Introduction:
·Number of females in action adv changed- 1970- “only 15% leading characters”
·But yet males still dominate it- cuz protagonist and drive the narrative
· Females – passive- “symbolically annihilated”
·“revolves around her physical attraction and the mating games she plays with the male characters”- Sharon smith 1992
Para 1:
· “In Hollywood films, then, women are ultimately refused a voice, a discourse, and their desire is subjected to male desire”- theory mostly for films from the 1950’s
· Females- “disempowered, degraded and subjugated”
· High Noon (1952) and Rear Window (1954)- females frightened and in need of protection
· Males opposite- confident and assertive- reflects patriarchal society
· Women had roles to fulfil- housewife, caring mother- also shown thru clothing e.g. sound of music
· 1950’s also portrayed women as sex objects
Para 2:
· Changed due to second wave feminism (1970’s) - women were fighting for equality rights, abortion, independence, media gender stereotypes and sexist oppression.- lead to “20-35 per cent” more women on screen, however “15 percent” in action adv genre.
· Bionic women, Charlies Angel- strong powerful females
· Alien- film “has been widely interpreted as a feminist text”.... ripley only surviving character and action revolves round her- she has masculine qualities...always has phallic symbol links to Freud’s theory of penis envy.
· “In 2008, only 6 of the top 50 grossing films (12 of the top 100 films) starred or were focused on women.”
Para 3:
· Bond girls are not only represented sexually but also as clever.
· Lynd (bond girl)- beautiful seductive, also intelligent as she on a mission, also portrayed as weak as she falls in love with Bond
· films, constantly confirm to Mulvey’s ‘Male gaze’ theory-seen thru camera shots (close ups on body parts)
· Catwoman (2004)- leather costume, lips are also bright red, which stimulates sexual arousal to the male audience- links to hypodermic needle model as passive audience wld feel the need to do the same.
· Audience then assumes that all action adventure films are targeted towards males, cuz of constant depiction of women as objects of desire. – “to be looked-at-ness”
Para 4:
· Looking at Bonds Groyne in the sea scene- ‘Men looking at women; women watch themselves being looked at’- attract a female audience- female gaze (zeitgeist)
Monday, 18 May 2009
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Independant Study Final Draft
How has the role of female characters changed in action adventure movies and become more dominant over the years with reference to “Resident Evil Extinction”.“Mankind faces extinction, one woman, is the final hope, for our survival”[1]‘In 1970s action-adventure shows, only 15 per cent of the leading characters were women’[2]. This shows how rare it was for women in the past to have a lead role in movies. This proves that women were under-represented and hardly had a value in society. However, this has changed over the years as the number of women in leading dominant roles has exceeded this shows change in society as in ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female’[3].Males have dominated the action genre for many years, playing the protagonists in most films. Therefore, females were given roles in action films purely because of their physical attraction and to be used as sex objects. Women were stereotypically given the passive roles whilst men were given the active roles; however this is not particularly the case in Russel Mulcahy’s film Resident Evil Extinction in which women are portrayed differently in this male dominated society the women in this film oppose Propp’s theory (theory and history of Folklore) as women are not ‘princesses’ but the ‘heroes’ and there is no male hero rescuing the ‘damsel in distress’, as Alice is the one who comes to the rescue for everyone. However as the film has a male director it can be seen that the women are also under-represented as sex objects for the male gaze, this can be shown through the costumes and suggestively the props used.
Resident Evil Extinction is a contemporary film that portrays women as dominant, for example when we see Milla Jovoich in the last seen of the movie she is killing many zombies. She is shown as a display of the “ass-kicking female empowerment” [4] that needs to save mankind from extinction. This proves Jovovich as a powerful and assertive female character. However women have not just been shown as strong characters recently, this has also been the case in some films from the past such as ‘Alien’ and ‘Terminator’.
‘Representation is seen as an expression of ideology, it expresses different kinds of power relationships in society which are to do with inequalities of groups’[5]. Milla Jovovich challenges these dominant ideologies in Resident Evil Extinction. She is shown as dominant and a superior character who takes on a man’s role. She is represented as a ‘fighting female’[6] who takes control; her character challenges the stereotypes that females are associated with; weak, emotional, and sex objects. Jovovich is represented as dominant in many of the scenes as we can see her riding a motorbike which is usually associated to men who are mostly stereotyped as strong and powerful. She is also shown as a powerful character and challenges stereotypes as she is shown using weapons such as guns and machetes to kill zombies. The machetes and guns represent her masculine side and show the female dominance that she has throughout. The machetes and guns can be seen as ‘phallic objects’, therefore this reinforces her power as she is able to castrate men, therefore men are seen as weak instead of women. Also when men watch Resident Evil Extinction they would have to cross gender into a woman instead of it having to be women who typically cross gender into males in action adventure films, this would therefore oppose what was suggested by James Monaco that ‘Increasingly we are all going to watch the same ten movies’[7] whereas, we are not; due to the action adventure genre changing and taking on more dominant females. Resident Evil Extinction clearly suggests that the representation of females within the film industry has changed, due to the increase in female action stars whereas before females were only given parts which fitted in with their stereotypes e.g. housewife or sexual objects. Jovovich represents females as more independent and strong by taking on a masculine role. This challenges stereotypes and shows women are just as capable of being as physically powerful as men.
To an extent Milla Jovovich does not support Laura Mulvey’s theory (1975) which argues that ‘the dominant point of view within cinema is masculine, especially where a woman is concerned’[8]. ‘Resident Evil Extinction’ challenges Mulvey’s theory that ‘the female body is displayed for the ‘male gaze’ in order to provide erotic pleasure and ultimately a sense of control over her’[9]. This as Jovovich is taking on a masculine role and instead of males gazing upon the female they would have to cross gender and identify with her or would be anxious and afraid of her as they fear the female character castrating their ‘penis’. However, Mulvey’s theory can also be supported to an extent as the male gaze is still appropriate at times. This is through the use of costume, for example at the beginning of ‘Resident Evil Extinction’ Jovovich is lying in a bathroom and only covered in the shower net. The camera zooms out on her and shows her whole body. In this image she is represented as weak and as an ‘object of desire’[10] therefore the men would watch the movie ‘voyeuristically’. She is also represented as a sex object, in the scene after as we see her wearing a red dress which is quite short. This reinforces the stereotypes that women are seen as sex objects as red connotes love and makes her look seductive, thus reinforcing some of the stereotypes that are linked to Mulvey’s 'male gaze' theory. The audience then assumes that all action adventure films are targeted towards males, because of the constant depiction of women as objects of desire thus proving that ‘genre offers a comfortable reassurance’[11] as genre is repeated in terms of its elements. However the male characters do not get enough time to gaze upon Jovovich as she is always active, also her costume in the movie changes after and she is seen wearing khaki coloured clothes and a long cloak. The khaki coloured clothes represent her as powerful as those are the colours that army men tend to wear therefore she is seen as similarly dominant to them.
Traditionally females are not the ones who tend to “lead the story ...make the central decisions ...save her male colleague ... [or be] the star of the film.” [12]. Women have not always been represented as powerful and dominant characters but instead more often been represented as ‘passive-weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or morally token females’[13] as they are shown to simply be there for the pleasure of the male hero, whereas the men were portrayed as ‘assertive, aggressive- adventurous, active and victorious’[14]. This shows how patriarchal society was and how women were always given stereotypical roles claiming that women were oppressed. However ‘In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s only 20 to 35 per cent of characters were females, by the mid-1980s there were more women in leading roles, but still there were twice as many men on screen’[15]. This shows at this time more women became involved in leading roles and it demonstrated some sort of gain over the way they had been represented. This changed due to ‘the second wave [of] feminism’[16] during the 1970’s which lead to a ‘presence in society for equality’[17]. The zeitgeist of this era is reflected in the action sci–fi film ‘Alien’ (1979).
In the movie Alien (1979) the female character played by Signourey Weaver is the protagonist of the film who is ‘resourceful, self-reliant, hard-assed, feminist action heroine’[18]. She is shown as a masculine character as she is seen killing the predators. Signourey Weaver’s character, Ripley is similar to Jovovich’s as she is the only surviving character and all the action revolves around her. Although the director (Ridley Scott) ‘never intended to have the [lead role] played by a female’[19]. This shows how due to their being so many male directors it is harder for females to take on lead roles. Nonetheless it was very successful and made “$1,983,690”[20]. On the other hand when Ripley gets captured a male saves her. This shows that women are still subordinate to men and need them to save the day for them which links to Propp’s theory of the hero and the princess because as well as her taking on the hero role she could not fulfil that character well enough and still needed a man to save the day for her which makes him the hero. This shows that women could not take the full active role as protagonist hero characters in action adventure and emphasises the fact that action movies is ‘typically male dominant genre’[21].
Superman (1978) is a prime example of an action film which is male dominated. In this movie Superman ‘typically made the decisions which led the story’[22]. Superman shows as weak and inferior towards the male. This movie was pretty patriarchal and would have not pleased feminists as it shows how much the role of women in Hollywood has changed compared to today as the typical gender role females generally played is the women who needs saving. Such as when superman has to save a woman from a car crash, she falls unconscious and when Superman brings her out of the car he kisses her which shows that women are just an object of desire for men. Consequently, this shows that females are seen to be a ‘prize’ for the hero, for his hard work of saving her. Superman movies are a clear portrayal of male dominance as there is no sign of female empowerment. The most relevant role a respective female plays in the movie is by Lois Lane that is Superman's love interest. ‘Although Lois Lane in Superman is a successful reporter, for example, it is still the (super-) heroic man who leads the story and saves the world’[23]. Thus reinforcing male dominance in the action adventure genre. Lois Lane is hardly shown in any strong positions throughout the whole film giving females a negative representation once again as it shows that women were only given token roles in action adventure films and were degraded, therefore they were underrepresented and ‘symbolically annihilated’[24] (Gaye Tuchman 1978).
