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.