In the American films you have studies for this topic, how
far do the representations of women and men reflect the time they were made? (40)
The two American films that I have studies for this topic
are Badlands, directed by Terrance Mallick, and Natural Born Killers, directed
by Oliver Stone. These films have a 20 year gap between them, with Badlands
being released in 1973 and NBK in 1994, this time difference can be shown
through the mise-en-scene, setting as well as the representations of gender.
Both of these films are each loosely based around the same event, the
Starkwhether and Fugegate killing spree which occurred in the late 1950s.
With Badlands being set at the time of this event and
released in the 70’s, within American society at these times women were seen as
much more vulnerable and niave compared to the more empowered women in society
now. This is reflected within Badlands as the lead female character, Holly, who
Is around the age of 14 is shown as very niave and in the need of being
rescued. It is hard to argue that the representation of Holly is a reflection
on women in society at the time as Holly is only a young teenager not necessarily
a woman: however due to the nature and maturity of what she gets herself into
it has to be considered that her representation of women is the right one. Throughout
Badlands Holly seems to be unaware that her boyfriend, Kit, is killing anyone
who stands in his way, even though she is with him when it happens. This shows
that she does not want to have to admit to herself what he is doing, and begins
to condone it up until the last few scenes of the film when she sees sense. Her
niavity and acceptance begins to show how men were much more dominant in
society at this time.
Comparing this to the representation given to women in NBK
there is a very clear contrast, the lead female in NBK, Valarie is represented
in just as much of an evil and manipulative way as her boyfriend Mickey as she
joins in with the killings and at times sparks it. Unlike Holly who never joins
in with the killing and just takes a back seat. This shows a clear contrast
between the women in society in the 70’s and women in the 1990’s because Valery
is much more of a dominant character with control over situations unlike Holly
who lets Kit do everything. Within NBK Valarie is a very sexually aware,
provocative woman, however in Badlands Holly is a young girl who is
experiencing love and sex for the first time (this is mainly due to her age)
yet this shows that as Valery is still quite young but is so aware of the
effect she can have on men: that this was much more accepted within the 90’s.
At the start of NBK Valarie is wearing skimpy clothes and dancing around a
diner provocatively attracting the attention of all of the men. This is something
which was much more common in the 90’s as women gained empowerment by
understanding their body and men’s reactions to it, rather than in the 70’s
which was much more restricted as more women were being taken control of.
The representations of women in both of these films clearly
show the societies views at the time, as within the 70’s the working world was
very much male dominated and so the fact that it would have been mostly males who
worked on Badlands shows how men thought that the women should be represented
through Holly, frail and weak. Whereas more women began to be accepted within
the workplace in the 90’s which is shown through Valarie’s empowerment as that
idea was likely to have come from a women who no longer wanted women to be seen
an vulnerable.
Within Badlands the representation of Kit as a male
character is a poor one, although he is not shown physically in a stereotypically
masculine way as he isn’t incredibly strong or powerful, his other traits begin
to enable us to depict the way men acted in the 1970’s. Kit was a very independent
person, even though he spent the film with Holly he did not seem to confide in
her about anything: he was very self confined. This could just be the
representation of Charles Satrkwhether being shown, or it could be due to the
fact that men in the 70’s did not respect women enough to trust them with
anything important, whether it be their own feelings or something like killing.
Kit was also the instigater and sole actor on the murders, this shows again,
that men were much more dominant and felt the need to hold the power within the
1970’s compared to the 90’s where they took more of a backseat in some cases.
The representation of Mickey in NBK shows a stereotypical male
character physically, unlike Kit in Badlands, as he is a very physically dominant
male. This begins to show the fact that men took more of a care with their appearance
within the 90’s mainly due to the fact that women were becoming much pickier
with the men they wanted to attract so the men had to step up their game, so to
speak.
It is clear that the representations of both genders within
Badlands and Natural Born Killers reflect the time in which they were made as
there are clear differences between these two films and the time gap can be
visibly seen. The two films show similarities in event in which they are both
loosely based on, yet the way in which they have been approached by the
directors is very different and in both cases works well to show its intent and
society at the times.
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