Women are underrepresented in movies due to the films actually being directed by males. Therefore it can be seen that ‘Film is a male dominated industry’[25].This is the case in Resident Evil Extinction as it is directed by Russel Mulcahy, but also the case in many other action adventure films starring women such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Charlies Angels’. Women usually tend to be represented as emotional, sexual, beautiful and size/physique. However, in Resident Evil Extinction, Milla Jovovich (Alice) is represented as a strong, dominant and in control. However, can we argue that this is a fair representation of women? As it is likely that male directors portray women characters different from how women directors portray women characters, simply because it’s harder for them to relate to the characters, therefore ‘we don’t really see women as [they] see [themselves] and as [they] really are because it’s only men writing for [them]’[26]. But as there are such a few amounts of female directors it is hard for women to ever be represented in a fair way as men are likely to always be biased. It can be argued that the reason why there are such little amounts of women directors is because most jobs that women prefer are quiet stereotypical they would either want to be a teacher, secretary, nurse or remain a housewife. Another reason is that after women get pregnant it is seen less likely that they would carry on with their profession simply because ‘it must be incredibly hard if you have children to navigate the hours’ needed in being a director’[27]
Women have many negative stereotypes and can be characterized into two main categories. They are the ‘Madonna who is pure, maternal, chaste, modest and The Whore who is loose, sexual, amoral, sinful’[28]. A good example of a film that represents both the ‘Whore’ and the ‘Madonna’ is ‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987). Fatal attraction is able to exploit the different roles in which the women play throughout the film, one being the Madonna in the film is the housewife shown to be caring and innocent and pure compared to the other female character who is the Whore as she is the one who uses her sexual appearance in order to get what she wants and comes across as sexual and sinful. This movie was made during the male backlash as "Faludi" found out that there was a backlash against women having careers and being independent on themselves and women liberation's. Therefore in this movie the women who works and is independent is seen as villain and the housewife is seen as the princess. This shows that how if women wanted to do a job they were seen as sinners and were not accepted in society and were losers as Glenn Close (the whore) ends up dying in the movie. In Resident Evil Extinction even though Jovovich is taking on a dominant males role she is still represented as the ‘Madonna’ this is because of the Zeitgeist and the change in society as it is now acceptable for women to go to work and be independent.
In ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female, although still less than half’[29]. This shows that society was in fact changing and women were beginning to get more of significance in society. Women became more confident due to the second wave feminism which happened during the 1970’s, because the women got to go to work and felt freer as the men were out fighting at the war. This meant that women were able to do more work and had more of a social life and helped females to start moving away from being the passive, weaker sex and the traditional ‘housewife’. This lead to women gaining more of a complex and central role in movies, which showed the change and development in society.
Another film which shows the dramatic change of roles of women in the media is, ‘Kill Bill’ (Quentin Tarantino, 2004), a contemporary movie in which the protagonist role is challenged. Before the movie was associated with a male protagonist, but now it’s a female protagonist Uma Thurman, who is strong, powerful and an active and tough women. In Resident Evil Extinction Jovovich is represented similarly to Thurman as they’re both represented as ‘ass-kicking females’[30] . This is shows women’s ability to be just as equal as men, which, reflects the zeitgeist. Representations of women are gradually changing due to the positive role women are being given. As a result this film was highly successful making a total of $66,207,920[31] as well as promoting women’s authority which shows that women can be successful in such roles where they are active which is again reinforced in Resident Evil Extinction which was also highly successful and made a total of ‘$50,648,679’[32] . The female viewers would see the female characters as active characters that drive the narrative forward as they see females being heroes and not acting as a sub plot. However, the male viewers may look from a different perspective as women in action adventure films are shown to be body image obsessed, where their body has to be toned and slim. For example, in Kill Bill (2003), Uma Thurman’s character has a desirable, stereotyped body, which is accentuated through her tight, bright yellow leather outfit. The outfit also has an intertextual reference to Bruce Lee’s, ‘Game of Death’ (1978); as a result the allusions to him can suggest Thurman’s character, The Bride, is also physically powerful, therefore subverting the stereotype of women being weak. However, male viewers may render them as passive characters and they see them to be objectified and thus gain voyeuristic pleasures in looking at their bodies. This then confirms that ‘Pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’[33].
In addition Mulvey’s essay of “visual pleasure and narrative cinema” was seen as the feminist claim that men and women are positioned differentially on screen; men as heroes who drive the narrative of the film forward and women as objects of sexual desire and fetishist gazing. Women are considered to be there in order to be “looked at, objectified and sexualized by the male protagonist”[34]. In Resident Evil Extinction Milla Jovovich is objectified through her clothing e.g. tightly fitted shorts and sleeveless tops. Similarly all the female characters in the film are young, good looking and attractive. Sharon Smith claimed that ‘The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male characters’[35], implying that women are not really considered because of their intelligence but only because of their looks. This is also the case in Catwoman (2004), in which Halle Berry is wearing some very tight black leather clothing which is also revealing her cleavage and other body parts. In this movie although Halle Berry is supposed to be seen as an action woman who is powerful, she is mostly objectified as a sex symbol to the male viewers. Overall she is being portrayed as the “to-be-looked-at-ness”[36] object resulting in her to be gazed upon.
In 1992-1993 ‘only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation’[37]. This shows a big decrease from the 70’s and shows how society is changing and becoming less patriarchal. This is re emphasized as it suggest in Gauntlett’s book that ‘Men and women are seen working side by side, as equals, in the hospitals, schools and police stations of television land’ [38]. Also ‘movie producers are wary of having women as screaming victims, and have realized that kick- ass heroines do better business’[39]. Once again this shows that directors and producers are changing the way they represent women and prefer it better if they took on a active role as its better business suggesting that’s what the audiences like, showing that society has changed and prefer women taking on more dominant roles.
In conclusion women in action adventures have typically been under represented and ‘symbolically annihilated’ in the past. However “Women have gradually become more independent and powerful in Hollywood cinema”[40]. Resident Evil Extinction is an example of this as Milla Jovovich’s central character and dominant role have shown a progress in this genre. The film challenges Mulvey’s theory (1975) of the ‘male gaze’ but it seems to be shown that women are gradually being able move away from being sexually objectified and given roles such as housewives or a mother and are beginning to be seen more active than passive, this is due to first wave feminism and second wave feminism. Resident Evil Extinction is one of the films that shows women as active and superior there are also movies such as Kill Bill starring Uma Thurman and Charlies Angels starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu which show women as the dominant character instead of a male and are in fact seen defeating men. However although women are given such central and active roles they are still objectified to the male gaze as we live in a patriarchal society which is male dominated and males are the ones who most often watch the action adventure movies therefore in order to attract them women have to be sexually attractive and objectified.
Word count: 3,270 (without footnotes included)
3,573 with footnotes
[1] “Resident Evil Extinction” (Russel Mulcahy, 2007)
[2] Gauntlett, David (2002): ‘Media, Gender & Identity: An introduction’ Routledge (page 43)
[3] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ Routledge (page 58)
[4] http://www.movieviews.org/reviews/may-july2003.shtml
[5] Burton, Graeme (1999) “Media and Popular Culture”, p-87
[6] Iness, Sherrie A. Ed. “Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture” New York: Palgrare Macmillan (2004)
[7] James Monaco (1979)- Genre quotes page 24
[8] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[9] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[10] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[11] Patrick Phillips(1996)- genre quotes page 25
[12] Gauntlett David: Media, Gender & Identity: An Introduction (pg47)
[13] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey ( pg 43)
[14] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey
[15] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey
[16] http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?DVDID=9572
[17] Bennett, Jacquie (2005) “Media Studies AS & A2”
[18] ‘Alien’ 1979 http://www.filmsite.org/alie.html
[19] Lacey, Nick “Image and Representation” pg 218
[20] http://www.movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800020133/detalis
[21] http://www.helium.com/items/125634-women-in-action-movies-empowered-role-models-or-chicks-with-guns
[22] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 46)
[23] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 46)
[24] Gaye Tuchman (1978) ‘Introduction: the symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media’.
[25] Harris Naomie- http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html
[26] http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html (Naomie Harris)
[27] Naomie Harris- http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html
[28] Introducing media studies, Ziauddin Sardar and Barin Van Loon. (page 84)
[29] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 58)
[30] http://www.movieviews.org/reviews/may-july2003.shtml
[31] http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808504212/info
[32] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=residentevil3.htm
[33] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[34] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[35] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ page 48
[36] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey
[37] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[38] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[39] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[40] Neale, S. (2000). Genre and Hollywood (Sightlines (London, England).). New York: Routledge.
Resident Evil Extinction is a contemporary film that portrays women as dominant, for example when we see Milla Jovoich in the last seen of the movie she is killing many zombies. She is shown as a display of the “ass-kicking female empowerment” [4] that needs to save mankind from extinction. This proves Jovovich as a powerful and assertive female character. However women have not just been shown as strong characters recently, this has also been the case in some films from the past such as ‘Alien’ and ‘Terminator’.
‘Representation is seen as an expression of ideology, it expresses different kinds of power relationships in society which are to do with inequalities of groups’[5]. Milla Jovovich challenges these dominant ideologies in Resident Evil Extinction. She is shown as dominant and a superior character who takes on a man’s role. She is represented as a ‘fighting female’[6] who takes control; her character challenges the stereotypes that females are associated with; weak, emotional, and sex objects. Jovovich is represented as dominant in many of the scenes as we can see her riding a motorbike which is usually associated to men who are mostly stereotyped as strong and powerful. She is also shown as a powerful character and challenges stereotypes as she is shown using weapons such as guns and machetes to kill zombies. The machetes and guns represent her masculine side and show the female dominance that she has throughout. The machetes and guns can be seen as ‘phallic objects’, therefore this reinforces her power as she is able to castrate men, therefore men are seen as weak instead of women. Also when men watch Resident Evil Extinction they would have to cross gender into a woman instead of it having to be women who typically cross gender into males in action adventure films, this would therefore oppose what was suggested by James Monaco that ‘Increasingly we are all going to watch the same ten movies’[7] whereas, we are not; due to the action adventure genre changing and taking on more dominant females. Resident Evil Extinction clearly suggests that the representation of females within the film industry has changed, due to the increase in female action stars whereas before females were only given parts which fitted in with their stereotypes e.g. housewife or sexual objects. Jovovich represents females as more independent and strong by taking on a masculine role. This challenges stereotypes and shows women are just as capable of being as physically powerful as men.
To an extent Milla Jovovich does not support Laura Mulvey’s theory (1975) which argues that ‘the dominant point of view within cinema is masculine, especially where a woman is concerned’[8]. ‘Resident Evil Extinction’ challenges Mulvey’s theory that ‘the female body is displayed for the ‘male gaze’ in order to provide erotic pleasure and ultimately a sense of control over her’[9]. This as Jovovich is taking on a masculine role and instead of males gazing upon the female they would have to cross gender and identify with her or would be anxious and afraid of her as they fear the female character castrating their ‘penis’. However, Mulvey’s theory can also be supported to an extent as the male gaze is still appropriate at times. This is through the use of costume, for example at the beginning of ‘Resident Evil Extinction’ Jovovich is lying in a bathroom and only covered in the shower net. The camera zooms out on her and shows her whole body. In this image she is represented as weak and as an ‘object of desire’[10] therefore the men would watch the movie ‘voyeuristically’. She is also represented as a sex object, in the scene after as we see her wearing a red dress which is quite short. This reinforces the stereotypes that women are seen as sex objects as red connotes love and makes her look seductive, thus reinforcing some of the stereotypes that are linked to Mulvey’s 'male gaze' theory. The audience then assumes that all action adventure films are targeted towards males, because of the constant depiction of women as objects of desire thus proving that ‘genre offers a comfortable reassurance’[11] as genre is repeated in terms of its elements. However the male characters do not get enough time to gaze upon Jovovich as she is always active, also her costume in the movie changes after and she is seen wearing khaki coloured clothes and a long cloak. The khaki coloured clothes represent her as powerful as those are the colours that army men tend to wear therefore she is seen as similarly dominant to them.
