When the film genres of zombie action and buddy cop film are discussed it is within reason to assume the primary target audience is male. It is also not unreasonable to assume that the same audience probably wouldn't choose to see a film about male friendships. However, the history of films suggests that the genre of buddy films provide male audiences with just this. In the journal article “Contemporary Hollywood Masculinity and the Double-Protagonist Film” David Greven states “The 'buddy' is an extension of the cultural cliche of 'male bonding,' a situation in which men can fantasize about being released from there repressions imposed by the company of women. In film, the 'buddy' allows adventure, joking, safe community, marginalization of women, and an apparent absence of sexuality”.
The films Shaun of Dead and Hot Fuzz directed by Edgar Wright on the surface appear to be comedic genre films. However, they are not simply parodies, but rather satires of social discourses reproduced by the film genres. One of the most prevalent theme in these films is the focus on male relationsh...
Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.
‘Lad flicks’ or ‘lad movies’ is a type of film genre that emerged in the late 1990s. They are defined as a “‘hybrid of “buddy movies”, romantic comedies and “chick flicks”, which centre on the trials and tribulations of a young man as he grows up to become a ‘real man’. ‘Lad flicks’ respond in part to the much-debated ‘crisis in masculinity’” (Benjamin A. Brabon 116). This genre of film explored what it meant to be a ‘real man’ in the twentieth century and in order to do so, they would have to grow up and leave their juvenile ways behind to enter the heterosexual world. Gender relations in ‘lad flicks’ portray masculinity as a troubled, anxious cultural category hiding behind a humorous façade and also rely greatly on a knowing gaze and irony. The two ‘lad flicks’ that will be analyzed are The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow 2005) and Role Models (David Wain 2008).
Mainstream movies are about men’s lives, and the few movies about women’s lives, at their core, still also revolve around men (Newsom, 2011). These female leads often have male love interests, looking to get married or get pregnant. Strong independent female leads are still exist for the male view, as they are hypersexualized, or the “fighting fuck toy,” (Newsom, 2011). This depiction has created a culture where women are insecure and waiting for a knight on a horse to come rescue and provide for her as well as the acceptance of women
Over the years America’s ability to address taboo issues by channeling them through popular culture has become increasingly popular (Pruitt, 2007). Among the many taboo issues as evidenced by the number of mainstream films which minimally address the matter, is the issue of men living on the down low (Hamilton, 2009). An example of such is the 2011 film “For Colored Girls.” The film like many bring up the issue of men being on the down low, but they have neglected to go in-depth as to why men chose this lifestyle – rather than the age old notion that they fear social rejection (Pruitt, 2007). As it relates to the drama “Angels in America,” written by Tony Kushner, the work does a great job highlighting men who have secret lifestyles and two of the characters within the drama that exemplify characteristics of living on the down low – Joe Pitt and Ray Cohn (Kushner, 1993)
There are two types of films that associate with the idea of male friendship. The first is the buddy film, in which the characters often have contrasting personalities but gain some sort of understanding and mutual respect for each other. The second is the bromance film, which further expresses the idea of male friendship by incorporating emotion and activity. The Hangover is a bromance with elements of a buddy film because of how the characterization of the four main characters and the setting of the film makes audiences relate to the guys’ experience.
How is humour created in the story? Discuss Beth’s obvious respect for mother despite her irreverent attitude.
The American black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street directed by Martin Scorsese was released December 25, 2013 and stars the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie. While on face value The Wolf of Wall Street looks like a film about excessive cocaine binges, long evenings filled with men with cigarettes, large portions of alcoholic consumption, having many sexual escapades with various women and even dwarf tossing from time to time, the film is deeply rooted in perception gender within the genre of The Wolf of Wall Street. The word ‘genre’ is rooted into a similar category as
Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
It is irrefutable that media alters societal perceptions. As an audience, we are constantly being exposed to messages that influence us in minute and massive ways. With ever evolving technology, the exposure to concepts will only increase as the availability of these messages increases. The clips collected in the assignment demonstrate different aspects of masculinity from television shows: stereotypical masculinity in Parks and Recreation, Toxic Masculinity in Jersey Shore, and the fragility of masculinity in Shark Tank.
In the film Crash, directed by Paul Haggis and co-written by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, Cameron Thayer, a successful movie director, becomes the object of racial stereotyping. By focusing on the interactions between him and his wife, as well as Officer Ryan, the audience can identify how the concepts of stereotyping and power are correlated with one another. In addition to the life of Cameron Thayer, Crash identifies several different persons who are subjected to stereotyping by those with power throughout the film. As many of the character’s lives crash into one another, issues between race, gender, and ethnicity become key components to the film’s plot, which provokes the audience to question the roles of stereotyping in our daily lives.
... These portrayals and the manner in which the characters handle such situations actually blight the importance of male bonding that these various media try to uphold and ultimately further male heterosexism, homophobia, and purposefully exclude women from the equation entirely. It is time to squash the overly complicated notions surrounding bromances and represent male friendships in a respectful, non-discriminatory manner.
As such, some Brony fan practices do not mesh well with traditional concepts of masculinity. Young men talking about friendship, cosplaying as ponies, and singing songs about smiling do not run parallel with many of the gender norms many young men and boys are taught from an early age. As Brenda Weber proclaims, “American masculinity has long been predicated on the values of the self-made man, the concept that manhood finds its greatest source and definition in self-determination, autonomy, and individualism.” With that being said, the emergence of the Brony fandom shows conventional gender norms are not as stable as previously thought.
As a student at Tisch, students may often hear people commenting saying “Oh, look at this sequence man, God, it’s so Scorsese! ”, or “Oh lord, this is such a Woody Allen film.” not only for Tisch students, moviegoers who have watched a decent amount of films will recognize something common in mostly every piece of work a filmmaker has done, and we call it the filmmaker’s fingerprint. Not only these well-known filmmakers contain their own fingerprints, Xavier Dolan, a young rising director/writer, has only done films about homosexuality like I Killed My Mother is about the relationship between the gay son and his mother, and Heartbeats is about a love triangle among three close gay friends; Steven Chow, a Chinese filmmaker, has ninety percent of his art works like The God of Cookery, Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle to be classic Chinese comedy with tremendous amount of Chinese humor; Julie Taymor who is an independent filmmaker always brings experimental elements into her narratives and adjust the visual image with over-the-top color corrections. These artists have very strong personal tastes of their art works, and the fingerprint gradually becomes audiences’ expectations of their films: audiences hope and believe that the trend will continue throughout his career, and also because of that, the filmmaker’s fan base is settled - people who love Dolan and appreciate the homosexual focus will most likely continue loving him, people who get a good sense of Chinese humor and appreciate Chow’s narrative will always want to watch his latest work…
International Communication Association. (2008). Assessing Gender-Related Portrayals in Top-Grossing G-Rated Films. California. Choueiti, M., Granados, A., Pieper, K., Smith, S..