“In Long Beach, it all comes down to what you look like, it’s all about colour.”[1]
Does the movie ‘Freedom Writers (2007, Richard LaGravenese, USA)’ reinforce common stereotypes of people from ethnic minority backgrounds?
It has almost become somewhat of a tradition, for ethnic minorities to always be represented within a circle of violent behaviour. The media constantly targets youths from different minorities in ways where hegemony uses culture to promote power. In this case it would be the ruling by cultural influence where white people have the power and dominant control over people from ethnic minorities.
Set in Long Beach, California, Freedom Writers (2007) puts forward this negative stereotype of people within the ethnic community belonging to a vicious crime filled environment. The characters within the movie belong to a segregated community, where each race is divided into separate tribes. The students are represented as a central point to the movie, and the way they struggle to break free from the chaotic atmosphere around them to emerge as one, putting away the elements of the ‘Other’, and accepting their classmates for who they are rather than their ethnic backgrounds.
The movie has been constructed in such a way that it promotes an ideology of how the community where the students live, is represented as a racially acceptable society. This could be seen as the key reason to why the action of the youths in this film was so demoralised based on all the segregation between them. Freedom Writers upholds strong stereotypes of people within the African-American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caucasian race and therefore social realism is created as the text deals with issues the teens are associtaed with such as racism, violence, gun/gang crime and drugs. This has therefore resulted in people believing in these given stereotypes.
“Racism is like a poor kid who grew up needing someone to hurt.”[2] With reference to this quote, the fact that the movie depicts how racism is accepted in the community where all characters are from is shown in detail through the different use of media language. The costume, props and setting of the movie are all referred to as the ‘urbanised’ look, where people from this area are usually categorised in belonging to a social class of C2/D/E. The quote puts out the impression of how ‘people who have grown up rough, tend to end up rough’ which relates to the Freedom Writers narrative very well.
Freedom Writers focuses on a true story in 1994 where a first time teacher played by (Hilary Swank) faces a group of students who have been considered by the government as “un-teachable, at-risk” teenagers. The movie represents street kids who have all witnessed fights out breaking in front of them as well as murders of their own friends and family. Stuart Hall (1977) talks about the way black people are characterized in the media; “…their ‘locations’ are the familiar real-life settings of ghetto, street, police station and drug-bust.”[3]This justifys how the characters in the movie fall within a categorisation of what Stuart Hall refers to as influencing the representation of ‘black people within movies’ and how “headlines and stories have a great impact on their readers and can promote certain negative stereotypes,”[4] supporting how people from ethnic minorities are used as tools of racial objectification.
‘Viacom’ now knows as ‘CBS Corporation’[5] is a large media corporation which owns both ‘Paramount Pictures’ and ‘MTV Films.’ The movie had a domestic total gross of $36,605,602[6], which supports that it was a very successful movie. As Paramount pictures are such a successful establishment, it shows that the movie was used as a mainstream distributor where many people would have watched the movie regardless of its advertising.
People in society who have grow under a continous influence of TV, are referred to as “The MTV Generation”[7]. This label catergorises the audience for this particular text as it has a wide influence from the ‘Pop Culture’ by the use of soundtracks such as Keep Ya Head Up’[8] and the soundtrack ‘I have a dream.’[9] Through adapting the MTV generation lifestyle of these audiences, the text creates awareness of issues such as racial profiling and helps engage the audience with the protagonist. The movie does not fail to offer its audience a “Narrative of reassurance” which helps meet their expectations.
A theorist, Richard Dyer, talks about how ‘stars are important[10]’ Freedom Writers has used this approach in attracting their audiences to view the movie. Mario – a famous R‘n’B artist, plays one of the lead characters in the movie as ‘Andre Bryant’ who is represented as one of the teenagers who has just lost hope. The movie has positive values as it educates and informs its target audience through the charcaters lives, so that social change can be encouraged and there are no dominant races. The movie promotes the ideaolgy of equality, which is achieved at the narratives-disclosure.
Hilary Swank who plays Erin, is represented as determined to change the lifestyle of these students and therefore personally buys books for them. She learns that the students have no knowledge about the Holocaust, and makes them study ‘The diary of Anne Frank.’ “When I write I can shake off all my cares, My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!”[11] The quote creates meaning in helping the students understand the obstacles Anne and her family would have to face during their time. This helps the students as they are given an opportunity to keep a diary. Their life, written on paper felt as if they had personally accomplished a goal in their minds casuing them to begin changing their lives around. This narrative moment changes the common stereotypes which are given to these characters as the students are prepared to leave the gang crime and swap it for books. This portrays how knowledge is something which acts like a tool in the movie, where all these negative stereotyped students needed was someone to pay attention and not ‘dumb them down’ and classify them as ‘dangerous’ and ‘useless,’ which are the dominant ideologies being promoted through being forced upon the audience and characters using hegemony.
“Racial stereotypes are among the most readily employed in the media.”[12] It is right to say that the stereotypes within contemporary society are supported with what is actually a representation of something which has been ‘constructed’ in the media. The media continuously reinforces stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, such as black people are always associated with drugs[13] and gun crime. The “Oriental stereotype” of the people from the East being chaotically violent[14] and of Asians being regarded as the ‘Other’ due to them lacking the qualities any average – in fact an average White man would have.
However, although these negative stereotypes have been put forward in the media continuously, movies such as “Coach Carter (2005)”[15], “Honey (2003)”[16] and Freedom Writers challenge these assumptions. These movies all contain the Proppian Hero/Heroine who depicts the grimy scenes of the ghetto which are based at the centre of these characters hearts and then learn to interact with them in such a way that they are able to change everything around to favour these rebellious teenagers. The thing in common in all three movies is how we as an audience get a fairly accurate representation of street life. The way the characters go in their every day-to-day lives and struggles of not having money as they are from the ‘hood’, the neglect they face from people outside their race and social status.
The text contains elements of bullet theory as the audience absorb the dominant ideolgies proposed to them from the text in a passive way. The audience relate to this through recognising how one race is inferior to another. In this case it would be the dominant race in society relating to wht is being represented to them on screen. “Representation, and for that matter, stereotypes, is the making of someone into something unreal – good or bad.”[17]Freedom Writers reinforces the stereotypes given to the characters within the movie which is created through the usage of props and characters clothing. The way the characters dress is in loose and street wise clothing. The male teenagers all wear hooded tops, which itself has a negative connotation stuck to it, as well as baggy jeans falling half way down their waists and loose baggy t-shirts, which look more like dresses! These are the representative clothes a teenager would wear; however, they are specifically worn by teenagers within the ethnic community and less likely to be worn by a white boy, within the same age range and perhaps even same society. The characters are seen holding weapons like knives and guns in some scenes, which strengthens the negative views of people, on the individuals that are being categorized here as the ‘Other’ with reference to the text as they are not represented as the dominant white race.
The way the representation of the female lead has changed overtime is clearly represented in ‘Freedom Writers.’ First time teacher, Hilary swank, is represented as what Mulvey refers to as the pure Madonna[18], who wants to implement a change in these students lives through making them aware of the outside world. The movie constructs the teacher as a ‘gate to freedom. Her determination is what leads the students to reinforce the stereotypes which have been given to them which reflects on the Zeitgeist and how women have been given strong roles of where they can change something so big, as in the past thier roles were simply to fulfil the ‘household roles’[19] making the women feel “symbolically annihilated”[20] as if they have no independent life of their own.
“Violence only begets violence”’[21] It is always vital to remember how a person’s actions are always based upon something they may have come across in the past. Similarly, in Freedom Writers, the reason why these students are so out of control could be as they have seen one another as the ‘Other’, because they are not like them. They are different to them, they do not act and behave the way their specific ‘people’ act and behave, causing the segregation among one another.
Colonialism played a major hand because it had become aceptable to be racist in society. It was used to justify oppression and was seen as socially acceptable, which formed from the Post-colonial theory, exploring the experiences of “race gender and representation[22]” to name a few. This reflects on the way that as well as colonialism, the way that some historical issues prevailed was also a reason why it still remains suitable to categorise people from ethnic minorities. The movie creates many meanings which depends on the audience’s social, cultural and educational background; however it has a purpose of challenging the assumptions made of the stereotypes the movie holds.
However, movies such as ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying (2005)’, continuously reinforce the stereotype given to people from ethnic minorities. This is due to the way the characters are represented. Marcus (Curtis Jackson) the lead role, is represented as a street gangster, his job is to kill. When black people are portrayed like this is in the media, the representation is always degraded, as it helps fulfil the present stereotypes, and movies like these gangster films, do not really help the representation of these black males in the media. However, the changing point in the movie of when he finds his hidden talent of being able to sing and become a singer is a point of change for him and shows how he himself has now seen the light and wants to put it away, but just like in Freedom Writers, when the students are constantly faced with struggles he is also unable to do so straight away.