Traditionally females are not the ones who tend to “lead the story ...make the central decisions ...save her male colleague ... [or be] the star of the film.” [12]. Women have not always been represented as powerful and dominant characters but instead more often been represented as ‘passive-weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or morally token females’[13] as they are shown to simply be there for the pleasure of the male hero, whereas the men were portrayed as ‘assertive, aggressive- adventurous, active and victorious’[14]. This shows how patriarchal society was and how women were always given stereotypical roles claiming that women were oppressed. However ‘In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s only 20 to 35 per cent of characters were females, by the mid-1980s there were more women in leading roles, but still there were twice as many men on screen’[15]. This shows at this time more women became involved in leading roles and it demonstrated some sort of gain over the way they had been represented. This changed due to ‘the second wave [of] feminism’[16] during the 1970’s which lead to a ‘presence in society for equality’[17]. The zeitgeist of this era is reflected in the action sci–fi film ‘Alien’ (1979).
In the movie Alien (1979) the female character played by Signourey Weaver is the protagonist of the film who is ‘resourceful, self-reliant, hard-assed, feminist action heroine’[18]. She is shown as a masculine character as she is seen killing the predators. Signourey Weaver’s character, Ripley is similar to Jovovich’s as she is the only surviving character and all the action revolves around her. Although the director (Ridley Scott) ‘never intended to have the [lead role] played by a female’[19]. This shows how due to their being so many male directors it is harder for females to take on lead roles. Nonetheless it was very successful and made “$1,983,690”[20]. On the other hand when Ripley gets captured a male saves her. This shows that women are still subordinate to men and need them to save the day for them which links to Propp’s theory of the hero and the princess because as well as her taking on the hero role she could not fulfil that character well enough and still needed a man to save the day for her which makes him the hero. This shows that women could not take the full active role as protagonist hero characters in action adventure and emphasises the fact that action movies is ‘typically male dominant genre’[21].
Superman (1978) is a prime example of an action film which is male dominated. In this movie Superman ‘typically made the decisions which led the story’[22]. Superman shows as weak and inferior towards the male. This movie was pretty patriarchal and would have not pleased feminists as it shows how much the role of women in Hollywood has changed compared to today as the typical gender role females generally played is the women who needs saving. Such as when superman has to save a woman from a car crash, she falls unconscious and when Superman brings her out of the car he kisses her which shows that women are just an object of desire for men. Consequently, this shows that females are seen to be a ‘prize’ for the hero, for his hard work of saving her. Superman movies are a clear portrayal of male dominance as there is no sign of female empowerment. The most relevant role a respective female plays in the movie is by Lois Lane that is Superman's love interest. ‘Although Lois Lane in Superman is a successful reporter, for example, it is still the (super-) heroic man who leads the story and saves the world’[23]. Thus reinforcing male dominance in the action adventure genre. Lois Lane is hardly shown in any strong positions throughout the whole film giving females a negative representation once again as it shows that women were only given token roles in action adventure films and were degraded, therefore they were underrepresented and ‘symbolically annihilated’[24] (Gaye Tuchman 1978).
Women are underrepresented in movies due to the films actually being directed by males. Therefore it can be seen that ‘Film is a male dominated industry’[25].This is the case in Resident Evil Extinction as it is directed by Russel Mulcahy, but also the case in many other action adventure films starring women such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Charlies Angels’. Women usually tend to be represented as emotional, sexual, beautiful and size/physique. However, in Resident Evil Extinction, Milla Jovovich (Alice) is represented as a strong, dominant and in control. However, can we argue that this is a fair representation of women? As it is likely that male directors portray women characters different from how women directors portray women characters, simply because it’s harder for them to relate to the characters, therefore ‘we don’t really see women as [they] see [themselves] and as [they] really are because it’s only men writing for [them]’[26]. But as there are such a few amounts of female directors it is hard for women to ever be represented in a fair way as men are likely to always be biased. It can be argued that the reason why there are such little amounts of women directors is because most jobs that women prefer are quiet stereotypical they would either want to be a teacher, secretary, nurse or remain a housewife. Another reason is that after women get pregnant it is seen less likely that they would carry on with their profession simply because ‘it must be incredibly hard if you have children to navigate the hours’ needed in being a director’[27]
Women have many negative stereotypes and can be characterized into two main categories. They are the ‘Madonna who is pure, maternal, chaste, modest and The Whore who is loose, sexual, amoral, sinful’[28]. A good example of a film that represents both the ‘Whore’ and the ‘Madonna’ is ‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987). Fatal attraction is able to exploit the different roles in which the women play throughout the film, one being the Madonna in the film is the housewife shown to be caring and innocent and pure compared to the other female character who is the Whore as she is the one who uses her sexual appearance in order to get what she wants and comes across as sexual and sinful. This movie was made during the male backlash as "Faludi" found out that there was a backlash against women having careers and being independent on themselves and women liberation's. Therefore in this movie the women who works and is independent is seen as villain and the housewife is seen as the princess. This shows that how if women wanted to do a job they were seen as sinners and were not accepted in society and were losers as Glenn Close (the whore) ends up dying in the movie. In Resident Evil Extinction even though Jovovich is taking on a dominant males role she is still represented as the ‘Madonna’ this is because of the Zeitgeist and the change in society as it is now acceptable for women to go to work and be independent.
In ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female, although still less than half’[29]. This shows that society was in fact changing and women were beginning to get more of significance in society. Women became more confident due to the second wave feminism which happened during the 1970’s, because the women got to go to work and felt freer as the men were out fighting at the war. This meant that women were able to do more work and had more of a social life and helped females to start moving away from being the passive, weaker sex and the traditional ‘housewife’. This lead to women gaining more of a complex and central role in movies, which showed the change and development in society.
Another film which shows the dramatic change of roles of women in the media is, ‘Kill Bill’ (Quentin Tarantino, 2004), a contemporary movie in which the protagonist role is challenged. Before the movie was associated with a male protagonist, but now it’s a female protagonist Uma Thurman, who is strong, powerful and an active and tough women. In Resident Evil Extinction Jovovich is represented similarly to Thurman as they’re both represented as ‘ass-kicking females’[30] . This is shows women’s ability to be just as equal as men, which, reflects the zeitgeist. Representations of women are gradually changing due to the positive role women are being given. As a result this film was highly successful making a total of $66,207,920[31] as well as promoting women’s authority which shows that women can be successful in such roles where they are active which is again reinforced in Resident Evil Extinction which was also highly successful and made a total of ‘$50,648,679’[32] . The female viewers would see the female characters as active characters that drive the narrative forward as they see females being heroes and not acting as a sub plot. However, the male viewers may look from a different perspective as women in action adventure films are shown to be body image obsessed, where their body has to be toned and slim. For example, in Kill Bill (2003), Uma Thurman’s character has a desirable, stereotyped body, which is accentuated through her tight, bright yellow leather outfit. The outfit also has an intertextual reference to Bruce Lee’s, ‘Game of Death’ (1978); as a result the allusions to him can suggest Thurman’s character, The Bride, is also physically powerful, therefore subverting the stereotype of women being weak. However, male viewers may render them as passive characters and they see them to be objectified and thus gain voyeuristic pleasures in looking at their bodies. This then confirms that ‘Pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’[33].
In addition Mulvey’s essay of “visual pleasure and narrative cinema” was seen as the feminist claim that men and women are positioned differentially on screen; men as heroes who drive the narrative of the film forward and women as objects of sexual desire and fetishist gazing. Women are considered to be there in order to be “looked at, objectified and sexualized by the male protagonist”[34]. In Resident Evil Extinction Milla Jovovich is objectified through her clothing e.g. tightly fitted shorts and sleeveless tops. Similarly all the female characters in the film are young, good looking and attractive. Sharon Smith claimed that ‘The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male characters’[35], implying that women are not really considered because of their intelligence but only because of their looks. This is also the case in Catwoman (2004), in which Halle Berry is wearing some very tight black leather clothing which is also revealing her cleavage and other body parts. In this movie although Halle Berry is supposed to be seen as an action woman who is powerful, she is mostly objectified as a sex symbol to the male viewers. Overall she is being portrayed as the “to-be-looked-at-ness”[36] object resulting in her to be gazed upon.
In 1992-1993 ‘only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation’[37]. This shows a big decrease from the 70’s and shows how society is changing and becoming less patriarchal. This is re emphasized as it suggest in Gauntlett’s book that ‘Men and women are seen working side by side, as equals, in the hospitals, schools and police stations of television land’ [38]. Also ‘movie producers are wary of having women as screaming victims, and have realized that kick- ass heroines do better business’[39]. Once again this shows that directors and producers are changing the way they represent women and prefer it better if they took on a active role as its better business suggesting that’s what the audiences like, showing that society has changed and prefer women taking on more dominant roles.
In conclusion women in action adventures have typically been under represented and ‘symbolically annihilated’ in the past. However “Women have gradually become more independent and powerful in Hollywood cinema”[40]. Resident Evil Extinction is an example of this as Milla Jovovich’s central character and dominant role have shown a progress in this genre. The film challenges Mulvey’s theory (1975) of the ‘male gaze’ but it seems to be shown that women are gradually being able move away from being sexually objectified and given roles such as housewives or a mother and are beginning to be seen more active than passive, this is due to first wave feminism and second wave feminism. Resident Evil Extinction is one of the films that shows women as active and superior there are also movies such as Kill Bill starring Uma Thurman and Charlies Angels starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu which show women as the dominant character instead of a male and are in fact seen defeating men. However although women are given such central and active roles they are still objectified to the male gaze as we live in a patriarchal society which is male dominated and males are the ones who most often watch the action adventure movies therefore in order to attract them women have to be sexually attractive and objectified.
