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

Mandel has shown Dillon’s character by using various narrative, symbolic and technical elements. Charlie is a character who is developed during School Ties through his emotions and personality of being privileged, unreliable and envious of others.
Charlie Dillon is jealous of David Greene, a new student at St. Matthew’s school who takes the place of quarterback. Charlie is envious of David because he had previously wanted to obtain the place of quarterback in football. Charlie’s status both socially and successfully in football are threatened due to this new student. Greene quickly becomes popular on campus because of his skills in football, which causes Dillon to feel the need to destroy him. In a scene in the changing room before football training, Coach McDevitt is explaining to Charlie how he wasn’t the quarterback, to which Charlie replies “I wasn’t the quarterback you wanted” rather gloomily. While it was clear that he was upset, he didn’t argue and was understanding. While and after the coach is introducing David into the team, Charlie is seen hiding behind a locker, looking out at the others, while putting on his gear alone. The lighting is almost dim in this scene and reflects Charlie’s disappointment. This conflicts with Dillon’s appearance of being a popular person at school.
The character of Charlie Dillon is shown to be one of the most popular kids at his school, as well as also coming from a wealthy family that has already had a successful son graduate from Charlie’s school, St.

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

point.
Dillon is an unreliable person and sometimes even gets away with lying and cheating his way through life. Many of the students aren’t very accepting of Greene’s religion and this causes David to have a very hard time at school. Dillon also cheats in an exam and later blames Greene for being the one who cheated in the exam. This shows that he is a liar and untrustworthy. In the shower scene where Charlie lets out David’s secret of being a Jew, he starts a fight with David in the shower. This fight ends with Charlie curled up on the floor of the shower naked with a bloody nose. This leaves the audience disliking Charlie once again, but also feeling sorry for him. The camera is looking down on Charlie, as if to show that this was really the downfall of Charlie Dillon, rather than David Greene.
In conclusion, the character Charlie Dillon in School Ties is made to be seen as a spoilt rich kid. This personality does appear apparent at first, but when delved deeper into the person behind this character he is actually an insecure but privileged, unreliable and envious person. He is a type of alpha male who does not hesitate to share his opinion, to lie or to cheat. His actions throughout the film display that he is spoilt, but he is different from another perspective. While he does stand up for himself and pick fights occasionally, and he is not always kind or forgiving, he is rather individual and an interesting character as the person that you see on the surface is not the person underneath. While David Greene is the focus of this film, Charlie Dillon still manages to be arguably the most interesting character.