Movies such as “Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)” are seen as films belonging to a gangster genre. “Films repeat themselves in different ways”[23] so, they therefore follow the typical generic codes associated within this genre. These movies also use a repertoire of different props which aim in helping the genre fall in place . Weapons such as guns and knives are used within gangster films; similarly these props are also used in Freedom Writers. This does not mean that this movie falls within this genre however, it does follow some of the typical codes and conventions of a gangster film. “The contemporary gangster film best embodies the ambivalence of film-makers towards ethnicity and race.”'[24] Winokur refers to how numerous contemporary movies are based within the gangster genre, which draw film makers towards ethnicity and race. This potrays how the media is putting out new entertainment through issues such as racial profiling and racism to become acceptable when the outcome is only just to viewing it, rather than using it as something to perpetrate in reality. As the media is such a powerful tool, it acts as manipulating us into believing what we see on screen is a “re-presentation”[25] of what is happening in the real world, and it goes to show how as a naive and passive audience we are also injected with these thoughts, making ourselves believe the negative assumptions made against people from ethnic minorities. This automatically relates to the Hypordemic model how the media is injecting us with the dominant ideologies within society.
A theorist, ‘Stanley Cohen (1972)’ talks about ‘folk devils’ and ‘moral panics’[26] and the way they affect the society. These moral panics consist of information which has been ‘mediated and constructed’ by the media and then published, which then creates a communal panic. The moral panics are associated with a certain group of people; in this case, the way the students are behaving in the movie has resulted in continuous segregation between them all. This goes to show how the students are all neglecting the ‘norms and values’ which have been put forward by the dominant classes.
There are many different social issues which have also been an influence to the way people have been represented from ethnic minorities. “Racist behaviour is based on centuries of economic exploitation and has been deeply embedded in European culture.”[27] An issue such as Black Slavery in the 1800’s is perhaps a main real reason to why the black people are shown as being subordinate to the whites. “Stereotypes of people of colour, Blacks foremost, have become the building blocks of pathological white ego-structures.”[28]
There is always a representation of the white being the rich and elite and blacks being second priority and not as good. A well known hegemonic theorist, Marcuse says how the media ‘indoctrinates and manipulates’ us. Similarly, with issues such as black slavery and Martin Luther King’s plans of liberation, the idea of the blacks rising above these specified stereotypes of the blacks just not being good enough are confirmed to be mistaken. This goes to show how “to expose these stereotypes as nothing but constructions could be liberating.”[29]
The Blaxploitation genre came forward in the early 1970’s where the movie ‘Shaft (1971)’[30] was the first movie belonging to this genre. This genre is specifically targeted at Black people where the films within it take place in urbanised settings referred to as ‘the ghetto’. Blaxploitation films contain negative stereotypes of black people, which certain characters are portrayed in as being associated with drugs, gun crime, and violence. Similarly, Freedom Writers also contains elements of this specific genre. The characters are all represented to be involved with crime as they have this hatred and ethnic grudge towards one another. The fact that characters behave in such a racial way towards one another, it represntes the idea of how they themselves do not care about the issues of racial profiling and discrimination towards one another, as that is the way they have been brought up. Binary Oppositions[31] have been used in the text where Cambodians are against the Latino’s, depicted as Good vs. Evil. Although the characters are all represented as innocent, the only guilt which they all withold is figting for an individual place, in ‘their America.’
The movie Shaft does not contain specific indication to racism yet some of the characters behaviour involves them being prejudice. A scene where Shaft puts his hand out for the taxi, and the driver stops ahead of him where the other passenger is a white man. Similarly, in ‘Kidulthood 2006[32]’ Moony says to the cab driver ‘Black Cab not stop for Black man’ representing the cabbie not stopping for the characters based on their race. This portrays how there is a ‘fear of the black man’ which is also reflected in ‘Freedom Writers’ where in one scene, Erin makes the students swap their seats so they ar divided from the tribes they always associate with, she asks Ben (the only white boy in the class) to go to the back (where all the black people are seated) and he instantly says ‘I can’t go back there.’[33] This shows the strong stereotype black people hold of being socially unaccepted within people from another society.
In conclusion, stereotypes exist within contemporary society and those given to ethnic minorities are negative representations, as the peoplr are constantly categorised and targeted by the media. “The media use stereotypes of people as a kind of shorthand for getting their messages across.”[34] This portrays how the media acts as a source which controls the stereotypes given, making the stereotyped feel out of place and pushing them to the edge. This categorisation of people from ethnic minorities only represents how we are living in a white dominated society, where ethnic minorities do not have as much respect in society as much as an ordinary man would have. The stereotypes are used to label specific people from a different culture to our own. This label is stuck to them and affects the way they carry out their normal lives as a continuous reason for the media to target them. Freedom Writers does reinforce these common stereotypes, however only to a certain extent. By the end of the movie, the students once labelled as ‘un-teachable’ students are represented as intelligent and wise. This represents that although the negative stereotypes are given to people from ethnic minorities, the media also aims to change them by introducing movies such as Freedom Writers. Most importantly, although the media does change the stereotypes of these people, it is essential to remember that if there were no stereotypes in the first place, then there would be nothing to change within movies like these. Although the movies are purely made for entertainment purposes, people do reflect on them and compare them to what they see in reality.
Word count: 3,350
References
Books
Works Cited
Benjamin, I. (1995). Black Press in Britain. Staffordshire: Trentham Books.
Clarke, J., Critcher, C., Hall, S., Jefferson, T., & Robert, B. (1978). Policing the Crisis (Critical Social Studies). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cohen, S. (1972). “Folk Devils and Moral Panic: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition.
New York: Routledge.
Dutton, B., O'Sullivan, T., & Rayner, P. (2003). Studying the Media: An Introduction (Hodder Arnold Publication). London: A Hodder Arnold Publication.
Frank, A. (1993). Anne Frank : The Diary of a Young Girl By Anne Frank. New York: Bantam Books.
Friedman, L. (1991). Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Gauntlett, D. (2007). Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. New York: Routledge
Hall, S. (1977). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London, New Delhi: SAGE Publications .
Malik, S. (2002). Representing Black Britian: Black and Asian Images on Television (Culture, Representation and Identity series). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
Munford, C. (1996). Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
Sardar, Z. (2000). Introducing Media Studies, (Introducing). Thriplow, Cambridge, UK: Totem Books.
Shohat, E. (1994). Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (Sightlines). New York: Routledge.
Strinati, D. (2000). An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture. New York: Routledge.
Works consulted
Denzin, N. K. (2002). Reading Race: Hollywood and the Cinema of Racial Violence (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
Dyer, R. (1998). Stars: New Edition. London: British Film Institute.
Lacey, N. (1998). Image & Representation: Key Concepts in Media Studies. New York: St. Martin's.
Levi-Strauss, C. (1969). The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Boston: Beacon Press.
Movies
(Ii), T. (Director). (2005). Coach Carter (Widescreen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount.
Huda, M. (Director). (2006). Kidulthood [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ] [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom: Revolver Entertainment.
Lagravenese, R. (Director). (2007). Freedom Writers (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount.
Sheridan, J. (Director). (2005). Get Rich or Die Tryin' (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount pictures.
Woodruff, B. (Director). (2003). Honey (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal Studios.
Parks, G. (Director). (1971). Shaft [Motion Picture]. U.S.A.: Warner Home Video.
Websites
2007 Freedom Writers - Movie reviews, trailers, clips and stills. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.celebritywonder.com/movie/2007_Freedom_Writers102.html.
Common- I have a dream(freedom writers soundtrack) - AOL Video. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://video.aol.com/video-detail/common-i-have-a-dreamfreedom-writers-soundtrack/546801160.
Feminist Film Theory Examines Woman As Object. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2007, from www.syl.com/articles/feministfilmtheoryexamineswomanasobject.html
Freedom Writers (2007). (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=freedomwriters.htm.
Keep Ya Head Up - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Ya_Head_Up.
