Propps theory and my own

Vladimir Propp (1895) analyzed a whole series of Russian folk talks in the 1920s and decided that the same events kept being repeated in each of the stories. Propp also decided that a narrative needed to have:

• the villain, who struggles with the hero.
• the donor, who prepares and/or provides hero with magical agent.
• the helper, who assists, rescues, solves and/or transfigures the hero.
• the Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain.
• the dispatcher, who sends the hero off.
• the hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds at end.
• the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess).
  

Propp’s theory of narrative seems to be based in a male orientated environment (due to his theory actually reflecting early folk tales) and as such critics often dismiss the theory with regard to film. However, it may still be applied because the function (rather than the gender) of characters is the basis of the theory. E.g. the hero could be a woman; the reward could be a man. Critics argue that Propp’s strict order of characters and events is restrictive. We should rather apply the functions and events randomly as we meet new narratives. E.g. the hero may kill the villain earlier than Propp expects. Changing the traditional format will change the whole way the text is received.
http://www.mediaknowall.com/Propp.html
http://www.adamranson.plus.com/Propp.htm

Some of the case studies I have chosen to study do contain examples of Propps theory, although not all of them in one film. Bridget Jones works with Propps theory, as she is portrayed as rather a conventional princess who is still waiting for her prince to come and rescue her, and she doesn’t really know what to do until he does, whereas Hugh Grant is the false hero and Colin Firth is Bridget’s true love. Her friends help her out during the time she is trying to find love, so they could be considered as the ‘helpers’. A lot of films today seem to contain two of Propps key ingredients; a hero and a villain. There is always a good and a bad person, in any kind of film; horror, sci-fi, drama, action ect. I think that Propps theory is just as strong as it was back then, and perhaps could be argued that it applies even more so nowadays than it did, even though it was intended for folk tales and male characters. Swap the dispatcher for a hospital, the donor for a shop assistant and the helper for a friend and you have a modern day film with the typical characters that exist in this superficial world.

My chosen case studies from 2000's and my own textual analysis of them

How the roles of men and women have changed 20 years later in the 2000’s:

Bridget Jones (2001):

I chose Bridget Jones as another case study film, as it completely and fully represents a modern day woman, who is in a crisis and is looking for love. I believe this film was a major hit as so many women can identify with this character as it’s so stereotypical of women.
I think it’s interesting that at a first glance the character might be deemed as a bit weak and a wreck. However, the fact that it was produced and written by women makes her character undoubtedly a heroin for other women, as well as the fact that Rene has completely taken charge of the lead role. Rene is completely in charge of the screen, as well as the voice over, which relies on her thoughts alone. She shows us women that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that there is someone out there for everyone (In her case, there are two).

The 40 year old virgin (2005):

This is a deliberate contrast and comparison with Bridget Jones, as it singles out all of the single men out there and stereotypes the nerds and geeks. (Big time!) This film, like Jones, is a story of a man who starts off trying to lose his virginity and then ends up falling in love. Some men who have been in similar situations will sympathize with him and understand the feelings and emotions the situation creates, as does Bridget Jones for women. This proves that a man and a woman can play similar roles and still be as successful as each other in achieving the audiences they want to.

Charlie’s Angels (2000):

This film is a typical modern day example of three lead women as protagonists for a change, much like Ripley from Aliens back in the 1980’s, only with a lot more up-to-date equipment. Men are used in this film only as their ‘helpers’, and killed and beaten by these women. Their aim is to join forces which make ‘girl power’ a key topic here. It shows us that they are just as good as men at handling weapons and solving crimes. Interestingly, one of the villains is a man, and the girls prove stronger by capturing him and overpowering him.

Agent Cody Banks (2003):

This has a similar idea to it much like Charlie’s Angels except the lead character is a boy, who is given secret missions to complete as he is selected as an agent. He has to deal with a lot of the same equipment as the girls in Charlie’s angels, although, their ages differ which somehow reflect on their performances. The girls in Charlie’s Angels are a lot more confident in what they are using and of what their missions are, whereas the boy in Agent Cody Banks is only a teenager and is fascinated by the equipment and has to be taught how to use it. The portrayal is different which makes it an interesting contrast that between both these films, the women seem stronger as the protagonists. This film is much like Storm Breaker, which is also about a young boy as an agent.