Word count: 3,270 (without footnotes included)
3,573 with footnotes
[1] “Resident Evil Extinction” (Russel Mulcahy, 2007)
[2] Gauntlett, David (2002): ‘Media, Gender & Identity: An introduction’ Routledge (page 43)
[3] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ Routledge (page 58)
[4] http://www.movieviews.org/reviews/may-july2003.shtml
[5] Burton, Graeme (1999) “Media and Popular Culture”, p-87
[6] Iness, Sherrie A. Ed. “Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture” New York: Palgrare Macmillan (2004)
[7] James Monaco (1979)- Genre quotes page 24
[8] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[9] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[10] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[11] Patrick Phillips(1996)- genre quotes page 25
[12] Gauntlett David: Media, Gender & Identity: An Introduction (pg47)
[13] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey ( pg 43)
[14] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey
[15] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey
[16] http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?DVDID=9572
[17] Bennett, Jacquie (2005) “Media Studies AS & A2”
[18] ‘Alien’ 1979 http://www.filmsite.org/alie.html
[19] Lacey, Nick “Image and Representation” pg 218
[20] http://www.movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800020133/detalis
[21] http://www.helium.com/items/125634-women-in-action-movies-empowered-role-models-or-chicks-with-guns
[22] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 46)
[23] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 46)
[24] Gaye Tuchman (1978) ‘Introduction: the symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media’.
[25] Harris Naomie- http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html
[26] http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html (Naomie Harris)
[27] Naomie Harris- http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html
[28] Introducing media studies, Ziauddin Sardar and Barin Van Loon. (page 84)
[29] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 58)
[30] http://www.movieviews.org/reviews/may-july2003.shtml
[31] http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808504212/info
[32] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=residentevil3.htm
[33] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[34] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[35] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ page 48
[36] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey
[37] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[38] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[39] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[40] Neale, S. (2000). Genre and Hollywood (Sightlines (London, England).). New York: Routledge.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Essay Plans
Intro-
Introduction of slasher genre- talk about how it has improved due to change in audiences and other aspects.
Para 1:
*Changes in audience expectations & target audiences
*'Juvebtilisation'- audience become younger over the years
*In order to survive the slasher genre had to change with time to attract a younger audience
*Scary movie came out in 2000- talk about the changes in characters, iconography and themes to attract a younger audience
*Compare Scary movie to Psycho which came out in the 1960's
Para 2:
*Reason 2- Adapt to new technology
*In order to survive they need to use technology avaiable- more special effects- audience wants to see more blood and different innovative shots to attract them as the audience is more sophisticated- codes and conventions
*Compare the old and new TCM and talk about different technology makes movie better and genre survives.
Para 3:
*Reason 3: Censorship & Codes of Conventions
*Less censorship- audience want to see more development in the genre- this makes i survive e.g. more blood and violence- switch blade romance
Para 4:
*Last reason- Change in Society, Ideologies, Values & Representation
*Develpoment in what is acceptable in society- more sexual scenes
*Change in taste
*Rich Altman- before and after theory
*Change in society- Final Girl (Carol Clover)- female reprsentations change in slasher genre
*Scary movie- more sexual scenes
*Old and New TCM
Conclusion:
*Slasher genre must change due to the points made above, but similar codes and conventions from the past must be used to keep the genre the genre and apealing to the audience.
Account for the popularity of one genre of your choice. Illustrate your answer with examples. (June '03 b)
Introduction-
*What genre I choose and why and how it has become popular
Para 1:
*Start with Psycho 1960- famous shower scene and other sound and shots that made the genre which is then used in other films after.
Para 2:
*Movies from the 1970s
*TCM-very popular-why?
*Talk about sadistic voyeuristic pleasures
*Carol Clover-Final girl-very successful aspect used in many films of the genre-change in society
*TCM linked to what was goin on in society-so it was so popular
Para 3:
*Halloween (1978)
*Talk about how it was a very popular slasher film- suburburn area- 'White Flight'- the white people afraid of the other coming- they moved to be alone and thought it was safer to move to the suburbs but slasher films show it was not so safe- Psycho killer becomes 'the other'
*Final Girl used again
*Iconic images, sound, characters
Para 4:
*80's movies
*Nightmare on Elm street an Friday 13th
*NOES-blood scenes, special effects- Franchise unending fear
Para 5:
*Movies 90's+
*Scream and Scary movie, Switch Blade
*Parody and Pastiche introduced to improve the genre- Juventilisation
*Links to question because as time has change people have now started to see the popularity in slasher films as they appeal to a different part of the human psyche.
Conclusion:
* Slasher popularity = emotions, the era, 'Final Girl', iconic figures, relation to audience, technology.
*Zeitgeist
Introduction of slasher genre- talk about how it has improved due to change in audiences and other aspects.
Para 1:
*Changes in audience expectations & target audiences
*'Juvebtilisation'- audience become younger over the years
*In order to survive the slasher genre had to change with time to attract a younger audience
*Scary movie came out in 2000- talk about the changes in characters, iconography and themes to attract a younger audience
*Compare Scary movie to Psycho which came out in the 1960's
Para 2:
*Reason 2- Adapt to new technology
*In order to survive they need to use technology avaiable- more special effects- audience wants to see more blood and different innovative shots to attract them as the audience is more sophisticated- codes and conventions
*Compare the old and new TCM and talk about different technology makes movie better and genre survives.
Para 3:
*Reason 3: Censorship & Codes of Conventions
*Less censorship- audience want to see more development in the genre- this makes i survive e.g. more blood and violence- switch blade romance
Para 4:
*Last reason- Change in Society, Ideologies, Values & Representation
*Develpoment in what is acceptable in society- more sexual scenes
*Change in taste
*Rich Altman- before and after theory
*Change in society- Final Girl (Carol Clover)- female reprsentations change in slasher genre
*Scary movie- more sexual scenes
*Old and New TCM
Conclusion:
*Slasher genre must change due to the points made above, but similar codes and conventions from the past must be used to keep the genre the genre and apealing to the audience.
Account for the popularity of one genre of your choice. Illustrate your answer with examples. (June '03 b)
Introduction-
*What genre I choose and why and how it has become popular
Para 1:
*Start with Psycho 1960- famous shower scene and other sound and shots that made the genre which is then used in other films after.
Para 2:
*Movies from the 1970s
*TCM-very popular-why?
*Talk about sadistic voyeuristic pleasures
*Carol Clover-Final girl-very successful aspect used in many films of the genre-change in society
*TCM linked to what was goin on in society-so it was so popular
Para 3:
*Halloween (1978)
*Talk about how it was a very popular slasher film- suburburn area- 'White Flight'- the white people afraid of the other coming- they moved to be alone and thought it was safer to move to the suburbs but slasher films show it was not so safe- Psycho killer becomes 'the other'
*Final Girl used again
*Iconic images, sound, characters
Para 4:
*80's movies
*Nightmare on Elm street an Friday 13th
*NOES-blood scenes, special effects- Franchise unending fear
Para 5:
*Movies 90's+
*Scream and Scary movie, Switch Blade
*Parody and Pastiche introduced to improve the genre- Juventilisation
*Links to question because as time has change people have now started to see the popularity in slasher films as they appeal to a different part of the human psyche.
Conclusion:
* Slasher popularity = emotions, the era, 'Final Girl', iconic figures, relation to audience, technology.
*Zeitgeist
Sunday, 29 March 2009
TCM similarities and differences
Compare old and new Texas chainsaw massacre:
unlike the first film, this one pours on the gore. We see rotting body parts in plenty, as well as legs and arms being hacked off as Leatherface goes through his butchery. Leatherface is also approached differently, as a misunderstood child with a skin condition who only wants acceptance. We see much more of him in this film, but it doesn’t make him any less frightening. As for the friends, we are given subplots to their characters rather than just putting them through the nightmare. Hooper allowed the characters to be filled out by their situation, whereas Nispel uses what has come before to give the characters relation to one another. The camerawork is masterful, but much more action-like than the original. We see much more special affects and different camera work. As for the setting, the house is even creepier, but it seems as though it may have been pushed so far that it isn’t fresh anymore. Also, it doesn’t have the contrast of the first film. The colours stay the same throughout the whole film, and the nightmare of the ending is the same as that of the beginning, which isn’t bad, just a different approach to making the film. Overall, the film is indeed nightmarishly gruesome and wonderfully scary, making it a worthy successor to the original. The main difference between the two films is how the freakish events of the story are treated. In the original, the camera follows the events fearlessly, not caring what it is showing, just filming. The violence is treated so callously that we can’t believe we are seeing it. All the bones and skin and bizarre artefacts in the house are simply there, before us, without having to dwell on them. This is different to the first TCM as they were probably not allowed to show such gruesome scenes due to censorship in those days. The filmmaker’s don’t pay attention to them; they just put them there as though they were decorations in the house. In that respect, the filmmakers seem as sick as the killers, and so we are very afraid. But in the second film, the bizarre surroundings seem to be called attention to. It seems like we are forced to see them, like they were put there for the purpose of scaring us; therefore it isn’t quite as effective.
One of the major changes between the two sets of characters was the willingness not to give up on life and carry on fighting until they died. In the 1974 version it seemed that not one member of the group put up a decent fight to survive and all died in weak and feeble circumstances, in the new version Michael bay gave some of the group more fighting personalities as they didn’t die straight away and tried to carry on clinging for life as much as they could for instance when Morgan was kept on his own in a cell instead of perishing he managed to stay alive and get free with the help of Erin, also Andy after having his leg cut off and being dropped on a massive hook still managed to stay alive for the course of the film before asking Erin to put him out of his misery.Moreover the final girl actually managed to fight back against leather face and ended up chopping his arm off with a hack which was an aspect which played a massive role in leather face inability to kill her off. The characters improvement in strength and desire to fight off the killer is used by the director to give the audience a sense of the times that we are living in; audiences would not expect characters to be killed so easily as they were in past slasher a movie without thinking it is realistic.
unlike the first film, this one pours on the gore. We see rotting body parts in plenty, as well as legs and arms being hacked off as Leatherface goes through his butchery. Leatherface is also approached differently, as a misunderstood child with a skin condition who only wants acceptance. We see much more of him in this film, but it doesn’t make him any less frightening. As for the friends, we are given subplots to their characters rather than just putting them through the nightmare. Hooper allowed the characters to be filled out by their situation, whereas Nispel uses what has come before to give the characters relation to one another. The camerawork is masterful, but much more action-like than the original. We see much more special affects and different camera work. As for the setting, the house is even creepier, but it seems as though it may have been pushed so far that it isn’t fresh anymore. Also, it doesn’t have the contrast of the first film. The colours stay the same throughout the whole film, and the nightmare of the ending is the same as that of the beginning, which isn’t bad, just a different approach to making the film. Overall, the film is indeed nightmarishly gruesome and wonderfully scary, making it a worthy successor to the original. The main difference between the two films is how the freakish events of the story are treated. In the original, the camera follows the events fearlessly, not caring what it is showing, just filming. The violence is treated so callously that we can’t believe we are seeing it. All the bones and skin and bizarre artefacts in the house are simply there, before us, without having to dwell on them. This is different to the first TCM as they were probably not allowed to show such gruesome scenes due to censorship in those days. The filmmaker’s don’t pay attention to them; they just put them there as though they were decorations in the house. In that respect, the filmmakers seem as sick as the killers, and so we are very afraid. But in the second film, the bizarre surroundings seem to be called attention to. It seems like we are forced to see them, like they were put there for the purpose of scaring us; therefore it isn’t quite as effective.