Viacom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom
Shot youth a convicted drug dealer Metro.co.uk. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=155124&in_page_id=34&in_a_source
Created at www.bibme.org
[1] http://www.celebritywonder.com/movie/2007_Freedom_Writers102.html
[2] ROSE (1989) cited in SHOHAT, E. and STAM, R. 1994: ‘Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media’ , London: Routledge, p.21
[3]Hall, Stuart (1977): Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, (1977), London, New Delhi. Sage Publications, p.271
[4] Hall, Stuart. Critcher, Charles. Jefferson, Tony. Clarke, John: Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order, (1978), New York, Palgrave Macmillan
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom
[6] domestic total gross figure:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=freedomwriters.htm
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Generation
[8] Shakur, tupac:’keep ya head up’ – 1993 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Ya_Head_Up
[9] Common ft Will.i.am (2007): ‘I Have A Dream’, soundtrack Freedom Writers - http://video.aol.com/video-detail/common-i-have-a-dreamfreedom-writers-soundtrack/546801160
[10] DYER, Richard (1998) ‘Stars: New Edition’
[11] FRANK, Ann (1947) ‘The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank’
[12] ZIAUDDIN, Sardar (2000) ‘Introducing Media Studies’: p.79
[13] http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=155124&in_page_id=34&in_a_source
[14] Representation of the other handout. P13
[15] Coach Carter (2005)
[16] Honey (2003)
[17] Sarita Malik (2002): Representing Black Britain, Black and Asian Images on Television, Sage publications. P.176
[18] http://www.syl.com/articles/feministfilmtheoryexamineswomanasobject.html
[19] Gauntlett, David (2007) : “Media, Gender and Identity”: P. 59
[20] Tuchman, Gaye: (1978)
[21] ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying’ (2005)
[22] Representation of the Other; p.115
[23] Genre representation; p.24
[24] WINOKUR (1991) cited in STRINATI, Dominic (2000) : ‘An Introduction to Studying Popular culture’ p.61, London: Routledge
[25] Dyer, Richard : Dyers Typography, p.131
[26] Cohen, Stanley (1972) “Folk Devils and Moral Panics”
[27] Essential Word Dictionary: AS/A- level Media studies, p.125
[28] Munford, Clarence (1996): Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century, Africa World Press. p.54
[29] FRIEDMAN, Lester D. (ed.) Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American cinema. P.49
[30] ‘Shaft’ (1971)
[31] C.STRAUSS, Levi. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Boston. Beacon Press
[32] ‘Kidulthood’ (2006)
[33] Freedom Writers; quote by Hunter Parrish
[34] Tim O'Sullivan, Brian Dutton, Philip Rayner (2003): Studying the Media (third Edition). London: Arnold Publications. P.181
Monday
Saturday
Easter Work!!
Outline Recent Significant Developments In One Genre Of Your Choice. Illustrate Your Answer With Examples.
(June 2003, a)
Introduce my Essay, explain how the genre i will focus upon is the Slasher Genre. Introduce a list of films i will talk about. (film club)
Para 1 = talk about genre in general. Genre is not fixed. Its dynamic and changes over time. Mention Zeitgeist and explain the first text, Psycho (1960)
Para 2= talk about the way genre has started to develop. The different changes in technology are starting to take place as well as society having an impact (TCM – Petrol finishing at station)
Para 3= Audience reaction to slasher genre. How so much has changed since first movie and the different changes in society. More appearances of Final girl and women having more screen time.
Para 4, list of films compared to Psycho. How genre has developed since the very first Psycho. How the slashers become more engaging with audience and summarise the different effect on the audience.
Para 5= Talk about the way the different franchises have started which have been a result of the slasher genre. It repeats and repeats until something new is introduced and then repeats again. Institutional approach.
Conclusion = summarise each para and say how the slasher genre consistently brings its audiences adapted elements of past movies. Talk about the most well known movies and the institutions behind them. How genre will continue to change.
(Specimen Question, 2000 b)
Introduce my essay, and talk about the slasher genre and explain how this is the genre i will focus upon.
Para 1= I would talk about Psycho as it is believed to be the 'Grandaddy of the slasher genre' Explain how the changes in society have given women such a large on screen role.
Para 2= Use migrain to discuss Psycho and comparative text 'Switchblade Romance' I will compare the differences in time, technology and how the genre has developed.
Para 3=Show similarities like, final girl, blood, murder connotations etc, and compare to differences in technology of black and white, colour.
Para 4= Say how change is because of the Zeitgiest andhow it is a result of the fact that genre has changed over time.
Para 5=The effect the movies had on the audience when they were released. Psycho was popular and had strict viewing time. How switchblade romance differs etc.
Conclusion= outlining similarities and differences. Explain the reasoon for the huge change.
(June 2003, a)
Introduce my Essay, explain how the genre i will focus upon is the Slasher Genre. Introduce a list of films i will talk about. (film club)
Para 1 = talk about genre in general. Genre is not fixed. Its dynamic and changes over time. Mention Zeitgeist and explain the first text, Psycho (1960)
Para 2= talk about the way genre has started to develop. The different changes in technology are starting to take place as well as society having an impact (TCM – Petrol finishing at station)
Para 3= Audience reaction to slasher genre. How so much has changed since first movie and the different changes in society. More appearances of Final girl and women having more screen time.
Para 4, list of films compared to Psycho. How genre has developed since the very first Psycho. How the slashers become more engaging with audience and summarise the different effect on the audience.
Para 5= Talk about the way the different franchises have started which have been a result of the slasher genre. It repeats and repeats until something new is introduced and then repeats again. Institutional approach.
Conclusion = summarise each para and say how the slasher genre consistently brings its audiences adapted elements of past movies. Talk about the most well known movies and the institutions behind them. How genre will continue to change.
"Genres Must Adapt In Order To Survive." Discuss. (June 04 b)
Introduction= a brief introduction to introduce the genre I will specifically refer to. It will be slasher as I have studied this over the past term in depth.
Para 1= Explain how genre changes over time reflecting the zeitgiest based on the changes in society as well as the technoloy changes in society as well.
Para2= Explain the before and after theory, Rick Altman. Similarities and differences between the Slasher genres different movies. TCM old and new.
Para 3= genre must adapt to changes because of the audience expectations + changes in censorship and institutions. Elaborate.
Para 4= How the representation of characters has changed overtime, therefore genre has to adapt diferent character roles into its texts. E.g, 'Teens have become diffrentiated.'
Conclusion = Sum up all of the paragraphs and make a statment for the fact that genre must adapt anbd explain why usinmg textual refrences to the slasher genre texts.
Compare Two Examples, From Different Decades, Of Any Media Genre Of Your Choice. Describe And Account For The Major Differences And Similarities Between Them.(Specimen Question, 2000 b)
Introduce my essay, and talk about the slasher genre and explain how this is the genre i will focus upon.
Para 1= I would talk about Psycho as it is believed to be the 'Grandaddy of the slasher genre' Explain how the changes in society have given women such a large on screen role.
Para 2= Use migrain to discuss Psycho and comparative text 'Switchblade Romance' I will compare the differences in time, technology and how the genre has developed.
Para 3=Show similarities like, final girl, blood, murder connotations etc, and compare to differences in technology of black and white, colour.
Para 4= Say how change is because of the Zeitgiest andhow it is a result of the fact that genre has changed over time.
Para 5=The effect the movies had on the audience when they were released. Psycho was popular and had strict viewing time. How switchblade romance differs etc.
Conclusion= outlining similarities and differences. Explain the reasoon for the huge change.
Sunday
Texas Chainsaw Massacre..Essay
The original movIe which was released in 1974 was written and directed by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel. The original movie is recognised as a spin off from Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho. The movie cntinues to follow the generic codes and conventions of many different slasher genre texts from the past, using elements of these within this actual text.
The new version of the original was released in 2003 as a re-make. The re-make derives off the original follwoing similar conventions. The psychopathic killer is still letherface, and the remaining surviving character remains to be a final girl.
The movie uses elements of the zeitgeist as it has an impact on the way both of the plots differ from each other. The original movie reflects up on the zeitgeist the way that the characters go to the gas station and the gas station owner says how the gas is coming. This is reflected on the times actual economic environement, also at that time the characters are going to see their grandads grave? but the new movie targets the youngsters through showing how the characters are going to a music concert.
The remake depicts the characters picking up a female hitch hiker who shoots her self in the van. This differs from the original on how previously it was a male and leatherfaces actual brother but this time the character as represwented as a traumatised victim most definately of leatherface. The reason why the girl is represented as a vicitim of leather face is because of thefact that as she acts traumatised and very worried in the beginbning, is exactly the same way the final girl acts at th end of the movie.
The new version of the original was released in 2003 as a re-make. The re-make derives off the original follwoing similar conventions. The psychopathic killer is still letherface, and the remaining surviving character remains to be a final girl.
The movie uses elements of the zeitgeist as it has an impact on the way both of the plots differ from each other. The original movie reflects up on the zeitgeist the way that the characters go to the gas station and the gas station owner says how the gas is coming. This is reflected on the times actual economic environement, also at that time the characters are going to see their grandads grave? but the new movie targets the youngsters through showing how the characters are going to a music concert.
