The Big Lebowski tells the story of Jeff Lebowski, who has people call him “the Dude”, a Los Angeles slacker who is mistaken for a millionaire of the same name whose wife owes money to the wrong people. The movie begins with two men waiting in the Dude’s apartment for him thinking he is the millionaire Lebowski. They ruin his rug by having one of the men urinate on it. When the Dude goes to Lebowski to try to get compensation for the ruined rug he is rejected, however, he ends up stealing one of Lebowski’s rug instead. This action gets the Dude tangled up in the kidnap situation that sets forth the plot of the rest of the movie. The chapter in Hollywood Blockbusters discusses how the movie in terms of how the language of the film is so popular, time and how masculinity is portrayed. In the movie the male characters masculinity is being tested and shown differently than typical masculine roles. The typical masculine roles such as …show more content…
being in control are shown by the women characters instead. The charter also discusses why the language of the film is so quotable. Slang, miscommunication, and synonyms all play key roles in how the language of the film is so memorable. All of which tie into how masculinity is portrayed in the film. I had never really seen the movie all the way through but had seen most of it over time to understand what was going on in the film.
However, this time watching it all the way through I realized how much one can focus on how the Dude tries to keep his identity throughout the movie. I think one of the reasons why people like the movie is because there is this guy who does not like his own name and just goes by the Dude and is seen as someone who does whatever they want. He is seen as the most laidback person. However, when you look at the movie you see him struggle to keep his laidback attitude in every situation. I think that it relates to trying to stay true to yourself no matter what life throws at you even in situations that you could never prepare for. The Dude’s life is simple and easy and the only pressure that he really has is the bowling tournament. It is clear in the scene right after the Dude realizes he has just been used as a pawn that one truly sees how much of a toll the situation has taken on the Dudes laidback
attitude. In away the way that I interpreted the movie supports the notion of how masculinity is portrayed in the film. This is because it shows the Dude in a situation that is not considered masculine which is not being confident in yourself. It is not that he does not have confidence in himself, but more so that he has been so shaken up by the experience that he just does not know what to really do. My reading of the chapter just made me notice different things than I had before. Like I had said I had never watched the movie all the way through but had seen bits and pieces. I think the biggest change that I saw was noticing the way that the male and female roles were portrayed.
Movies are a new edition in today’s culture. They are a new form of art medium that has arrived in the late 1900s and were a new way to express ideas and viewpoints of the time. A good example of this is the movie The Manchurian Candidate. The movie had a simple plot a man is kidnapped after the Korean war and is hypnotized to work for the communists and take down the U.S. This movie showed the American public’s fear of communism at the time. If a movie like this can easily portray the fears of the American people at the time then it can easily portray stereotypes of gender. There have been thousands of movies where the male protagonist is a rough tough dude but there is one movie that has that stereotype is broken. That movie is none other than Napoleon Dynamite.
The Big Lebowski was a screenplay written by Joel and Ethan Coen. It is a comedy that is screen written and a movie that shows how life can be so unexpected. Lebowski known as “The Dude” has had his life terrorized and even his belongings being terrorized which first started off with his rug then went on to other belongings in his house being broken into and being destroyed and along with his car. All The Dude wanted was his rug back "it brought everything together" as he would say within the movie. The Dude went through a whole lot of trouble for this to happen. The people who are terrorizing The Dude have the wrong person, they thought he was a millionaire whose wife owed them money. The Dude is unemployed, broke and lives In an apartment complex and who drinks excessively and smokes blunts while only worrying about bowling. The topic being addressed in this paper will conclude the difference between bums vs achievers. How is The dude much different from Jeffrey Lebowski when the dude does the majority of the work through the novel?. The Dude and Lebowski might be different in certain ways but, there are no differences from each other.
“The Big Lebowski,” is about “The Dude” (Jeff Bridges), a down-and-out, unemployed drifter who is still living in the haze of the '60s. Most of his time is spent moping around his apartment, doing nothing and puffing on joints. On rare occasions, he makes his way over to the bowling alley for a league game with his two best friends: Walter (John Goodman), a veteran who still suffers from post-traumatic stress from his days in Vietnam, and Donny (Steve Buscemi), a moron. Most of the time, however, T...
The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema - Phil Powrie, Ann Davies and Bruce Babington.
