Examples Of Stereotypes In School Ties

English Essay - School Ties
Today and in recent history of the film industry, masculinity is often shown as stereotypes and examples of alpha males who are powerful and dominant who seek adventure and are always quick to show their opinion and strength. In the film School Ties (1992) directed by Robert Mandel, Charlie Dillon (Matt Damon) is a young man in his last year at high school who has to live up to his family’s superior(?) expectations and high standards that his older brother has left before him. Charlie Dillon is portrayed as an alpha male. While on the journey to manhood and through his final year of school he finds that though it may be impossible to live up to his family’s name, he will do anything to achieve his goal. The director

Matthew’s. This causes Charlie’s character to feel like he has authority in the school and over the students that attend St. Matthew’s. When Dillon is first introduced in the movie, his first line of dialogue is “Hey, we’re the big men on campus,” when addressing David Greene for the first time. This shows that Dillon is even aware of being popular at the school. In this particular scene, Charlie is characterized to be spoilt and unlikable. He makes unkind remarks about David and is unappreciated by the other students wanting to learn more about David. The camera mostly focuses on David in this scene and is occasionally behind David, showing the front of Charlie sitting down behind everyone else, not really joining in and eating peanuts. As an alpha male, Charlie was not enjoying the conversation and was looking for anything the turn the tables around. This is because nobody was focusing on him. While this may seem harmless, it also shows that Charlie has the potential to be unreliable to friends or others if he is pushed to a certain