The remake depicts the characters picking up a female hitch hiker who shoots her self in the van. This differs from the original on how previously it was a male and leatherfaces actual brother but this time the character as represwented as a traumatised victim most definately of leatherface. The reason why the girl is represented as a vicitim of leather face is because of thefact that as she acts traumatised and very worried in the beginbning, is exactly the same way the final girl acts at th end of the movie.
Wednesday
re-drafted
“In Long Beach, is all comes down to what you look like, it’s all about colour.”[1]
Does the movie ‘Freedom Writers (2007, Richard LaGravenese, USA)’ reinforce common stereotypes of people from ethnic minority backgrounds?
It has almost become somewhat of a tradition, for ethnic minorities to always be related within a circle of violent behaviour. The media constantly targets youths from different minorities in ways where hegemony uses culture to promote power. In this case it would be the ruling by cultural influence where white people have the power and dominant control over people from ethnic minorities.
Set in Long Beach, California, Freedom Writers (2007) puts forward this negative stereotype of people within the ethnic community belonging to a vicious crime filled environment. The characters within the movie belong to a segregated community, where each race is divided into separate tribes. The students are represented as a central point to the movie, and the way they struggle to break free from the chaotic atmosphere around them to emerge as one, putting away the elements of the ‘Other’, and accepting their classmates for who they are rather than their ethnic backgrounds.
The way the movie has been constructed to be represented at its target audience is to promote that the community these students are living in, is not a racially acceptable society, and people live to taunt and abuse one another. This could be seen as the key reason behind to why the action of the youths in this film was so demoralised, as it was due to all the segregation between them. Freedom Writers holds strong stereotypes of people within the African-American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caucasian race to be associated with violence, gun/gang crime and drugs which has therefore resulted in people believing in these given stereotypes.
“Racism is like a poor kid who grew up needing someone to hurt.”[2] With reference to this quote, the fact that the movie depicts how racism is accepted in the community where all characters are from is shown in detail through the different use of media language. The costume, propps and setting of the movie are all referred to as the ‘urbanised’ look, where people from this area are usually categorised in belonging to a social class of C2/D/E. The quote creates a polyvalent meaning in getting the point across to its readers, which can be seen as it meaning ‘how people who have grown up rough, tend to end up rough’ which relates to the Freedom Writers narrative very well.
Freedom Writers focuses on a true story in 1994 where a first time teacher (Hilary Swank) faces a group of students who have been considered by the government as “un-teachable, at-risk” teenagers. The movie represents street wise kids who have all witnessed fights out breaking in front of them as well as murders of their own friends and family. Stuart Hall (1977) talks about the way black people are characterized in the media; “…their ‘locations’ are the familiar real-life settings of ghetto, street, police station and drug-bust.”[3]This goes to show how each character in the movie also falls within this categorisation of what Stuart Hall refers to as being a representation of black people within movies, which helps support the fact that people from ethnic minorities are there to become objectified in negative ways.
The institution of the texts is a highly recognisable institution, ‘Paramount Pictures.’ Paramount Pictures teams up with ‘MTV Films’ to bring to its audience ‘Freedom Writers.’ The movie had a domestic total gross of $36,605,602[4], which supports that it was a very successful movie. The fact that Paramount pictures are such a hugely successful establishment shows that the movie was used as a mainstream distributor so many people would have watched the movie anyway. However, teaming up with MTV films would interest people from different backgrounds who would not have been that interested in the movie to come and watch it. This is due to the fact how the soundtracks used in the movie such as ‘Keep Ya Head Up’[5] and the soundtrack ‘I have a dream’ [6]is from a rap genre which would be targeted at people within a multicultural society and perhaps specifically people from a more ghetto and urbanised area. The fact that the institution is MTV films also supports how people from the urbanised areas are more likely to watch the movie, as it is a music based institution, meaning it will contain a lot of music that would usually appear on this mainstream channel. As people from ethnic minorities are usually associated with hip hop, grime and rap music, the stereotypes given to them of being associated within crime and drugs, sticks well and supports the negative representation of them within the community.
A theorist, Richard Dyer, talks about how ‘stars are important.’ Freedom Writers has used this approach in attracting their audiences to view the movie. Mario – a famous R‘n’B artist, plays one of the lead characters in the movie as ‘Andre Bryant’ who is represented as one of the teenagers who has just lost hope. Coming from a ‘typical broken home’ as a lot of black people are shown on screen, he struggles to maintain a good record at school, and as he sells drugs when he is out of the classroom, he just cannot find time to finish his school work. Andre – In fact, all of the characters in the movie are shown as dumbing one another down. All of the characters in the movie are portrayed as to have lost hope and are represented to be at school, because they have to and not the case where they feel that they want to.
Erin (Hilary Swank) is represented as determined to change the ways of these students and that is when she starts to personally buy books for them. When she learns that the students have no idea what a Holocaust is, she makes them study ‘The diary of Anne Frank.’ “When I write I can shake off all my cares, My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!”[7] The students are then given the opportunity to keep a diary themselves and then later understand the ease of writing out all of the feelings, hurt and pain they had kept inside them for so long, just like Anne Frank did, write everything out before her on blank pieces of paper, helping her emerge from what was going on around her. Their life, written on paper felt so excellent, causing them to begin changing their lives around. This part in the movie helps change the common stereotypes which are given to people from ethnic minorities. The fact that these students are prepared to leave the gang crime and swap it for books, goes to show how knowledge is something which acts like a tool in the movie and how all these negative stereotyped students really needed was someone to pay attention and not ‘dumb them down’ and classify them as ‘dangerous’ and ‘useless.’
“Racial stereotypes are among the most readily employed in the media.”[8] It is right to say that the stereotypes within contemporary society are supported with what is actually a representation of something which has been ‘constructed’ in the media. The media continuously reinforces stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, such as black people are always associated with drugs and gun crime. The “Oriental stereotype” of the people from the East being chaotically violent and of Asians being regarded as the ‘Other’ due to them lacking the qualities any average – in fact an average WHITE man would have.
However, although these negative stereotypes have been put forward in the media continuously, movies such as “Coach Carter (2005)”[9], “Honey (2003)”[10] and Freedom Writers challenge these assumptions. These movies all contain the Proppian Hero/Heroine who depicts the grimy scenes of the ghetto which are based at the centre of these characters hearts and then learn to interact with them in such a way that they are able to change everything around to favour these rebellious teenagers. The thing in common in all three movies is how we as an audience get a fairly accurate representation of street life. The way the characters go in their every day-to-day lives and struggles of not having money as they are from the ‘hood’, the neglect they face from people outside their race and social status. The movies also help support the stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, however they are also challenged and as the movies come to an end, all three movies have shown the characters have changed their lives around, from the stereotypes given, to someone who can now be accepted in society and by not being judged on their skin.
“Representation, and for that matter, stereotypes, is the making of someone into something unreal – good or bad.”[11]Freedom Writers reinforces the stereotypes given to the characters within the movie. This is created through the usage of props and characters clothing. The way the characters dress is in loose and street wise clothing. The male teenagers all wear hooded tops, which itself has a negative connotation stuck to it, as well as baggy jeans falling half way down their waists and loose baggy t-shirts, which look more like dresses! These are the representative clothes a teenager would wear; however, they are specifically worn by teenagers within the ethnic community and less likely to be worn by a white boy, within the same age range and perhaps even same society. The stereotypes of being violent are also supported through the usage of props which are given to these characters. The characters are seen holding weapons like knives and guns in some scenes, which strengthens the negative views of people, on the individuals that are being categorized here as the ‘Other’ as they are simply not like us.
“Violence only begets violence”’[12] It is always vital to remember how a person’s actions are always based upon something they may have come across in the past. Similarly, in Freedom Writers, the reason why these students are so out of control could be as they have seen one another as the ‘Other’, because they are not like them. They are different to them, they do not act and behave the way their specific ‘people’ act and behave, causing the segregation among one another.
Colonialism played a major hand in the fact that it had become adequate to be racist in the society. It was used to justify oppression and was seen as socially acceptable. This reflects on the way that as well as colonialism, the way that some historical issues prevailed was also a reason why it is still ok to categorise people from ethnic minorities. As the text is polyvalent it all depends on the audience’s social, cultural and educational background; however it has a purpose of challenging the assumptions made of the stereotypes the movie holds. However, movies such as ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying (2005)’, continuously reinforce the stereotype given to people from ethnic minorities. This is due to the way the characters are represented. Marcus (Curtis Jackson) the lead role, is represented as a street gangster, his job is to kill. When black people are portrayed like this is in the media, the representation is always degraded, as it helps fulfil the present stereotypes, and movies like these gangster films, do not really help the representation of these black males in the media. However, the changing point in the movie of when he finds his hidden talent of being able to sing and become a singer is a point of change for him and shows how he himself has now seen the light and wants to put it away, but just like in Freedom Writers, when the students are constantly faced with struggles he is also unable to do so straight away.
