG’s friendly essence and values, the film reveals BFG to have a caring nature. BFG decides to help the humans with the giants who are eating children. However, to do this BFG must reveal himself to the Queen and her army. This scene becomes very important as it reminds the viewer of how people still view BFG as a threat, while also revealing more about BFG that contradicts his looks. Right when he reveals himself, soldiers run to him with their guns out. The scene is shown from behind the Queen who is watching from her window, which allows the viewer to see the fear in BFG’s eyes as he is standing with soldiers surrounding him. This scene depicts how people quickly can jump to conclusions based on the impression of looks. BFG was actually taking a large risk to help the humans with the other giants, but the humans did not see this and their first response was to attack him. The purpose of this scene is to allow the viewer to take notice of BFG as being helpful and caring to the humans, while they focus their attention on his appearance. By basing their reaction only on how he looks, they limited themselves from seeing the truth of his intentions, since his looks are not an accurate image of himself. 

This films portrayal of BFG transitions from the nature of his looks to the reality of his actual personality. It reveals that appearances are not always accurate by going deep into BFG’s life and personality as a giant. BFG’s friendship to Sophie and morals are in direct conflict with the typical personality expected based solely on how he looks or appears to be. Through this conflict this film is able to emphasize the message that everything is not as it seems to be. It even goes on to encourage further exploration to be able to see the true nature of something and not just go by appearances, as Sophie began to do through the film. By looking past appearances, the film also shows many positive outcomes that came about, such as Sophie and BFG’s friendship and the banishing of the human eating giants. This can lead the viewer to the point that looking past appearances can cause a significant difference in how things are in the world.

  