One of the major changes between the two sets of characters was the willingness not to give up on life and carry on fighting until they died. In the 1974 version it seemed that not one member of the group put up a decent fight to survive and all died in weak and feeble circumstances, in the new version Michael bay gave some of the group more fighting personalities as they didn’t die straight away and tried to carry on clinging for life as much as they could for instance when Morgan was kept on his own in a cell instead of perishing he managed to stay alive and get free with the help of Erin, also Andy after having his leg cut off and being dropped on a massive hook still managed to stay alive for the course of the film before asking Erin to put him out of his misery.Moreover the final girl actually managed to fight back against leather face and ended up chopping his arm off with a hack which was an aspect which played a massive role in leather face inability to kill her off. The characters improvement in strength and desire to fight off the killer is used by the director to give the audience a sense of the times that we are living in; audiences would not expect characters to be killed so easily as they were in past slasher a movie without thinking it is realistic.
Scream Franchise
Scream Franchise:
Director:
Wes Craven
Writer :
Kevin Williamson (written by)
Genre:
Crime Horror Mystery Thriller
Scream1:
2 May 1997 (UK)
A peaceful town in California turns into a bloodbath when a masked killer haunts the town. Sidney Prescott, a young teenage girl, whose mother was killed a year before, becomes the target of the mask killer! Her boyfriend Billy Loomis becomes the main suspect along with Sidney's father. Local Tabloid News Reporter Gail Weathers and Woodsbroro's Deputy Dwight "Dewey" Riley investigate and try to figure out who the killer is and if it's the same person who killed Sid's mom the year before!
Scream 2:
1 May 1998 (UK)
It’s been two years since the tragic events at Woodsboro. Sidney Prescott and Randy Meeks are trying to get on with their lives, and are currently both students at Windsor College. Cotton Weary is out of prison, and is trying to cash in on his unfortunate incarceration. Gale Weathers has written a bestseller, "The Woodsboro Murders," which has been turned into the film, "Stab," starring Tori Spelling as Sidney. As the film's play date approaches, the cycle of death begins anew. Dewey Riley immediately flies out of Woodsboro to try to protect Sidney, his "surrogate sister." But in this sequel to the 1996 horror film, the number of suspects only goes down as the body count slowly goes up
Scream 3:
28 April 2000 (UK)
After the terrifying events that occurred around Windsor College, Sidney is now living alone in a secluded Northern California mountainside. Still haunted by her past, frightening images of her dead mother reappear time after time in her head as she tries to get on with her life. She now gives advice, under a fictional name for safety, to women in crisis via telephone. Soon enough though, her comfort turns to fear as she receives a threatening phone call from an anonymous source who informs her on the recent murders committed around the Hollywood set of "Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro, the third and final chapter to the 'Stab' series. Sidney decides to visit the set when she finds out that with every victim, the new killer leaves behind a different photo of Sidney's deceased mother, Maureen Prescott. Eventually the cast of "Stab 3" start dying one by one and more photos of Maureen appear. Mark Kincaid, an LAPD detective, is sent to investigate the strange murder and becomes friendly with Sidney. Meanwhile, Gale visits the set of "Stab 3," after she hears of the murders. Ironically, she meets up with Dewey, who is now working behind the film alongside his actress/girlfriend Jennifer. Gale, Dewey, and Sidney rejoin along with the actors and actresses of "Stab 3," who are all shaken up by the rest of the cast being killed off. As the secret to Sidney's past unfolds, the three discover that in the trilogy, anything can happen
Director:
Wes Craven
Writer :
Kevin Williamson (written by)
Genre:
Crime Horror Mystery Thriller
Scream1:
2 May 1997 (UK)
A peaceful town in California turns into a bloodbath when a masked killer haunts the town. Sidney Prescott, a young teenage girl, whose mother was killed a year before, becomes the target of the mask killer! Her boyfriend Billy Loomis becomes the main suspect along with Sidney's father. Local Tabloid News Reporter Gail Weathers and Woodsbroro's Deputy Dwight "Dewey" Riley investigate and try to figure out who the killer is and if it's the same person who killed Sid's mom the year before!
Scream 2:
1 May 1998 (UK)
It’s been two years since the tragic events at Woodsboro. Sidney Prescott and Randy Meeks are trying to get on with their lives, and are currently both students at Windsor College. Cotton Weary is out of prison, and is trying to cash in on his unfortunate incarceration. Gale Weathers has written a bestseller, "The Woodsboro Murders," which has been turned into the film, "Stab," starring Tori Spelling as Sidney. As the film's play date approaches, the cycle of death begins anew. Dewey Riley immediately flies out of Woodsboro to try to protect Sidney, his "surrogate sister." But in this sequel to the 1996 horror film, the number of suspects only goes down as the body count slowly goes up
Scream 3:
28 April 2000 (UK)
After the terrifying events that occurred around Windsor College, Sidney is now living alone in a secluded Northern California mountainside. Still haunted by her past, frightening images of her dead mother reappear time after time in her head as she tries to get on with her life. She now gives advice, under a fictional name for safety, to women in crisis via telephone. Soon enough though, her comfort turns to fear as she receives a threatening phone call from an anonymous source who informs her on the recent murders committed around the Hollywood set of "Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro, the third and final chapter to the 'Stab' series. Sidney decides to visit the set when she finds out that with every victim, the new killer leaves behind a different photo of Sidney's deceased mother, Maureen Prescott. Eventually the cast of "Stab 3" start dying one by one and more photos of Maureen appear. Mark Kincaid, an LAPD detective, is sent to investigate the strange murder and becomes friendly with Sidney. Meanwhile, Gale visits the set of "Stab 3," after she hears of the murders. Ironically, she meets up with Dewey, who is now working behind the film alongside his actress/girlfriend Jennifer. Gale, Dewey, and Sidney rejoin along with the actors and actresses of "Stab 3," who are all shaken up by the rest of the cast being killed off. As the secret to Sidney's past unfolds, the three discover that in the trilogy, anything can happen
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Scary movie Franchise
The Scary Movie series is a series of films which mainly specialize in spoofing current, popular horror films, which have collectively grossed over $817 million at the box-office worldwide. The two main recurring actors of the series are Anna Faris and Regina Hall, as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks, respectively. They are joined by new or recurring actors and characters.
They were distributed by Dimension Films through two different studios: Miramax Films, as it was originally the studio's genre film label during executive producers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein's run and produced the first three films, and The Weinstein Company, the brothers' newly formed studio, which currently produces the rest of the series' release after departing from Miramax and taking the Dimension Films label with them. Miramax/Disney retains international distribution rights.
Scary Movie (July 7, 2000) is the first film in the series. The film is the only in the series to feature exposed male genitalia. Scary Movie was the highest grossing film of the series, grossing around $278,019,771 worldwide. The movie is based on other scary movies made before but some of the details are made into jokes (Scream)
Scary movie Franchise:
Scary movie 1
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Writers:
Shawn Wayans (written by) &Marlon Wayans(written by) ...
Release Date:
8 September 2000 (UK)
Genre: Comedy
A group of teenagers including Cindy Campbell and Bobby Prinze, accidentally hit a man when driving, and dispose of the body, but now they are being stalked by a very recognisable masked killer. The victim count increases, whilst Cindy must survive the carnage that has she has seen in so many films before.
Six friends - Cindy Campbell, Bobby Prinze, Buffy Gilmore, Greg Phillipe, Ray Wilkins, and Brenda Meeks - are being stalked by a serial killer. A serial killer that is after them because of an accident that they caused last Halloween. A serial killer that seems to have come out of every other scary movie. The body count has already started with Drew Decker, the local town slut, and it's starting to build up. The friends are going to have to escape from both the killer's clutches and annoying news reporter Gail Hailstorm if they plan on living
Scary movie 2
7 September 2001 (UK)
A group of teens including Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks are invited to spend a night in Hell House. Professor Oldman has convinced them it for a school project, but the night won't go past quietly. Master Kane is long dead, but still plans on enjoying himself, especially with Alex Monday. When things really start getting bad, the gang must work together to find a way to capture this ghostly menace.
Megan Voorhees is possessed and two priests, Father McFeely and Father Harris, must drive the demon out, but the exorcism doesn't go as planned. A year later, survivors Cindy Campbell, Ray Wilkins, and Shorty and Brenda Meeks, are at college, trying to forget the incidents that occurred last Halloween. Cindy is falling for Buddy, who loves to give wedgies, and Ray is still confused about his sexuality. Professor Oldman and his paralyzed assistant, Dwight, have decided to do a research study at Hell House, the house where the bad exorcism took place, and disguise it as a sleep disorder study. Chaos starts as soon as Cindy arrives and meets the creepy caretaker with the funny hand. But the house has some deep dark secrets that the group has to solve, even if they are scary or disgusting.
Scary movie 3
23 January 2004 (UK)
A mysterious killer video tape is circulating around. One look at this tape and you have seven days left to live. News Reporter Cindy Campbell (Faris) witnesses this video tape and tries to work out a way to prevent her death. But this is not the only mystery to appear. Crop circles have been appearing in the local farm of Tom (Sheen) and George (Rex). With help from Aunt Shaneequa (Latifah), Cindy suspects that the aliens may be linked with the killer tape and must now work out both mysteries before it's the end of the world.
Scary movie 4
13 April 2006 (UK)
Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back as the lovable, dim-witted Cindy Campbell and her self-serving, sex-crazed pal Brenda respectively. They are joined this time around by Craig Bierko as the cute, but utterly clueless, Tom Ryan. Together, they battle to save the world from a ruthless alien invasion. Cindy Campbell moves in next to Tom Ryan because she's taking care of an old lady. She finds out the house is haunted by a little boy and goes on a quest in the village to find out who killed him and why. Also, Alien "Tr-iPods" are invading the world and Cindy has to uncover the secret in order to stop them.