Movies such as “Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)” [13]are seen as films belonging to a gangster genre. They follow the typical generic codes associated within this genre. These movies also use a repertoire of different props which aim in helping the genre fall in place. Weapons such as guns and knives are used within gangster films; similarly these props are also used in Freedom Writers. This does not mean that this movie falls within this genre however, it does follow the typical codes and conventions of a gangster film. “The contemporary gangster film best embodies the ambivalence of film-makers towards ethnicity and race.”'[14] Winokur (1991) states a fact here, as more and more contemporary movies which are based within the gangster genre draw film makers towards ethnicity and race. This goes to show how the media is putting out new entertainment through an issue such as racial profiling and racism to become acceptable when the outcome is only just to viewing it, rather than using it as something to perpetrate in reality. The fact that the media is such a powerful tool, it acts as manipulating us into believing what we see on screen is a picture of what is happening in the real world, and it goes to show how as a naive and passive audience we are also injected with these thoughts, making ourselves believe the negative assumptions made against people from ethnic minorities.
A theorist, ‘Stanley Cohen (1972)’[15] talks about ‘folk devils’ and ‘moral panics’ and the way they affect the society. These moral panics consist of information which has been ‘mediated and constructed’ by the media and then published, which then creates a communal panic. The moral panics are associated with a certain group of people; in this case, the way the students are behaving in the movie has resulted in continuous segregation between them all. This goes to show how the students are all neglecting the ‘norms and values’ which have been put forward by the dominant classes.
There are many different social issues which have also been an influence to the way people have been represented from ethnic minorities. “Racist behaviour is based on centuries of economic exploitation and has been deeply embedded in European culture.”[16] An issue such as Black Slavery in the 1930’s is perhaps a main real reason to why the black people are shown as being under the whites. “Stereotypes of people of colour, Blacks foremost, have become the building blocks of pathological white ego-structures.”[17]
There is always a representation of the white being the rich and elite and blacks being second priority and not as good. A well known hegemonic theorist, Marcuse says how the media ‘indoctrinates and manipulates’ us. Similarly, with issues such as black slavery and Martin Luther King’s plans of liberation, the idea of the blacks rising above these specified stereotypes of the blacks just not being good enough are confirmed to be mistaken. This goes to show how “to expose these stereotypes as nothing but constructions could be liberating.” [18]
The Blaxploitation genre came forward in the early 1970’s where the movie ‘Shaft (1971)’[19] was the first movie belonging to this genre. This genre is specifically targeted at Black people of where the films within it tend to take place in an urbanised setting referred to as ‘the ghetto’. Blaxploitation films contain many negative stereotypes of black people, of which certain characters are portrayed in being associated with drugs, gun crime, and violence. Similarly, Freedom Writers also contains elements of this specific genre. The characters are all represented to be involved with crime as they have this hatred and this ethnic disgrace towards one another, where they are seen as being racist towards one another by the way they live their lives. The fact that all of the characters behave in such a racial way towards one another, goes to show how they themselves do not care about the issues of racial profiling and discrimination towards one another, as that is the way they have been brought up. It does not affect them. Theorist, Levi Strauss’s binary opposition theory comes hinted out at this point as people from a certain background will not associate within someone from another
Background, In this case, The Cambodians were against the Latino’s which was like Good vs. Evil, yet all of the people were innocent and only guilty for having this grudge of spite against each other as they were trying to fight for their own place in ‘their America.’
The movie Shaft does not contain specific indication to racism yet some of the characters behaviour involves them being prejudice. A scene where Shaft puts his hand out for the taxi, and the driver stops ahead of him where the other passenger is a white man. This portrays how there is a ‘fear of the black man.’ This is also reflected in ‘Freedom Writers’ where in one scene, Erin makes the students swap their seats, so she can divide them from the tribes they sit in. She asks Ben (the only white boy in the class) to go to the back (where all the black people are seated) and he instantly says ‘I can’t go back there.’[20] This shows the strong stereotype black people hold of being involved in violence as well as being socially unaccepted within people from another society.
In conclusion, Stereotypes exist within contemporary society and those given to ethnic minorities are seriously negative representations of these people, as they are categorised and targeted by the media regularly. The media use stereotypes of people as a kind of shorthand for getting their messages across.[21]This goes to show how the media acts as a major source, which controls the stereotypes given, making the stereotyped feel out of place and pushing them to the edge. This categorisation of people from ethnic minorities only just shows how we are living in a white dominated society, of where people from ethnic minorities don’t have as much respect in society as much as an ordinary man would have. The stereotypes are used to label specific people from a different culture to our own. This label is stuck to them in such a way that it affects the way they carry out their normal lives and continues to be a reason for the media to target them on a regular basis. The movie Freedom Writers does reinforce these common stereotypes, however only to a certain extent. By the end of the movie, the students who were at the beginning labelled as ‘unteachable’ students are represented as intelligent and wise. This goes to show that although the negative stereotypes are given to people from ethnic minorities, the media does in a way help to change this by introducing movies such as Freedom Writers and showing the way the stereotypes can change. Most importantly, although the media does change the stereotypes of these people, it is essential to remember that if there were no stereotypes in the first place, then there would be nothing to change within movies like these. Although the movies are purely made for entertainment purposes, people do reflect on them and compare them to what they see in reality, which helps create the realism.
Word count: 3385
References
Books
Works Cited
Cohen, S. (1972). “Folk Devils and Moral Panic: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition.
New York: Routledge.
Dutton, B., O'Sullivan, T., & Rayner, P. (2003). Studying the Media: An Introduction (Hodder Arnold Publication). London: A Hodder Arnold Publication.
Frank, A. (1993). Anne Frank : The Diary of a Young Girl By Anne Frank. New York: Bantam Books.
Friedman, L. (1991). Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Hall, S. (1977). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London, New Delhi: SAGE Publications .
Malik, S. (2002). Representing Black Britian: Black and Asian Images on Television (Culture, Representation and Identity series). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
Munford, C. (1996). Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
Sardar, Z. (2000). Introducing Media Studies, (Introducing). Thriplow, Cambridge, UK: Totem Books.
Shohat, E. (1994). Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (Sightlines). New York: Routledge.
Strinati, D. (2000). An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture. New York: Routledge.
Movies
(Ii), T. (Director). (2005). Coach Carter (Widescreen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount.
Lagravenese, R. (Director). (2007). Freedom Writers (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount.
Sheridan, J. (Director). (2005). Get Rich or Die Tryin' (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount pictures.
Woodruff, B. (Director). (2003). Honey (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal Studios.
Parks, G. (Director). (1971). Shaft [Motion Picture]. U.S.A.: Warner Home Video.
Websites
2007 Freedom Writers - Movie reviews, trailers, clips and stills. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.celebritywonder.com/movie/2007_Freedom_Writers102.html.
Common- I have a dream(freedom writers soundtrack) - AOL Video. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://video.aol.com/video-detail/common-i-have-a-dreamfreedom-writers-soundtrack/546801160.
Freedom Writers (2007). (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=freedomwriters.htm.
Keep Ya Head Up - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Ya_Head_Up.
Created at www.bibme.org
[1] http://www.celebritywonder.com/movie/2007_Freedom_Writers102.html
[2] ROSE (1989) cited in SHOHAT, E. and STAM, R. 1994: ‘Unthinking Eurocentrism: multiculturalism and the media’ , London: Routledge, p.21
[3]Hall, Stuart (1977): Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, (1977), London, New Delhi. Sage Publications, p.271
[4] DOMESTIC TOTAL GROSS FIGURE:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=freedomwriters.htm
[5] SHAKUR, TUPAC:’KEEP YA HEAD UP’ – 1993 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Ya_Head_Up
[6] COMMON ft WILL.I.AM (2007): ‘I Have A Dream’, soundtrack Freedom Writers - http://video.aol.com/video-detail/common-i-have-a-dreamfreedom-writers-soundtrack/546801160
[7] FRANK, Ann (1947) ‘The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank’
[8] ZIAUDDIN, Sardar (2000) ‘Introducing Media studies’: p.79
[9] Coach Carter (2005)
[10] Honey (2003)
[11] Sarita Malik (2002): representing black Britain, black and Asian images on Television, Sage publications. P.176
[12] ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying’ (2005)
[13] Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)
[14] WINOKUR (1991) cited in STRINATI, Dominic (2000) : ‘An introduction to studying Popular culture’ p.61, London: Routledge
[15] Cohen, Stanley (1972) “Folk Devils and Moral Panic”
[16] Essential word dictionary: AS/A- level Media studies, p.125
[17] Munford, Clarence (1996): Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century, Africa World Press.. p.54
[18] FRIEDMAN, Lester D. (ed.) Unspeakable images: ethnicity and the American cinema. P.49
[19] ‘Shaft’ (1971)
[20] FREEDOM WRITERS; quote by Hunter Parrish
[21] Tim O'Sullivan, Brian Dutton, Philip Rayner (2003): studying the media (third Edition). London: Arnold Publications. P.181
Does the movie ‘Freedom Writers (2007, Richard LaGravenese, USA)’ reinforce common stereotypes of people from ethnic minority backgrounds?
