I have chosen to represent gender
and ethnicity as the social groups in my thriller opening.
Gender is the main
focus as we have subverted the stereotype of the man being the heroic action
figure; our story line is the complete opposite, as our main character is a
female. Just in the first few minutes of the film Anna manages to get help from
Paul to escape on the run, kill an assassin and leave Paul on the side of the
road, successfully getting away as originally planned, not faced by the events.
She is represented as a powerful, successful woman who is completely
independent and reliant on no one to succeed in life. She has a very harsh
attitude of survival of the fittest as she does not have time to wait around
for people; she has to fend for herself. This is a different portrayal of a
woman compared to most action thrillers; typically the woman is the pathetic,
scared, damsel in distress who needs saving and looking after b the man who is
the main character and is portrayed very positively, unlike the woman.
In many respects our female lead
can be seen a s a binary opposite of how women are often portrayed within the
media.
Stereotype of women Our character
Blonde Black haired
Submissive Dominant
Weaker than men Stronger than the male
Caring Assertive
Not good with machinery
Using firearms
Looks after the
family/parental Strong
single woman
Our film draws on representations in the media of stronger females such as Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany who leads one of the most powerful nations on earth and thus demonstrates that Woman can have powerful jobs. Within films and TV Spooks, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Hanna all have positive representations of women as strong characters.
On a more negative note our film much like these representations also falls into the classic trap of showing women’s strength only through their ability to not need men. Rather than demonstrate women’s role as a pillar of strength within the community, work or at home we have demonstrated it through their ability to behave like a man. Therefore in some respects you could say our representation is negative as women are not men and women holding a gun does not equal a phallus to quote Lacan.
Although Paul in fact is represented as the
weaker of the two as he is killed off in the opening, unaware of how dangerous
Anna is. The dialogue represents him as weaker as he asks her to help him carry
a crate to the car. When Anna apologies for dragging him into this, it becomes
clear that he is out of his comfort zone, he is just there as he is too nice
for his own good and wants to help Anna escape. Paul is therefore represented
as a weaker male and in binary opposition to Anna’s strength and is a
subversion of the stereotype of men in action films. For example The Bourne
Identity, Skyfall and The Dark knight rises. All these male characters are
heroic whereas Paul is represented as servile and weak.
Anna is portrayed positively due to her
strong, powerful character; however also in a negative way as she appears
heartless and cruel for leaping out the car as soon as she sees the gun man and
only saving herself. She also appears cold blooded after killing the assassin;
she casually strolls over to Paul and pulls him out the car, driving away as
originally planned. However this is debatable as before she pulls him out the
car she takes a moment to show remorse for him by stroking his hair tenderly.
This suggests that she did have strong feelings for him and was not just using
him, but she has got a harsh life so does not need to show sadness for his loss
in such a dramatic way as some might.
We represented ethnicity in the
film opening as well as Anna played a Russian spy/assassin running away from
her boss. Russian’s are often portrayed in films stereotypically as spies as
they seem very mysterious and sly. Anna really suited this role; we got her to
portray in even more by her glamorous look; her fur jacket and wedged trainers
suggested that she was an action figure but still cared about her appearance
and her job was effortless. The film SALT was inspiriting as Angelina Jolie plays
a Russian assassin; watching her in it inspired us to create Anna’s character
to have a confident, smooth and effortless attitude.
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