Post-modern-
Pastiche-A media text made up from other media text pieces or of imitations of other styles
Irony- Irony is when humour is based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaning
Intertextuality- The practice of purposely including a reference of one text in the narrative of another, it can generate levels of meaning for the viewer.
Parody: A parody is in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation
Spoof: a composition that imitates or misrepresents some body's style, usually in a humorous way
Other movies in scary movie:
Scream
I know what you did last summer
The sixth sense
Halloween
The Blair Witch Project The Usual Suspects Titanic and AmistadThe Matrix
CHARACTERS- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_Movie#Characters
They were distributed by Dimension Films through two different studios: Miramax Films, as it was originally the studio's genre film label during executive producers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein's run and produced the first three films, and The Weinstein Company, the brothers' newly formed studio, which currently produces the rest of the series' release after departing from Miramax and taking the Dimension Films label with them. Miramax/Disney retains international distribution rights.
Scary Movie (July 7, 2000) is the first film in the series. The film is the only in the series to feature exposed male genitalia. Scary Movie was the highest grossing film of the series, grossing around $278,019,771 worldwide. The movie is based on other scary movies made before but some of the details are made into jokes (Scream)
Scary movie Franchise:
Scary movie 1
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Writers:
Shawn Wayans (written by) &Marlon Wayans(written by) ...
Release Date:
8 September 2000 (UK)
Genre: Comedy
A group of teenagers including Cindy Campbell and Bobby Prinze, accidentally hit a man when driving, and dispose of the body, but now they are being stalked by a very recognisable masked killer. The victim count increases, whilst Cindy must survive the carnage that has she has seen in so many films before.
Six friends - Cindy Campbell, Bobby Prinze, Buffy Gilmore, Greg Phillipe, Ray Wilkins, and Brenda Meeks - are being stalked by a serial killer. A serial killer that is after them because of an accident that they caused last Halloween. A serial killer that seems to have come out of every other scary movie. The body count has already started with Drew Decker, the local town slut, and it's starting to build up. The friends are going to have to escape from both the killer's clutches and annoying news reporter Gail Hailstorm if they plan on living
Scary movie 2
7 September 2001 (UK)
A group of teens including Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks are invited to spend a night in Hell House. Professor Oldman has convinced them it for a school project, but the night won't go past quietly. Master Kane is long dead, but still plans on enjoying himself, especially with Alex Monday. When things really start getting bad, the gang must work together to find a way to capture this ghostly menace.
Megan Voorhees is possessed and two priests, Father McFeely and Father Harris, must drive the demon out, but the exorcism doesn't go as planned. A year later, survivors Cindy Campbell, Ray Wilkins, and Shorty and Brenda Meeks, are at college, trying to forget the incidents that occurred last Halloween. Cindy is falling for Buddy, who loves to give wedgies, and Ray is still confused about his sexuality. Professor Oldman and his paralyzed assistant, Dwight, have decided to do a research study at Hell House, the house where the bad exorcism took place, and disguise it as a sleep disorder study. Chaos starts as soon as Cindy arrives and meets the creepy caretaker with the funny hand. But the house has some deep dark secrets that the group has to solve, even if they are scary or disgusting.
Scary movie 3
23 January 2004 (UK)
A mysterious killer video tape is circulating around. One look at this tape and you have seven days left to live. News Reporter Cindy Campbell (Faris) witnesses this video tape and tries to work out a way to prevent her death. But this is not the only mystery to appear. Crop circles have been appearing in the local farm of Tom (Sheen) and George (Rex). With help from Aunt Shaneequa (Latifah), Cindy suspects that the aliens may be linked with the killer tape and must now work out both mysteries before it's the end of the world.
Scary movie 4
13 April 2006 (UK)
Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back as the lovable, dim-witted Cindy Campbell and her self-serving, sex-crazed pal Brenda respectively. They are joined this time around by Craig Bierko as the cute, but utterly clueless, Tom Ryan. Together, they battle to save the world from a ruthless alien invasion. Cindy Campbell moves in next to Tom Ryan because she's taking care of an old lady. She finds out the house is haunted by a little boy and goes on a quest in the village to find out who killed him and why. Also, Alien "Tr-iPods" are invading the world and Cindy has to uncover the secret in order to stop them.
Post-modern-
Pastiche-A media text made up from other media text pieces or of imitations of other styles
Irony- Irony is when humour is based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaning
Intertextuality- The practice of purposely including a reference of one text in the narrative of another, it can generate levels of meaning for the viewer.
Parody: A parody is in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation
Spoof: a composition that imitates or misrepresents some body's style, usually in a humorous way
Other movies in scary movie:
Scream
I know what you did last summer
The sixth sense
Halloween
The Blair Witch Project The Usual Suspects Titanic and AmistadThe Matrix
CHARACTERS- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_Movie#Characters
Second draft
How has the role of female characters changed in action adventure movies and become more dominant over the years with reference to “Resident Evil Extinction”.“Mankind faces extinction, one woman, is the final hope, for our survival”[1]‘In 1970s action-adventure shows, only 15 per cent of the leading characters were women’[2]. This shows how rare it was for women in the past to have a lead role in movies. This proves that women were under-represented and hardly had a value in society. However, this has changed over the years as the number of women in leading dominant roles has exceeded this shows change in society as in ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female’[3].Males have dominated the action genre for many years, playing the protagonists in most films. Therefore, females were given roles in action films purely because of their physical attraction and to be used as sex objects. Women were stereotypically given the passive roles whilst men were given the active roles; however this is not particularly the case in Russel Mulcahy’s film Resident Evil Extinction in which women are portrayed differently in this male dominated society the women in this film oppose Propp’s theory as women are not ‘princesses’ but the ‘heroes’. However as the film has a male director it can be seen that the women are also under-represented as sex objects for the male gaze, this can be shown through the costumes and suggestively the props used.
Resident Evil Extinction is a contemporary film that portrays women as dominant, for example when we see Milla Jovoich in the last seen of the movie she is killing many zombies. She is shown as a display of the “ass-kicking female empowerment” [4] that needs to save mankind from extinction. This proves Jovovich as a powerful and assertive female character. However women have not just been shown as strong characters recently, this has also been the case in some films from the past such as Alien and Terminator.
In the movie Alien (1979) the female character – Signourey Weaver is the protagonist of the film who is ‘resourceful, self-reliant, hard-assed, feminist action heroine’[5]. She is shown as a masculine character as she is seen killing the predators and is portrayed as a ‘male’. This is because Signourey Weavers character, Ripley is the only surviving character and all the action revolves around her. However, on the other hand when she gets captured a male saves her. This shows that women are still subordinate to men and need them to save the day for them which links to Propp’s theory of the hero and the princess because as well as her taking on the hero role she could not fulfill that character well enough and still needed a man to save the day for her which makes him the hero. This shows that women could not take the full active role as protagonist-hero characters in action adventure and society had not changed enough as it was still a ‘patriarchal’ society.
‘Representation is seen as an expression of ideology, it expresses different kinds of power relationships in society which are to do with inequalities of groups’[6]. Milla Jovovich challenges these dominant ideologies in Resident Evil Extinction. She is shown as dominant and a superior character. She’s a female character taking on a man’s role. She is represented as an independent and strong female; her character seems to be challenging the stereotypes that females are associated with weak, emotional, and sex objects. Although like many other females in the action adventure genre Milla jovovich is also represented as beautiful. However her character is also very powerful as she is on a mission to save mankind. Milla Jovovich is represented as dominant in many of the scenes as we can see her riding a motorbike which is usually associated to men who are mostly stereotyped as strong and powerful. She is also shown as a powerful character and challenges stereotypes as she is shown using weapons such as guns and machetes to kill zombies. The machetes and guns represent more of her male side and show the female dominance that she has throughout the film as she is always seen walking around with something so threatening. The machetes and guns can be seen as phallic objects and therefore this reinforces her power as she is able to castrate men, therefore instead of the women being seen as weak it is men who would be seen as weak. Also when the men watch Resident Evil Extinction it would be them who would have to cross gender into a woman instead of it having to be women who typically had to be the ones to cross gender into males in action adventure films. Resident Evil Extinction clearly suggests that the representation of females within the film industry has changed, due to the reason that nowadays there are many female action stars whereas before females were only given parts which fitted in with their stereotypes e.g. housewife or object of sexual desire for the male. By Jovovich taking on a masculine role she is presenting females as more independent and strong.
Milla Jovovich does not support Laura Mulvey’s theory (1975) which ‘argues that the dominant point of view within cinema is masculine, especially where a woman is concerned. The female body is displayed for the ‘male gaze’ in order to provide erotic pleasure and ultimately a sense of control over her’[7]. Resident evil extinction challenges this as Jovovich is seen as a dominant and strong character who takes on a masculine role and instead of males gazing upon the female they would’ve have to cross gender and identify with her or would be anxious and afraid of her as they fear the female character castrating their ‘penis’. However, Mulveys theory can be supported to an extent as the male gaze is still appropriate at times. This is through the use of costume, for example at the beginning of Resident Evil Extinction Milla Jovovich lying in a bathroom and only covered in the shower net. The camera zooms out on her and shows her whole body. In this image she is represented as weak and as an ‘object of desire’ therefore the men would watch the movie ‘voyeuristically’. She is also represented as a sex object, this is after the bath scene we see her wear a red dress which is quite short this reinforces the stereotypes that women are seen as sex objects as red connotes love and makes her look seductive, therefore she reinforces some of the stereotypes that are linked to Mulvey’s 'male gaze' theory. The audience then assumes that all action adventure films are targeted towards males, because of the constant depiction of women as objects of desire. However the male characters do not get enough time to gaze upon Jovovich as she is always killing someone or doing something active, also her costume in the movie after a while changes and she is seen wearing khaki coloured clothes and a long cloak. The khaki colours clothes present her as powerful as those are the colours that army men tend to wear therefore she is seen as similar to them and therefore dominant just like the men in the army.
“She doesn’t lead the story, she doesn’t make the central decisions, she doesn’t repeatedly save her male colleague, and she’s not the star of the film.” [8]. Women have not always been represented as powerful and dominant characters but instead they have more often been presents as ‘passive-weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or morally token females’[9] as they are shown to simply be there for the pleasure of the male hero, whereas the men were portrayed as ‘assertive, aggressive- adventurous, active and victorious’[10]. This shows how patriarchal society was and how women were always given a stereotypical role in all movies claiming that women were oppressed. However ‘In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s only 20 to 35 per cent of characters were females, by the mid-1980s there were more women in leading roles, but still there were twice as many men on screen’[11]. This shows at this time more women became involved in leading roles and it demonstrated some sort of gain over the way they had been represented, and how society was changing, but it also shows that males were more dominant in the film industry, making it difficult for females to become successful.
