Homework: Wednesday, 8th October

Hi,

This week I would like you to read the example essay I have put below. It is based on the two films we have watched. You will have to write something similar for your controlled assessment, based on the two media texts you chose last week. 

Compare and contrast the representation of gender in the films Sherlock Holmes and Slumdog Millionaire

Over the years, the portrayal of gender in the world of film has changed. In the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, it was common for women to be portrayed as the weaker sex, represented as housewives, secretaries, or modern representations of the helpless fairy-tale princess, imprisoned, waiting to be rescued by a handsome prince. It was also common for women to be portrayed as sex objects, whose main purpose was to be the object of men’s desire. By contrast, men, whether they were heroes or villains, tended to be shown as physically strong, mentally superior and not afraid to put women in their place. One example of this is in the James Bond film Goldfinger, in which Bond pats a girl on the backside, telling her to leave him and another male character  alone for ‘man talk’. In a later Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun, he has to rescue his colleague, Goodnight, from the clutches of the evil Scaramanga. Although Goodnight is actually a secret agent herself, she is still very much the stereotypical helpless female: blonde, physically attractive, not especially bright and in need of saving by a male. 

Whilst the portrayal of men has stayed largely the same in the twenty-first century (Daniel Craig’s Bond is as stereotypically macho as ever and Sylvester Stallone’s interpretation of male heroes in The Expendables franchise plays on eighties ideas of muscle-bound masculinity), women have gradually begun to take control of their own destinies. Perhaps the best examples of this are in the Lara Croft Tomb Raider films, in which Angelina Jolie essentially portrays a female version of Indiana Jones and in the Hunger Games films, where Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss has to survive in an arena of death and bloodshed.

This essay will focus on the representation of gender in the films Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Although both are contemporary films, the male characters in Slumdog Millionaire have very old fashioned attitudes towards the main female character, Latika, whereas Irene in Sherlock Holmes, is an altogether more independent and physically able character.

In Sherlock Holmes, there are three main male characters, Holmes, Watson and Lord Blackwood and one main female character, Irene. In some ways, Holmes and Watson are very stereotypical male characters: they are both white, roughly in their thirties or forties and are both physically attractive with full heads of hair, even features, and in good shape. They are played by Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law respectively, who are both considered to be Hollywood sex symbols and were both cast probably because they were likely to attract as many female viewers as male. Holmes also has something in common with the eighties macho stereotype in that he likes to fight. In an early scene, we see him, shirt off, engaging in a fist fight with another man. He does not rely merely on brute force, however, to defeat his opponent, but rather, thinks about every move before he makes it. In this way, he is both upholding and subverting ideas of masculinity all in one go.

Another way in which Holmes subverts ideas of masculinity is through his relationship with Watson. Their relationship is slightly different from that of stereotypical male characters, particularly in eighties action films such as Predator or Rambo. In these movies, the male characters think of themselves as brothers who look out for each other, often giving each other high fives and rarely showing any emotion other than anger or satisfaction at a job well done, whereas Holmes and Watson, with their constant bickering, are more like an old married couple. There is even the possibility that Holmes might actually be attracted to Watson, hence the difficulty he has dealing with the idea of Watson getting married and spending less time with him, and this certainly challenges the conventions of gender and sexuality in Hollywood.

Unlike the stereotypical fairy-tale princess, Irene is a strong character, both physically and intellectually, who quite often takes control of situations. Her physical strength is highlighted in a scene early on in the film where two men attempt to attack her, but she uses her physical prowess to overpower them. There is another scene later on where she asserts her control over Holmes using both her brains and her body. The scene begins with her discovering him hiding in a cupboard in her room, then tricking him into drinking some wine which she has drugged. She interrupts her chain of thought by stripping naked in front of him before disappearing behind a screen, then re-emerging. Holmes is actually there to warn her of an impending danger and that she should leave London, but she refuses, claiming that she can look after herself. The framing of some of the shots is significant in this scene because they show the shift in power; there is a shot in the middle of the scene which features the two characters, with Holmes physically higher than Irene because he is taller, but by the end of the scene he has drunk the poison and collapsed into her arms.

Despite Irene’s early successes, the climactic scene towards the end of the film in which Holmes finally defeats the evil Lord Blackwood reverts to a very stereotypical portrayal of gender. She is knocked off the top of Tower Bridge by Blackwood, leaving him to fight Holmes, only to be defeated. Holmes then discovers Irene lying on a platform we did not originally see, and she comes to with her head on his lap in a complete reversal of the earlier scene in which she poisons him.

The representation of gender in Slumdog Millionaire is in some ways different from Sherlock Holmes, but also in some ways similar. The protagonist, Jamal, is very much a subversion of more traditional ideas of masculinity: he is relatively young, very scrawny, and has to use his brain to navigate his way through a quiz and win the heart of Latika, the girl he loves. In this regard, there is a parallel to be drawn between himself and Holmes, who also uses his intellect to save the day, but Jamal possesses none of his Victorian counterpart’s physical attributes. At the start of the film he also finds himself being held for questioning by police who can’t believe that someone from the slums could have got as far as he did on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and is completely unable to overpower his captors and escape. Like most of the other male characters in the movie, however, his older brother, Salim, is more of a stereotype: he is a gangster who dies in a gunfight after setting the captive Latika free.

In one respect, Latika, the female love interest in the story, is similar to Irene: she is young, attractive, and we get the sense that, if she were given the chance, she could make something of her life. Unfortunately for her, however, she never gets the chance as, at no point in the film does she have any control over her own destiny and is completely at the mercy of the men in the film. In one scene, Jamal and Salim have to rescue her from a brothel where she is being made to dance for men, and in a later scene she finds herself ticking all the boxes of the female stereotype: she is held captive in the house of the gang leader who has taken a liking to her, and when he comes home from work and demands a sandwich, she has to go into the kitchen and make it for him. Here she is both the fairy-tale princess waiting for her handsome prince to come and rescue her, and the 1960s housewife as portrayed in Mad Men, staying in, waiting for her male partner to come home.

In conclusion, the two films represent gender in ways which are both similar and different. Holmes and Jamal are both smart, but one is physically strong, the other weak. Irene and Latika are both attractive and the object of men’s desires, but while one is feisty and independent, the other never has the opportunity to be anything other than completely dependent on the men around her.

Due: Friday, 10th October