My own textual analysis on my case studies from the 80's

The Terminator (1984) is, along with an Officer And A Gentleman, an example of an 80’s film where the lead role is predominately a man. It’s about a man showing off his powers and role as an ‘action’ hero, who is indeed a machine, and sent to track down this woman, who is due to give birth to a son who is a threat against the ‘machines’. This, like an Officer and a Gentleman, has both a man and a woman who are on the screens, although the man is a lead figure in both stories, and get opportunities to show off their skills, whereas the women are just like ‘spare parts’ there to help bring the story along and act as a ‘side kick’ to these men.
Aliens however, has a woman as the lead role, and is a continuation from the 1979 film Alien. This was probably the first major leading woman role, in a sci-fi horror/action, which was a huge contrast to the Terminator, which is based on a similar role of hero and survivor. A woman is able to outlive all of the males and females in each Alien film, and fight for a life, which was one of the first major changes in the roles of women on screen, as usually it would be a male taking the lead.
The film Beaches, is a totally different genre to The Terminator or Alien, and creates such a different type of emotion, due to the different situations dealt with the two leading women. It proves, like Alien, that you don’t need to have a male predominant in films to make it a huge success with its audiences, which is probably now why men and women roles are more or less equal now. It contrasts slightly with an officer and a gentleman, as although there are two women characters in both films, which seem close as friends, we experience the friendship closer in Beaches as they are the lead and focus of the whole story, whereas in an Officer and a Gentleman the two women are overshadowed by an overwhelming male majority.

2- Secondary textual analysis on my chosen case study films from the past two decades.

The difference in male and woman roles in the 1980's

An Officer and a Gentleman:

Source from: http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC28folder/OfficerGentleman.html

Subsequently, their (Mayo's and Paula's) clever banter separates Paula and Lynette even further — Lynette, from the start, consists of a character of little more than body. But at the same time, Paula's association with Mayo also subordinates her — she's secondary to the male star and probably too sincere to dupe him (after all he's seen/been through so far). Such is not the case with Lynette. This character shows a real narrative impatience and an inclination toward centrality in the social discourse at hand. From the very start she surfaces as the "townie working-class girl" capable of being what Foley warned against. Mayo himself was such an Armed Forces love-child (another reason why he should know better). A further, serious bond becomes established between him and Paula when she reveals herself to be one as well. But this male-female bond threatens "the company" and Mayo's new identity in terms of this group. The real tenderness established with a woman serves as Mayo's excuse to drop Paula coldly without so much as a note or a phone call. He rejects her not only because she is a townie factory worker "like Lynette" but also because she is a woman and thus the enemy to the group and to the stasis of a world in which he has been "OK." On this level, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN hates women. The male bonding is shown as "good" not only as part of the American way but also as self-protection. The bonds of matrimony, which threaten "the company," become another test to deny tenaciously — yet, in the end, Mayo does go to the factory and sweep Paula off her feet (literally). This ending isolates the couple (from all the other loveless couples). Mayo tenaciously overcame the effects of his mother, his father, and his best friend and could grow to see Paula in a different light from women in general, especially women as represented by Lynette. But how we read Paula's "being saved" is highly problematic. She still stands to gain a great deal economically/socially, and in a way social ascendance is Mayo's gift to her. He gets it as part of the superior position in the decision-making apparatus which the navy grants him as he graduates from the ordeals of officers' training. Paula's role is to complete Mayo's rite of passage. These rites let him have the right to acquire the most "attractive" female character. Women structurally obstruct and threaten the male group, its solidarity, and its ways of transcending everyday mining town/mill town existence. This film serves a dangerous social agenda. It depicts problems in our culture while seeming to depict an alternative.

I chose to study An Officer and a Gentleman, as not only is this quite an old film, dating back to 1982, but it portrays a typical example of the roles of men and women back in the 80's. The two women characters introduced later on in this film are best friends and factory workers Paula and Lynette, who wish to bag themselves an officer and be set for life. However, Lynette surfaces a lot more as the "townie working-class girl" who is certainly after one man for money and security, whereas Paula is different, as she wants something much deeper- love. However, Mayo was warned that their male-female bond could threaten and distract him from his work, so he dumps her coldly, but then sweeps her off her feet at the factory when he declares his love for her.

The situation of these two best friends was typical of factory girls, and typical of film producers. Even though its success as a romantic film is undoubted, it still centers on male characters, with women in the background, adding to the storyline. These two female characters are such a huge contrast from each other, as Paula is seen in a different light to women in general of the 80's, especially her friend Lynette.