‘Men typically made the decisions which led the story, and were assertive, confident and dominant’[12] a great example of a film that shows this is Superman (1978). In this movie women are shown as weak and inferior towards the man. This movie was pretty patriarchal and would have not pleased feminists as it shows how much the role of women in Hollywood has changed compared to today as the typical gender role females generally played is the women who needs saving because she is weak and is apparently incapable of getting herself out of a difficult situation as shown in superman such as when superman has to save a women from a car crash and she falls unconscious and when superman brings her out of the car he kisses her which shows that women are just an object of desire for men. Consequently, this shows that females are seen to be a ‘prize’ for the hero, for his hard work of saving her. Superman is shown many times saving women lives in the movie which is a clear portrayal of male dominance as there is no sign of female empowerment or women being as strong as superman. The most relevant role a respective female plays in the movie is by Lois lane that is Superman's love interest. ‘Although Lois Lane in Superman is a successful reporter, for example, it is still the (super-) heroic man who leads the story and saves the world’ [13] this proves that the movie is male dominated. Lois Lane is hardly shown in any strong positions throughout the whole film giving females a negative representation once again as it shows that women were only given token roles in action adventure films and were degraded, therefore they were underrepresented and ‘symbolically annihilated’
Women are mostly underrepresented in the movies due to the films actually being directed by males. This is the case in Resident Evil Extinction as it is directed by Russel Mulcahy. There are many other action adventure films starring women such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Charlies Angles’. Women usually tend to be represented as emotional, sexual, beautiful and size/physique. However, in Resident Evil Extinction, Milla Jovovich (Alice) is represented as a strong, dominant and in control. However, can we argue that this is a fair representation of women? As it is likely that male directors portray women characters different from how women directors portray women characters, simply because it’s harder for them to relate to the characters. But as there is such a less amount of female directors it is hard for women to ever be represented in a fair way as men are likely to always be biased. The reason I believe that there are such little amounts of women directors is because mostly jobs that women prefer are quiet stereotypical they would either want to be a teacher, secretary, nurse or remain a housewife. Another reason is that after women get pregnant it is seen less likely that they would carry on with their profession as they now have a family to look after and it is harder for women to enter this industry as it is male dominated.
Women have many negative stereotypes and can be characterized into two main categories. They are the ‘Madonna who is pure, maternal, chaste, modest and The Whore who is loose, sexual, amoral, sinful’[14]. A good example of a film that represents both the ‘Whore’ and the ‘Madonna’ is ‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987). Fatal attraction is able to exploit the different roles in which the women play throughout the film, one being the Madonna in the film is the housewife shown to be caring and innocent and pure compared to the other female character who is the Whore as she is the one who uses her sexual appearance in order to get what she wants and comes across as sexual and sinful. This movie was made during the male backlash as "Faludi" found out that there was a backlash against women having careers and being independent on themselves and women liberation's. Therefore in this movie the women who works and is independent is seen as villain and the housewife is seen as the princess. This shows that how if women wanted to do a job they were seen as sinners and were not accepted in society and were losers as Glenn Close (the whore) ends up dying in the movie.
In ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female, although still less than half’[15]. This shows that society was in fact changing and women were beginning to get more of significance in society. Women became more confident due to the second wave feminism which happened at the Second World War, because the women got to go to work and felt freer as the men were out fighting at the war. This meant that women were able to do more work and had more of a social life and helped females to start moving away from being the passive, weaker sex and the traditional ‘housewife’. This lead to women gaining more of a complex and central role in movies, which showed the change and development in society.
Another film which shows the dramatic change of roles of women in the media is, ‘Kill Bill’ (Quentin Tarantino, 2004), a contemporary movie in which the protagonist role is challenged. Before the movie was associated with a male protagonist, but now it’s a female protagonist Uma Thurman, who is strong, powerful and an active and tough women. This is shows women’s ability to be just as equal as men, which, reflects the zeitgeist. Representations of women are gradually changing due to the positive role women are being given. As a result this film was highly successful making a total of $66,207,920[16] as well as promoting women’s authority which shows that women can be successful in such roles where they are active which is again reinforced in Resident Evil Extinction in which the protagonist is Milla Jovovich also a female. The female viewers would see the female characters as active characters that drive the narrative forward as they see females being heroes and not acting as a sub plot. However, the male viewers may look from a different perspective as Women in action adventure films are shown to be body image obsessed, where their body has to be toned and slim. For example, in Kill Bill (2003), Uma Thurman’s character has a desirable, stereotyped body, which is accentuated through her tight, bright yellow leather outfit. The outfit also has an intersexual reference to Bruce Lee’s, Game of Death (1978); as a result the allusions to him can suggest Thurman’s character, The Bride, is also physically powerful, therefore subverting the stereotype of women being weak. However, male viewers may render them as passive characters and they see them to be objectified and they gain voyeuristic pleasures in looking at their bodies. This then confirms that ‘Pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’[17].
In addition this refers to what Tuchman suggested as ‘Symbolic annihilation’ of women[18]. This refers to how women had no value in society and were underrepresented as they had no authority and were seen as incapable of making decisions for themselves. Tuchman’s theory relates to women being stereotypes in movies as they had typical roles such as housewives or were there to look sexually attractive. Therefore characters such as Milla Jovovich and Cameron Diaz in Charlies Angles can both be seen as objects of the ‘male gaze’ and can be seen as the ‘Bimbo’. ‘The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction’[19] . This is reinforced as they are both very pretty and both have blonde hair. The ‘symbolic annihilation’ creates stereotypes and controls women roles in society of being the traditional wife, mother and housewife.
In addition Mulvey’s essay of “visual pleaser and narrative cinema” was seen as the feminist claim that men and women are positioned differentially on screen; men as heroes who drive the narrative of the film forward and women as objects of sexual desire and fetishist gazing. Women are considered to be there in order to be “looked at, objectified and sexualized by the male protagonist”[20]. In Resident Evil Extinction Milla Jovovich is objectified through her clothing e.g. tightly fitted shorts and sleeveless tops. Similarly all the female characters in the film are young, good looking and attractive. Sharon Smith claimed that "The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male characters", implying that women are not really considered because of their intelligence but only because of their looks. This is also the case in Catwoman (2004), in which Halle Berry is wearing some very tight black leather clothing which is also revealing her cleavage and other body parts. In this movie although Halle Berry is supposed to be seen as an action woman who is pretty powerful she is mostly objectified as a sex symbol to the male viewers giving them a chance to gaze upon her. Overall she is being portrayed as the “to-be-looked-at-ness”[21] object resulting in her to be gazed upon.
In 1992-1993 that ‘only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation’[22]. This shows a big decrease from the 70’s and shows how society is changing and becoming less patriarchal. This is re emphasized as it suggest in Gauntlet’s book that ‘ Men and women are seen working side by side, as equals, in the hospitals, schools and police stations of television land’ [23]. This showed that women were beginning to become just as equal as men and were able to do more active jobs. Also ‘movie producers are wary of having women as screaming victims, and have realized that kick- ass heroin’s do better business’[24]. Once again this shows that directors and producers are changing the way they present women and prefer it better if they took on a active role as its better business suggesting that that’s what the audience likes showing that society has changed and find screaming women boring but prefer women taking on more dominant roles.
In conclusion women in action adventures have typically been under represented and ‘symbolically annihilated’ in the past. However “Women have gradually become more independent and powerful in Hollywood cinema”[25]. In Resident Evil Extinction is an example of this as Milla Jovovich’s central character and dominant role have shown a progress in this genre. The film challenges Mulvey’s theory (1975) of the ‘male gaze’ but it seems to be shown that women are gradually being able move away from being sexually objectified and given roles such as housewives or a mother and are beginning to be seen more active than passive, this is due to first wave feminism and second wave feminism. Resident Evil Extinction is one of the films that shows women as active and superior there is also movies such as Kill Bill starring Uma Thurman and Charlies Angles starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu which show women as the dominant character instead of a male and are in fact seen defeating men. However although women are given such central and active roles they are still objectified to the male gaze as we live in a patriarchal society which is male dominated and males are the ones who most often watch the action adventure movies therefore in order to attract them women have to be sexually attractive and objectified.
Word count: 3,555
Resident Evil Extinction is a contemporary film that portrays women as dominant, for example when we see Milla Jovoich in the last seen of the movie she is killing many zombies. She is shown as a display of the “ass-kicking female empowerment” [4] that needs to save mankind from extinction. This proves Jovovich as a powerful and assertive female character. However women have not just been shown as strong characters recently, this has also been the case in some films from the past such as Alien and Terminator.
In the movie Alien (1979) the female character – Signourey Weaver is the protagonist of the film who is ‘resourceful, self-reliant, hard-assed, feminist action heroine’[5]. She is shown as a masculine character as she is seen killing the predators and is portrayed as a ‘male’. This is because Signourey Weavers character, Ripley is the only surviving character and all the action revolves around her. However, on the other hand when she gets captured a male saves her. This shows that women are still subordinate to men and need them to save the day for them which links to Propp’s theory of the hero and the princess because as well as her taking on the hero role she could not fulfill that character well enough and still needed a man to save the day for her which makes him the hero. This shows that women could not take the full active role as protagonist-hero characters in action adventure and society had not changed enough as it was still a ‘patriarchal’ society.
‘Representation is seen as an expression of ideology, it expresses different kinds of power relationships in society which are to do with inequalities of groups’[6]. Milla Jovovich challenges these dominant ideologies in Resident Evil Extinction. She is shown as dominant and a superior character. She’s a female character taking on a man’s role. She is represented as an independent and strong female; her character seems to be challenging the stereotypes that females are associated with weak, emotional, and sex objects. Although like many other females in the action adventure genre Milla jovovich is also represented as beautiful. However her character is also very powerful as she is on a mission to save mankind. Milla Jovovich is represented as dominant in many of the scenes as we can see her riding a motorbike which is usually associated to men who are mostly stereotyped as strong and powerful. She is also shown as a powerful character and challenges stereotypes as she is shown using weapons such as guns and machetes to kill zombies. The machetes and guns represent more of her male side and show the female dominance that she has throughout the film as she is always seen walking around with something so threatening. The machetes and guns can be seen as phallic objects and therefore this reinforces her power as she is able to castrate men, therefore instead of the women being seen as weak it is men who would be seen as weak. Also when the men watch Resident Evil Extinction it would be them who would have to cross gender into a woman instead of it having to be women who typically had to be the ones to cross gender into males in action adventure films. Resident Evil Extinction clearly suggests that the representation of females within the film industry has changed, due to the reason that nowadays there are many female action stars whereas before females were only given parts which fitted in with their stereotypes e.g. housewife or object of sexual desire for the male. By Jovovich taking on a masculine role she is presenting females as more independent and strong.