It has almost become somewhat of a tradition, for ethnic minorities to always be related within a circle of violent behaviour. The media constantly targets youths from different minorities in ways where hegemony uses culture to promote power. In this case it would be the ruling by cultural influence where white people have the power and dominant control over people from ethnic minorities.
Set in Long Beach, California, Freedom Writers (2007) puts forward this negative stereotype of people within the ethnic community belonging to a vicious crime filled environment. The characters within the movie belong to a segregated community, where each race is divided into separate tribes. The students are represented as a central point to the movie, and the way they struggle to break free from the chaotic atmosphere around them to emerge as one, putting away the elements of the ‘Other’, and accepting their classmates for who they are rather than their ethnic backgrounds.
The way the movie has been constructed to be represented at its target audience is to promote that the community these students are living in, is not a racially acceptable society, and people live to taunt and abuse one another. This could be seen as the key reason behind to why the action of the youths in this film was so demoralised, as it was due to all the segregation between them. Freedom Writers holds strong stereotypes of people within the African-American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caucasian race to be associated with violence, gun/gang crime and drugs which has therefore resulted in people believing in these given stereotypes.
“Racism is like a poor kid who grew up needing someone to hurt.”[2] With reference to this quote, the fact that the movie depicts how racism is accepted in the community where all characters are from is shown in detail through the different use of media language. The costume, propps and setting of the movie are all referred to as the ‘urbanised’ look, where people from this area are usually categorised in belonging to a social class of C2/D/E. The quote creates a polyvalent meaning in getting the point across to its readers, which can be seen as it meaning ‘how people who have grown up rough, tend to end up rough’ which relates to the Freedom Writers narrative very well.
Freedom Writers focuses on a true story in 1994 where a first time teacher (Hilary Swank) faces a group of students who have been considered by the government as “un-teachable, at-risk” teenagers. The movie represents street wise kids who have all witnessed fights out breaking in front of them as well as murders of their own friends and family. Stuart Hall (1977) talks about the way black people are characterized in the media; “…their ‘locations’ are the familiar real-life settings of ghetto, street, police station and drug-bust.”[3]This goes to show how each character in the movie also falls within this categorisation of what Stuart Hall refers to as being a representation of black people within movies, which helps support the fact that people from ethnic minorities are there to become objectified in negative ways.
The institution of the texts is a highly recognisable institution, ‘Paramount Pictures.’ Paramount Pictures teams up with ‘MTV Films’ to bring to its audience ‘Freedom Writers.’ The movie had a domestic total gross of $36,605,602[4], which supports that it was a very successful movie. The fact that Paramount pictures are such a hugely successful establishment shows that the movie was used as a mainstream distributor so many people would have watched the movie anyway. However, teaming up with MTV films would interest people from different backgrounds who would not have been that interested in the movie to come and watch it. This is due to the fact how the soundtracks used in the movie such as ‘Keep Ya Head Up’[5] and the soundtrack ‘I have a dream’ [6]is from a rap genre which would be targeted at people within a multicultural society and perhaps specifically people from a more ghetto and urbanised area. The fact that the institution is MTV films also supports how people from the urbanised areas are more likely to watch the movie, as it is a music based institution, meaning it will contain a lot of music that would usually appear on this mainstream channel. As people from ethnic minorities are usually associated with hip hop, grime and rap music, the stereotypes given to them of being associated within crime and drugs, sticks well and supports the negative representation of them within the community.
A theorist, Richard Dyer, talks about how ‘stars are important.’ Freedom Writers has used this approach in attracting their audiences to view the movie. Mario – a famous R‘n’B artist, plays one of the lead characters in the movie as ‘Andre Bryant’ who is represented as one of the teenagers who has just lost hope. Coming from a ‘typical broken home’ as a lot of black people are shown on screen, he struggles to maintain a good record at school, and as he sells drugs when he is out of the classroom, he just cannot find time to finish his school work. Andre – In fact, all of the characters in the movie are shown as dumbing one another down. All of the characters in the movie are portrayed as to have lost hope and are represented to be at school, because they have to and not the case where they feel that they want to.
Erin (Hilary Swank) is represented as determined to change the ways of these students and that is when she starts to personally buy books for them. When she learns that the students have no idea what a Holocaust is, she makes them study ‘The diary of Anne Frank.’ “When I write I can shake off all my cares, My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!”[7] The students are then given the opportunity to keep a diary themselves and then later understand the ease of writing out all of the feelings, hurt and pain they had kept inside them for so long, just like Anne Frank did, write everything out before her on blank pieces of paper, helping her emerge from what was going on around her. Their life, written on paper felt so excellent, causing them to begin changing their lives around. This part in the movie helps change the common stereotypes which are given to people from ethnic minorities. The fact that these students are prepared to leave the gang crime and swap it for books, goes to show how knowledge is something which acts like a tool in the movie and how all these negative stereotyped students really needed was someone to pay attention and not ‘dumb them down’ and classify them as ‘dangerous’ and ‘useless.’
“Racial stereotypes are among the most readily employed in the media.”[8] It is right to say that the stereotypes within contemporary society are supported with what is actually a representation of something which has been ‘constructed’ in the media. The media continuously reinforces stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, such as black people are always associated with drugs and gun crime. The “Oriental stereotype” of the people from the East being chaotically violent and of Asians being regarded as the ‘Other’ due to them lacking the qualities any average – in fact an average WHITE man would have.
However, although these negative stereotypes have been put forward in the media continuously, movies such as “Coach Carter (2005)”[9], “Honey (2003)”[10] and Freedom Writers challenge these assumptions. These movies all contain the Proppian Hero/Heroine who depicts the grimy scenes of the ghetto which are based at the centre of these characters hearts and then learn to interact with them in such a way that they are able to change everything around to favour these rebellious teenagers. The thing in common in all three movies is how we as an audience get a fairly accurate representation of street life. The way the characters go in their every day-to-day lives and struggles of not having money as they are from the ‘hood’, the neglect they face from people outside their race and social status. The movies also help support the stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, however they are also challenged and as the movies come to an end, all three movies have shown the characters have changed their lives around, from the stereotypes given, to someone who can now be accepted in society and by not being judged on their skin.
“Representation, and for that matter, stereotypes, is the making of someone into something unreal – good or bad.”[11]Freedom Writers reinforces the stereotypes given to the characters within the movie. This is created through the usage of props and characters clothing. The way the characters dress is in loose and street wise clothing. The male teenagers all wear hooded tops, which itself has a negative connotation stuck to it, as well as baggy jeans falling half way down their waists and loose baggy t-shirts, which look more like dresses! These are the representative clothes a teenager would wear; however, they are specifically worn by teenagers within the ethnic community and less likely to be worn by a white boy, within the same age range and perhaps even same society. The stereotypes of being violent are also supported through the usage of props which are given to these characters. The characters are seen holding weapons like knives and guns in some scenes, which strengthens the negative views of people, on the individuals that are being categorized here as the ‘Other’ as they are simply not like us.
“Violence only begets violence”’[12] It is always vital to remember how a person’s actions are always based upon something they may have come across in the past. Similarly, in Freedom Writers, the reason why these students are so out of control could be as they have seen one another as the ‘Other’, because they are not like them. They are different to them, they do not act and behave the way their specific ‘people’ act and behave, causing the segregation among one another.