Beaches (1988)- From Time Out Film Guide:

From: http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/reviews/67466/Beaches.html

CC and Hillary first meet under the boardwalk in Atlantic City. CC is a vulgar, would-be singer, Hillary a beautiful, poor littlerich girl. As they growup into Midler and Hershey, they keep their relationship alive bywriting letters. Then one day Hillary turns up in New York and becomes CC's flatmate. Hillary sleeps with theatre director Heard;CC marries him. Marshall's slick and stylish flick follows the ups and downs of their marriages and careers, but because CC becomes a star, the pace is sabotaged by several Midler numbers. Even so, Midler carries the movie: nearly all the giggles are due to her comic skills. Two-thirds of the way through, a funny film turns tragic with the utterance of a single word, virus, which means that Hershey has to start gasping and preparing for death. But even though tear-jerking has never been so blatant, your tears of laughter are replaced, dammit, by tears of grief.

This was, for me, an extremely enjoyable, yet emotional film about two best friends, from when they were small right up until the death of one of them. The lead is shared between two girls equally, and the closeness and natural chemistry is what I feel makes it so emotional, which I feel would be unable to be created by two males. This film has kind of grown up from the days of an Officer And A Gentleman, in terms of the career paths women traditionally take, as well as the roles women are given on screen. Factory working is replaced by singing, as well as Gere being replaced by Midler.

The Terminator (1984):

From: http://www.gonemovies.com/www/WanadooFilms/ScienceFiction/EnglischTerminator.asp

In 2029, at the end of a war between humans and a network of AI computers, the computers send an inhuman, invincible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back to 1984 to eliminate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). One day she'll be the mother of a son, John,who will lead a rebellion against the evil cyborg leaders of Earth's future.

The resistance learns of the plan and sends a soldier back to protect Sarah from the Terminator. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is to help her stave off the relentless robot. What follows is a race against time to see which of the time travelers reaches her first, with nothing less than the future of the human race hanging in the balance.

The Terminator is a typical film, which would engage male audiences a lot more, not because of a woman as a sexual object (for once!), but because its filled with gadgets and technical aspects, as well as CGI effects and a total male dominated film, with the one exception being Sarah Conner. I chose to use this film as a case study because its one of those classic examples of male dominant films, where you would stereotypically expect that kind of role to be portrayed by a man.

Aliens- The role of women (1986)- Written by Michael Peters on the 23^rd February, 2008.

From: http://filmtvindustry.suite101.com/article.cfm/women_in_film

Women have forever been linked to the idea of ‘bearer of meaning’ rather than ‘maker of meaning’ in Hollywood films. According to Laura Mulvey, author of the article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (Screen Magazine, 1975), women have forever been identified with the role of ‘passive observer’. As a result, in Hollywood films, men are permitted to live out their fantasies and obsessions by imposing them on the silent image of the woman. In basic terms, the male is identified as an active participant in the progression of the plot while the woman is typically assigned the role of inactive participant (she has no influence over the subject matter of the plot-she functions as a distraction for the male). As Mulvey has noted: “the woman’s visual presence (in narrative film) tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation”.

Women have rarely been respected in Hollywood films. Yes, there are numerous films about the empowerment of women and their drive and dedication for independence, but, for the most part, women have been relegated to the role of ‘eye candy’. They are rarely taken seriously and are usually vilified by the voyeuristic camera lens.In typical Hollywood films, men are in control of the gaze (that is, the audience sees what they see). Women are typically on the receiving end of that gaze. They are looked at, objectified and sexualized by the maleprotagonist. Women rarely have the power to reverse the gaze and when they do, they are normally punished by the film’s narrative.

For instance, in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic ‘The Birds’ (a film about a group of birds that attack a small community), Tippi Hendren’s character, Melanie Daniels, is a strong, independent woman. When she first views Rod Taylor’s character, Mitch Brenner, she is intrigued. He has become an object for her satisfaction. She takes control of the gaze, not him, and, as a result, he becomes objectified. As the film progresses, she becomes more infatuated with him and eventually proceeds to follow him on vacation. At one point, she is sitting out in a row boat, in the middle of a lake, watching him from afar through a pair of binoculars. It is at this instant that the first bird attack occurs. There is no explanation as to why the birds attack in the film narrative but if one studies it from a theoretical standpoint; one may understand that Hitchcock is punishing Melanie for attempting to alter the normal standards Hollywood has instilled for narrative film. She cannot be the maker of meaning (she cannot obtain subjectivity) but rather she must be forced back into patriarchal society’s defined role for her.