The Big Lebowski is a stoner comedy about a middle-aged hippie who likes to go bowling. The main action of the plot begins when two thugs break into Jeffery Lebowski’s (a.k.a “The Dude”) apartment and try to shake him down for debt his wife has incurred. After some physical abuse, a lot of yelling, and a rug-urination incident the Dude is able to convince them that they have the wrong man. The thugs have come to the wrong Jeffery Lebowski’s house there is another man by the same name with a “nympho” wife named Bunny and much more money. At the instigation of his bowling buddies, the violent Vietnam veteran Walter and the meek and rarely heard Donnie, he takes his soiled rug to the mansion of the “Big Lebowski” to demand a replacement. He eventually leaves, having taken a replacement rug off the floor of the big Lebowski’s floor. This odd incident leads to his involvement in the complicated kidnapping of Bunny. Though he insists that the woman has simply gone on vacation without bothering to tell her much-older husband, the Dude finds himself inextricably involved in a plot involving a pornographer, nihilists, and a kind-of love affair with the big Lebowski’s daughter Maude. Eventually the...
In the classical Western and Noir films, narrative is driven by the action of a male protagonist towards a clearly defined, relatable goal. Any lack of motivation or action on the part of the protagonist problematizes the classical association between masculinity and action. Due to inherent genre expectations, this crisis of action is equivalent to a crisis of masculinity. Because these genres are structured around male action, the crises of action and masculinity impose a crisis of genre. In the absence of traditional narrative elements and character tropes, these films can only identify as members of their genres through saturation with otherwise empty genre symbols. The equivalency between the crises of genre and masculinity frames this symbol saturation as a sort of compensatory masculine posturing.
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
Smith, Jeff, and Chloe Beighley. "Normalizing Male Dominance: Gender Representation in 2012 Films." Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy. N.p., 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
A very diverse, broad, and extensive industry is the filmmaking industry. However, the unique aspect of the industry is that it is so expansive in all of the different categories and types of movies, but yet each film is individualized. A certain characteristic of a movie may appeal to one person and not another. Such characteristics may not only appeal to an individual but to a certain group of people. Could it be that characteristics of a film appeal to either the male gender or the female gender? Is there a difference in the category of movie that a male chooses as opposed to one that a female chooses? Such questions prove to be very interesting and ponderous. Upon thinking of such questions, I decided to revolve my research paper around the two concepts of movies and gender. My hypothesis for this research paper is “In determining a movie to watch, college-age males choose action and adventure movies while females of the same age choose romance or romantic comedy movies”. I feel that this topic is very interesting because many items today are marketed towards a specific gender. This can be viewed and noticed in such items as clothing, motor vehicles, and certain hobbies. This pattern may just as well carry over into the film industry. If it does, it may be reflected by the category of movie a certain gender selects to watch. Therefore, my thesis is: By used of an observation, a survey, an interview, and a personal history, I will prove that men choose action movies and women choose romance/romantic comedy movies because each gender relates to a different characteristic found in each type of movie.
Goodfellas was released in 1990 and directed by Martin Scorsee. It is a crime/thriller and biography genre film. (Giannetti, chapter 2). In the beginning of this movie, the first scene is a flash back that takes place in the soon to be revealed middle of the film. Henry Hill, the main character, narrates most of the movie. The story is about Henry Hill's life story with his journey into becoming a gangster. Henry belonged to a low income family and he started working at a young age. His first job was working at a pizza shop that was owned by gangsters. Through this job, his dream to be a gangster was created.
of influence in both the characters and gender roles of people in our society. The films have brought about the shaping of morals, behaviors and characters of not only children, but also adults in todays society, through engaging them in a constant series of unthinking consumption. In addition, most of the films in Disney bring out many different gender roles and people who grew up watching them have been influenced greatly by the content in the films (Blum 13). This paper will involve the various roles played by the characters in the films and how their roles have influenced the society at large.
Hollywood has long been the symbolic centre of the American film industry - It also dominates the world’s film industry. This essay will specifically
Spicer, A. Typical Men: The Representation of Masculinity and Popular British Cinema. Tauris; London: 2001
With male-based cinema, there is an inherent air of adventure. What would the adventure genre be without Indiana Jones traversing the continents in search of treasure and battling enemies or James Bond traveling the world as a British Intelligence agent, only briefly stopping to utter a witty one-liner as the situat...
The Reasons Behind the Popularity of Action Films In this essay I am going to explore the conventions of action films and their popularity. People love action films, and when they go to see one there are conventions you would expect to see in the film All plots of action films are based on the same outline, Hero and villain meet, there's a disruption of order, and mission, then everything is sorted out when the villain dies and everything returns to normal. There are Stock characters that you expect to see in this genre of film, the hero, the villain and two attractive ladies. The main action is around a male hero, however, modern films have featured female heroines for example Angelina Jolie in 'Tomb Raider'. If the hero is male he is always good looking, intelligent, brave, chauvinistic, and manages to escape from life threatening situations, however the hero will always have a weakness, and if the hero is male the weakness is normally women.