Colonialism played a major hand in the fact that it had become adequate to be racist in the society. It was used to justify oppression and was seen as socially acceptable. This reflects on the way that as well as colonialism, the way that some historical issues prevailed was also a reason why it is still ok to categorise people from ethnic minorities. As the text is polyvalent it all depends on the audience’s social, cultural and educational background; however it has a purpose of challenging the assumptions made of the stereotypes the movie holds. However, movies such as ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying (2005)’, continuously reinforce the stereotype given to people from ethnic minorities. This is due to the way the characters are represented. Marcus (Curtis Jackson) the lead role, is represented as a street gangster, his job is to kill. When black people are portrayed like this is in the media, the representation is always degraded, as it helps fulfil the present stereotypes, and movies like these gangster films, do not really help the representation of these black males in the media. However, the changing point in the movie of when he finds his hidden talent of being able to sing and become a singer is a point of change for him and shows how he himself has now seen the light and wants to put it away, but just like in Freedom Writers, when the students are constantly faced with struggles he is also unable to do so straight away.
Movies such as “Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)” [13]are seen as films belonging to a gangster genre. They follow the typical generic codes associated within this genre. These movies also use a repertoire of different props which aim in helping the genre fall in place. Weapons such as guns and knives are used within gangster films; similarly these props are also used in Freedom Writers. This does not mean that this movie falls within this genre however, it does follow the typical codes and conventions of a gangster film. “The contemporary gangster film best embodies the ambivalence of film-makers towards ethnicity and race.”'[14] Winokur (1991) states a fact here, as more and more contemporary movies which are based within the gangster genre draw film makers towards ethnicity and race. This goes to show how the media is putting out new entertainment through an issue such as racial profiling and racism to become acceptable when the outcome is only just to viewing it, rather than using it as something to perpetrate in reality. The fact that the media is such a powerful tool, it acts as manipulating us into believing what we see on screen is a picture of what is happening in the real world, and it goes to show how as a naive and passive audience we are also injected with these thoughts, making ourselves believe the negative assumptions made against people from ethnic minorities.
A theorist, ‘Stanley Cohen (1972)’[15] talks about ‘folk devils’ and ‘moral panics’ and the way they affect the society. These moral panics consist of information which has been ‘mediated and constructed’ by the media and then published, which then creates a communal panic. The moral panics are associated with a certain group of people; in this case, the way the students are behaving in the movie has resulted in continuous segregation between them all. This goes to show how the students are all neglecting the ‘norms and values’ which have been put forward by the dominant classes.
There are many different social issues which have also been an influence to the way people have been represented from ethnic minorities. “Racist behaviour is based on centuries of economic exploitation and has been deeply embedded in European culture.”[16] An issue such as Black Slavery in the 1930’s is perhaps a main real reason to why the black people are shown as being under the whites. “Stereotypes of people of colour, Blacks foremost, have become the building blocks of pathological white ego-structures.”[17]
There is always a representation of the white being the rich and elite and blacks being second priority and not as good. A well known hegemonic theorist, Marcuse says how the media ‘indoctrinates and manipulates’ us. Similarly, with issues such as black slavery and Martin Luther King’s plans of liberation, the idea of the blacks rising above these specified stereotypes of the blacks just not being good enough are confirmed to be mistaken. This goes to show how “to expose these stereotypes as nothing but constructions could be liberating.” [18]
The Blaxploitation genre came forward in the early 1970’s where the movie ‘Shaft (1971)’[19] was the first movie belonging to this genre. This genre is specifically targeted at Black people of where the films within it tend to take place in an urbanised setting referred to as ‘the ghetto’. Blaxploitation films contain many negative stereotypes of black people, of which certain characters are portrayed in being associated with drugs, gun crime, and violence. Similarly, Freedom Writers also contains elements of this specific genre. The characters are all represented to be involved with crime as they have this hatred and this ethnic disgrace towards one another, where they are seen as being racist towards one another by the way they live their lives. The fact that all of the characters behave in such a racial way towards one another, goes to show how they themselves do not care about the issues of racial profiling and discrimination towards one another, as that is the way they have been brought up. It does not affect them. Theorist, Levi Strauss’s binary opposition theory comes hinted out at this point as people from a certain background will not associate within someone from another
Background, In this case, The Cambodians were against the Latino’s which was like Good vs. Evil, yet all of the people were innocent and only guilty for having this grudge of spite against each other as they were trying to fight for their own place in ‘their America.’
The movie Shaft does not contain specific indication to racism yet some of the characters behaviour involves them being prejudice. A scene where Shaft puts his hand out for the taxi, and the driver stops ahead of him where the other passenger is a white man. This portrays how there is a ‘fear of the black man.’ This is also reflected in ‘Freedom Writers’ where in one scene, Erin makes the students swap their seats, so she can divide them from the tribes they sit in. She asks Ben (the only white boy in the class) to go to the back (where all the black people are seated) and he instantly says ‘I can’t go back there.’[20] This shows the strong stereotype black people hold of being involved in violence as well as being socially unaccepted within people from another society.
In conclusion, Stereotypes exist within contemporary society and those given to ethnic minorities are seriously negative representations of these people, as they are categorised and targeted by the media regularly. The media use stereotypes of people as a kind of shorthand for getting their messages across.[21]This goes to show how the media acts as a major source, which controls the stereotypes given, making the stereotyped feel out of place and pushing them to the edge. This categorisation of people from ethnic minorities only just shows how we are living in a white dominated society, of where people from ethnic minorities don’t have as much respect in society as much as an ordinary man would have. The stereotypes are used to label specific people from a different culture to our own. This label is stuck to them in such a way that it affects the way they carry out their normal lives and continues to be a reason for the media to target them on a regular basis. The movie Freedom Writers does reinforce these common stereotypes, however only to a certain extent. By the end of the movie, the students who were at the beginning labelled as ‘unteachable’ students are represented as intelligent and wise. This goes to show that although the negative stereotypes are given to people from ethnic minorities, the media does in a way help to change this by introducing movies such as Freedom Writers and showing the way the stereotypes can change. Most importantly, although the media does change the stereotypes of these people, it is essential to remember that if there were no stereotypes in the first place, then there would be nothing to change within movies like these. Although the movies are purely made for entertainment purposes, people do reflect on them and compare them to what they see in reality, which helps create the realism.
Word count: 3385
References
Books
Works Cited
Cohen, S. (1972). “Folk Devils and Moral Panic: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition.
New York: Routledge.
Dutton, B., O'Sullivan, T., & Rayner, P. (2003). Studying the Media: An Introduction (Hodder Arnold Publication). London: A Hodder Arnold Publication.
Frank, A. (1993). Anne Frank : The Diary of a Young Girl By Anne Frank. New York: Bantam Books.
Friedman, L. (1991). Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Hall, S. (1977). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London, New Delhi: SAGE Publications .
Malik, S. (2002). Representing Black Britian: Black and Asian Images on Television (Culture, Representation and Identity series). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
Munford, C. (1996). Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
Sardar, Z. (2000). Introducing Media Studies, (Introducing). Thriplow, Cambridge, UK: Totem Books.
Shohat, E. (1994). Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (Sightlines). New York: Routledge.
Strinati, D. (2000). An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture. New York: Routledge.
Movies
(Ii), T. (Director). (2005). Coach Carter (Widescreen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount.
Lagravenese, R. (Director). (2007). Freedom Writers (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount.
Sheridan, J. (Director). (2005). Get Rich or Die Tryin' (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount pictures.
Woodruff, B. (Director). (2003). Honey (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal Studios.
Parks, G. (Director). (1971). Shaft [Motion Picture]. U.S.A.: Warner Home Video.
Websites
2007 Freedom Writers - Movie reviews, trailers, clips and stills. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.celebritywonder.com/movie/2007_Freedom_Writers102.html.
Common- I have a dream(freedom writers soundtrack) - AOL Video. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://video.aol.com/video-detail/common-i-have-a-dreamfreedom-writers-soundtrack/546801160.
Freedom Writers (2007). (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=freedomwriters.htm.
Keep Ya Head Up - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Ya_Head_Up.
Created at www.bibme.org
[1] http://www.celebritywonder.com/movie/2007_Freedom_Writers102.html
[2] ROSE (1989) cited in SHOHAT, E. and STAM, R. 1994: ‘Unthinking Eurocentrism: multiculturalism and the media’ , London: Routledge, p.21
[3]Hall, Stuart (1977): Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, (1977), London, New Delhi. Sage Publications, p.271
[4] DOMESTIC TOTAL GROSS FIGURE:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=freedomwriters.htm
[5] SHAKUR, TUPAC:’KEEP YA HEAD UP’ – 1993 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Ya_Head_Up
[6] COMMON ft WILL.I.AM (2007): ‘I Have A Dream’, soundtrack Freedom Writers - http://video.aol.com/video-detail/common-i-have-a-dreamfreedom-writers-soundtrack/546801160
[7] FRANK, Ann (1947) ‘The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank’
[8] ZIAUDDIN, Sardar (2000) ‘Introducing Media studies’: p.79
[9] Coach Carter (2005)
[10] Honey (2003)
[11] Sarita Malik (2002): representing black Britain, black and Asian images on Television, Sage publications. P.176
[12] ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying’ (2005)
[13] Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)
[14] WINOKUR (1991) cited in STRINATI, Dominic (2000) : ‘An introduction to studying Popular culture’ p.61, London: Routledge
[15] Cohen, Stanley (1972) “Folk Devils and Moral Panic”
[16] Essential word dictionary: AS/A- level Media studies, p.125
[17] Munford, Clarence (1996): Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century, Africa World Press.. p.54
[18] FRIEDMAN, Lester D. (ed.) Unspeakable images: ethnicity and the American cinema. P.49
[19] ‘Shaft’ (1971)
[20] FREEDOM WRITERS; quote by Hunter Parrish
[21] Tim O'Sullivan, Brian Dutton, Philip Rayner (2003): studying the media (third Edition). London: Arnold Publications. P.181
Texas Chainsaw Massacre..