Milla Jovovich does not support Laura Mulvey’s theory (1975) which ‘argues that the dominant point of view within cinema is masculine, especially where a woman is concerned. The female body is displayed for the ‘male gaze’ in order to provide erotic pleasure and ultimately a sense of control over her’[7]. Resident evil extinction challenges this as Jovovich is seen as a dominant and strong character who takes on a masculine role and instead of males gazing upon the female they would’ve have to cross gender and identify with her or would be anxious and afraid of her as they fear the female character castrating their ‘penis’. However, Mulveys theory can be supported to an extent as the male gaze is still appropriate at times. This is through the use of costume, for example at the beginning of Resident Evil Extinction Milla Jovovich lying in a bathroom and only covered in the shower net. The camera zooms out on her and shows her whole body. In this image she is represented as weak and as an ‘object of desire’ therefore the men would watch the movie ‘voyeuristically’. She is also represented as a sex object, this is after the bath scene we see her wear a red dress which is quite short this reinforces the stereotypes that women are seen as sex objects as red connotes love and makes her look seductive, therefore she reinforces some of the stereotypes that are linked to Mulvey’s 'male gaze' theory. The audience then assumes that all action adventure films are targeted towards males, because of the constant depiction of women as objects of desire. However the male characters do not get enough time to gaze upon Jovovich as she is always killing someone or doing something active, also her costume in the movie after a while changes and she is seen wearing khaki coloured clothes and a long cloak. The khaki colours clothes present her as powerful as those are the colours that army men tend to wear therefore she is seen as similar to them and therefore dominant just like the men in the army.
“She doesn’t lead the story, she doesn’t make the central decisions, she doesn’t repeatedly save her male colleague, and she’s not the star of the film.” [8]. Women have not always been represented as powerful and dominant characters but instead they have more often been presents as ‘passive-weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or morally token females’[9] as they are shown to simply be there for the pleasure of the male hero, whereas the men were portrayed as ‘assertive, aggressive- adventurous, active and victorious’[10]. This shows how patriarchal society was and how women were always given a stereotypical role in all movies claiming that women were oppressed. However ‘In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s only 20 to 35 per cent of characters were females, by the mid-1980s there were more women in leading roles, but still there were twice as many men on screen’[11]. This shows at this time more women became involved in leading roles and it demonstrated some sort of gain over the way they had been represented, and how society was changing, but it also shows that males were more dominant in the film industry, making it difficult for females to become successful.
‘Men typically made the decisions which led the story, and were assertive, confident and dominant’[12] a great example of a film that shows this is Superman (1978). In this movie women are shown as weak and inferior towards the man. This movie was pretty patriarchal and would have not pleased feminists as it shows how much the role of women in Hollywood has changed compared to today as the typical gender role females generally played is the women who needs saving because she is weak and is apparently incapable of getting herself out of a difficult situation as shown in superman such as when superman has to save a women from a car crash and she falls unconscious and when superman brings her out of the car he kisses her which shows that women are just an object of desire for men. Consequently, this shows that females are seen to be a ‘prize’ for the hero, for his hard work of saving her. Superman is shown many times saving women lives in the movie which is a clear portrayal of male dominance as there is no sign of female empowerment or women being as strong as superman. The most relevant role a respective female plays in the movie is by Lois lane that is Superman's love interest. ‘Although Lois Lane in Superman is a successful reporter, for example, it is still the (super-) heroic man who leads the story and saves the world’ [13] this proves that the movie is male dominated. Lois Lane is hardly shown in any strong positions throughout the whole film giving females a negative representation once again as it shows that women were only given token roles in action adventure films and were degraded, therefore they were underrepresented and ‘symbolically annihilated’
Women are mostly underrepresented in the movies due to the films actually being directed by males. This is the case in Resident Evil Extinction as it is directed by Russel Mulcahy. There are many other action adventure films starring women such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Charlies Angles’. Women usually tend to be represented as emotional, sexual, beautiful and size/physique. However, in Resident Evil Extinction, Milla Jovovich (Alice) is represented as a strong, dominant and in control. However, can we argue that this is a fair representation of women? As it is likely that male directors portray women characters different from how women directors portray women characters, simply because it’s harder for them to relate to the characters. But as there is such a less amount of female directors it is hard for women to ever be represented in a fair way as men are likely to always be biased. The reason I believe that there are such little amounts of women directors is because mostly jobs that women prefer are quiet stereotypical they would either want to be a teacher, secretary, nurse or remain a housewife. Another reason is that after women get pregnant it is seen less likely that they would carry on with their profession as they now have a family to look after and it is harder for women to enter this industry as it is male dominated.
Women have many negative stereotypes and can be characterized into two main categories. They are the ‘Madonna who is pure, maternal, chaste, modest and The Whore who is loose, sexual, amoral, sinful’[14]. A good example of a film that represents both the ‘Whore’ and the ‘Madonna’ is ‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987). Fatal attraction is able to exploit the different roles in which the women play throughout the film, one being the Madonna in the film is the housewife shown to be caring and innocent and pure compared to the other female character who is the Whore as she is the one who uses her sexual appearance in order to get what she wants and comes across as sexual and sinful. This movie was made during the male backlash as "Faludi" found out that there was a backlash against women having careers and being independent on themselves and women liberation's. Therefore in this movie the women who works and is independent is seen as villain and the housewife is seen as the princess. This shows that how if women wanted to do a job they were seen as sinners and were not accepted in society and were losers as Glenn Close (the whore) ends up dying in the movie.
In ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female, although still less than half’[15]. This shows that society was in fact changing and women were beginning to get more of significance in society. Women became more confident due to the second wave feminism which happened at the Second World War, because the women got to go to work and felt freer as the men were out fighting at the war. This meant that women were able to do more work and had more of a social life and helped females to start moving away from being the passive, weaker sex and the traditional ‘housewife’. This lead to women gaining more of a complex and central role in movies, which showed the change and development in society.
Another film which shows the dramatic change of roles of women in the media is, ‘Kill Bill’ (Quentin Tarantino, 2004), a contemporary movie in which the protagonist role is challenged. Before the movie was associated with a male protagonist, but now it’s a female protagonist Uma Thurman, who is strong, powerful and an active and tough women. This is shows women’s ability to be just as equal as men, which, reflects the zeitgeist. Representations of women are gradually changing due to the positive role women are being given. As a result this film was highly successful making a total of $66,207,920[16] as well as promoting women’s authority which shows that women can be successful in such roles where they are active which is again reinforced in Resident Evil Extinction in which the protagonist is Milla Jovovich also a female. The female viewers would see the female characters as active characters that drive the narrative forward as they see females being heroes and not acting as a sub plot. However, the male viewers may look from a different perspective as Women in action adventure films are shown to be body image obsessed, where their body has to be toned and slim. For example, in Kill Bill (2003), Uma Thurman’s character has a desirable, stereotyped body, which is accentuated through her tight, bright yellow leather outfit. The outfit also has an intersexual reference to Bruce Lee’s, Game of Death (1978); as a result the allusions to him can suggest Thurman’s character, The Bride, is also physically powerful, therefore subverting the stereotype of women being weak. However, male viewers may render them as passive characters and they see them to be objectified and they gain voyeuristic pleasures in looking at their bodies. This then confirms that ‘Pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’[17].
In addition this refers to what Tuchman suggested as ‘Symbolic annihilation’ of women[18]. This refers to how women had no value in society and were underrepresented as they had no authority and were seen as incapable of making decisions for themselves. Tuchman’s theory relates to women being stereotypes in movies as they had typical roles such as housewives or were there to look sexually attractive. Therefore characters such as Milla Jovovich and Cameron Diaz in Charlies Angles can both be seen as objects of the ‘male gaze’ and can be seen as the ‘Bimbo’. ‘The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction’[19] . This is reinforced as they are both very pretty and both have blonde hair. The ‘symbolic annihilation’ creates stereotypes and controls women roles in society of being the traditional wife, mother and housewife.
In addition Mulvey’s essay of “visual pleaser and narrative cinema” was seen as the feminist claim that men and women are positioned differentially on screen; men as heroes who drive the narrative of the film forward and women as objects of sexual desire and fetishist gazing. Women are considered to be there in order to be “looked at, objectified and sexualized by the male protagonist”[20]. In Resident Evil Extinction Milla Jovovich is objectified through her clothing e.g. tightly fitted shorts and sleeveless tops. Similarly all the female characters in the film are young, good looking and attractive. Sharon Smith claimed that "The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male characters", implying that women are not really considered because of their intelligence but only because of their looks. This is also the case in Catwoman (2004), in which Halle Berry is wearing some very tight black leather clothing which is also revealing her cleavage and other body parts. In this movie although Halle Berry is supposed to be seen as an action woman who is pretty powerful she is mostly objectified as a sex symbol to the male viewers giving them a chance to gaze upon her. Overall she is being portrayed as the “to-be-looked-at-ness”[21] object resulting in her to be gazed upon.
In 1992-1993 that ‘only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation’[22]. This shows a big decrease from the 70’s and shows how society is changing and becoming less patriarchal. This is re emphasized as it suggest in Gauntlet’s book that ‘ Men and women are seen working side by side, as equals, in the hospitals, schools and police stations of television land’ [23]. This showed that women were beginning to become just as equal as men and were able to do more active jobs. Also ‘movie producers are wary of having women as screaming victims, and have realized that kick- ass heroin’s do better business’[24]. Once again this shows that directors and producers are changing the way they present women and prefer it better if they took on a active role as its better business suggesting that that’s what the audience likes showing that society has changed and find screaming women boring but prefer women taking on more dominant roles.
In conclusion women in action adventures have typically been under represented and ‘symbolically annihilated’ in the past. However “Women have gradually become more independent and powerful in Hollywood cinema”[25]. In Resident Evil Extinction is an example of this as Milla Jovovich’s central character and dominant role have shown a progress in this genre. The film challenges Mulvey’s theory (1975) of the ‘male gaze’ but it seems to be shown that women are gradually being able move away from being sexually objectified and given roles such as housewives or a mother and are beginning to be seen more active than passive, this is due to first wave feminism and second wave feminism. Resident Evil Extinction is one of the films that shows women as active and superior there is also movies such as Kill Bill starring Uma Thurman and Charlies Angles starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu which show women as the dominant character instead of a male and are in fact seen defeating men. However although women are given such central and active roles they are still objectified to the male gaze as we live in a patriarchal society which is male dominated and males are the ones who most often watch the action adventure movies therefore in order to attract them women have to be sexually attractive and objectified.
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