I deliberately chose this as a contrast to The Terminator, because this film was made two years after the Terminator, and focuses on exactly the same type of genre…a high action film with the role being typical to men. However, a woman plays the heroin for a change, and is not looked upon as a sexual object, but as a survivor, who outlives all the males and other females in the story, and ultimately proves her power as a woman is just as worthy as that of a man.

1- Secondary Textual analysis on the changing role of women on screen

Textual analysis:

Source from: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/81677

Actually written by Tinashe Nyatanga on the 9^th November 2006.

How the role of women has changed in movies:

In the fifties men would flock to the movie screens all because of one sensation. A blonde lady with the perfect lips who went by the name of Marilyn Monroe was the reason behind the huge attraction of men to the cinema. She had become every man’s desire, not because of her acting ability, but because of her appearance. She was merely a sexual desire and an object to them. This role of men viewing women as sexual objects has not changed. On the other hand, the roles of women on screen have change drastically.

Alien, released in 1979 and directed by Sir Ridley Scott was the first action movie to have a woman as its protagonist. The reason why this movie really stands out is because the lead character “Ripley”, played by Sigourney Weaver set the template for what is now known as the “Final girl”. According to Roz Kaveney, the “Final girl”, is “the androgynous female without vices who will always make it through to the last scene”. This technique is used in science fiction, thriller, suspense and horror movies.

Alien set the centre stage for movies such as “Courage under Fire”, “G.I Joe”, “Final Fantasy: Spirits Within”, ect. These movies which can be found under the action genre and all share some
similar characteristics.

The first characteristic is that the lead roles are played by women. At the beginning of the movie when we are initially introduced to the women leads, we are not represented with character conflict. This is introduced as the film goes on which leaves the movies highly unpredictable. The women are usually included in a group but break away as leaders in their own right which gives a higher importance on them.

So, here in this article, it gives us the idea that women used to be thought of as just sexual objects in earlier films. Now however, especially since the release of Alien, which was the first film to have a strong leading women, there are many more films now which have stonger women in them, such as horror films or sci-fi. Women seem to be the survivours of films now, instead of just having dominant men. Perhaps directors and producers are now a lot more confident with experimenting by putting women in lead roles, as they prove to be just as much of a success as if men were taking the lead?

Source from: http://media.www.westerncourier.com/media/storage

Published by Brandon Eckenrode on the 10^th September 1998.

Movie equality finds women in leading roles:

The classical portrayal of women in movies used to feature them as minor characters, always causing trouble for the leading male actors.

The women would always look in a closet for a killer instead of running away from him. That image of women is being used less and less in movies and it’s nice to see that films are depicting women as stronger characters.

There have been some new movies out that are giving women the respect that they deserve and which may lead toward the beginning of the movie equality.

Even though equality is a long ways away, these new movies might be able to jump-start people’s vision that women should plat better parts in a movie than giving blood curdling screams in horror flicks or being used purely as sex objects.

Three fairly new movies that are depicting women in stronger and even lead roles are “Scream” and “Scream II,” “Urban Legends” and “Wild Things.” In each of these films there are the traditional male roles, but the women actresses stand out as the dominant characters.

Whether it is a woman fighting a psychotic killer who likes to wear Halloween masks or masterminding a plot where she is the winner, the roles that these women are playing could never have been imagined years ago when the top roles where male-dominated.

Women have proven to the movie elite that they can play lead characters in successful movies. It is now up to us that those in charge continue to give them the chance that they deserve in moviemaking.

There are actresses out there that are making large sums of money for movies, but in a lot cases, their roles in those films are small. Women have the ability to do much larger roles.

The society that we are living in is male-dominated and has been in the past. If there is to be an equality of the sexes, it is going to take large jumps from different areas of society to help women’s cause. Films and media are an extremely strong force in our society, and now that women are given the opportunity to play dominant roles in movies, these selected ladies might
start to revolutionize people’s ideas about women in films.

Even though it may take more then just women being lead characters, it is a big jump from them being portrayed as the characters they were just years ago.

In this article, it says that women are beoming a lot braver in horror films, and that they don't tend to hide behind doors, but fight back. Males used to do all the fighting (Indiana Jones) but now women can stand up for themselves (Scream films). In 1950's women were seen as sex objects, but in 2000's they are now seen as protaganists. Is this because audiences seem to prefer women now as a whole taking the lead..perhaps i can find this out with my questonnaire later on? Is it possible to now be both...a sexual object as well as the lead? (Take Tomb raider for example...)