The Similarities and Differences Of Texas Chainsaw Maasacre - Old and New :
Similarities:
*The texts contain a group of teenagers who are on a roadtrip
*Both texrts use the setting of the 'deserted/bad house'
*Leather face is the prime killer in both movies
*There is a Hitch hiker who becomes the key to the events unfolded later
*The characters die in the same type of order
*Leatherface is hidden away in the beginning
*The town looks perfectly normal at first
Differences:
*Hitchiker is a girl and not Leatherfaces brother
*The same thing happens to the final girl, like what hapens to the hitchiker they find (this is told through the way the hitchiker acts, they ask her name and she says she wants to go home etc)
* The grandad is perfectly normal, he isn't stuk in a chair
* Mother is inroduced and the family is bigger
* The final girl has to kill one of the characyers to help ease the pain as he will die anyway
* The sheriff is more vicious and tortures three charcaters rather than just the girl in the previous one
* Teenagers are involved in drugs
The change in time shows the new couple to be more promiscuous compared to before
Similarities:
*The texts contain a group of teenagers who are on a roadtrip
*Both texrts use the setting of the 'deserted/bad house'
*Leather face is the prime killer in both movies
*There is a Hitch hiker who becomes the key to the events unfolded later
*The characters die in the same type of order
*Leatherface is hidden away in the beginning
*The town looks perfectly normal at first
Differences:
*Hitchiker is a girl and not Leatherfaces brother
*The same thing happens to the final girl, like what hapens to the hitchiker they find (this is told through the way the hitchiker acts, they ask her name and she says she wants to go home etc)
* The grandad is perfectly normal, he isn't stuk in a chair
* Mother is inroduced and the family is bigger
* The final girl has to kill one of the characyers to help ease the pain as he will die anyway
* The sheriff is more vicious and tortures three charcaters rather than just the girl in the previous one
* Teenagers are involved in drugs
The change in time shows the new couple to be more promiscuous compared to before
Scary Movie..
Scary Movie Franchise:
* The movies mainly specialize in spoofing current, popular horror films
* Several mid and late 1990's movies have been spoofed
* Movies spoofed within the text are :
-Halloween
-I know what you did last summer
-The sixth sense
-The blair witch project
-The usual suspects
-The matrix
*Movies tagline is 'No mercy. No Shame. No Sequel**' The last reference was based upon popular horror movies becoming long running franchises
*Scary Movie 2 was released with the tagline 'We Lied'
*The movie followed with sequels Scary Movie 3 & 4
*The original title for 'Scream' was supposed to be 'Scary Movie' - This was later used as a spoof of the original scream film
*Film was released through dimension films
The movie is relevant to the post modern society because of the fact that it contains elements of being ironic. The reason for this is because the texts refers to many fdifferent movies which the audiencwe would have already identified with. This helps creeate the spoof aspect of the movie creating comedy for the audince through the actions the characters take.
* The movies mainly specialize in spoofing current, popular horror films
* Several mid and late 1990's movies have been spoofed
* Movies spoofed within the text are :
-Halloween
-I know what you did last summer
-The sixth sense
-The blair witch project
-The usual suspects
-The matrix
*Movies tagline is 'No mercy. No Shame. No Sequel**' The last reference was based upon popular horror movies becoming long running franchises
*Scary Movie 2 was released with the tagline 'We Lied'
*The movie followed with sequels Scary Movie 3 & 4
*The original title for 'Scream' was supposed to be 'Scary Movie' - This was later used as a spoof of the original scream film
*Film was released through dimension films
The movie is relevant to the post modern society because of the fact that it contains elements of being ironic. The reason for this is because the texts refers to many fdifferent movies which the audiencwe would have already identified with. This helps creeate the spoof aspect of the movie creating comedy for the audince through the actions the characters take.
Scream..
Movies Made Refrence To..
* A Nightmare on Elm Street
* Halloween sequels
* Night of the living dead
* Dementia 13
* Candy man
* Prom night
Key word Definitions & link to Scream Movie..
*Pastiche: This is a term used for a media text made up form other media text pieces or of imitations of other styles -
This is linked to scream because the movie itself contains different movie immations within it. The text refers back to many different movies which enhances the different genre style promoted to the audience. The styles have been impacted on from the past, so the different repertoire of elemnts used in teh horror genre over timw ould be desrted houses, final girl characters and iconicly recognisable murder weapons such as knifes and chainsaws.
*Irony: This is a term used to describe when humor is based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaning -
The text contains the usage of Irony so that the audiences can already be aeware of the words and storylines the characters are playing on. If a chracter was to say who's there? the audience will automatically be aware that this character is about to die now because it is a rule to not ask questions about who is there, as well as this irony is used when characters are involved in sexual mating games, then the audience will a;lready know how sex is punished and therefre these characters will certainly die.
*Intertextuality: This is referred to the practice of purposely including a reference of one text in the narrative of another, it can generate levels of meaning for the viewer -
*This is used in the text to help convey multiple meanings as well as creating awareness of the storyline for the audience. This is through mentioning certain texts, for instance if the movie Halloween was mentioned in Scream, then the characters would have a scene in the ,movie which would derive from the plot of halloween etc.
Scream Franchise:
* The movies have been directed by Wes Craven * The plot revolves around a main phychopathic killer
* A signature device, started in Scream and continued in Scream 2 and Scream 3, was the typical "rules" for the slasher subgenre of horror movies being stated by the characters.In Scream, those rules (as described by Randy) are:
You may not survive the movie if you have sex.
You may not survive the movie if you drink or do drugs.
You may not survive the movie if you say "I'll be right back","Hello?" or "Who's there?"
A similar set of "rules" was used for the movie's trailer:
Don't answer the phone
Don't open the door
Don't try to hide
But most of all don't scream
* A Nightmare on Elm Street
* Halloween sequels
* Night of the living dead
* Dementia 13
* Candy man
* Prom night
Key word Definitions & link to Scream Movie..
*Pastiche: This is a term used for a media text made up form other media text pieces or of imitations of other styles -
This is linked to scream because the movie itself contains different movie immations within it. The text refers back to many different movies which enhances the different genre style promoted to the audience. The styles have been impacted on from the past, so the different repertoire of elemnts used in teh horror genre over timw ould be desrted houses, final girl characters and iconicly recognisable murder weapons such as knifes and chainsaws.
*Irony: This is a term used to describe when humor is based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaning -
The text contains the usage of Irony so that the audiences can already be aeware of the words and storylines the characters are playing on. If a chracter was to say who's there? the audience will automatically be aware that this character is about to die now because it is a rule to not ask questions about who is there, as well as this irony is used when characters are involved in sexual mating games, then the audience will a;lready know how sex is punished and therefre these characters will certainly die.
*Intertextuality: This is referred to the practice of purposely including a reference of one text in the narrative of another, it can generate levels of meaning for the viewer -
*This is used in the text to help convey multiple meanings as well as creating awareness of the storyline for the audience. This is through mentioning certain texts, for instance if the movie Halloween was mentioned in Scream, then the characters would have a scene in the ,movie which would derive from the plot of halloween etc.
Scream Franchise:
* The movies have been directed by Wes Craven * The plot revolves around a main phychopathic killer
* A signature device, started in Scream and continued in Scream 2 and Scream 3, was the typical "rules" for the slasher subgenre of horror movies being stated by the characters.In Scream, those rules (as described by Randy) are:
You may not survive the movie if you have sex.
You may not survive the movie if you drink or do drugs.
You may not survive the movie if you say "I'll be right back","Hello?" or "Who's there?"
A similar set of "rules" was used for the movie's trailer:
Don't answer the phone
Don't open the door
Don't try to hide
But most of all don't scream
A Nightmare on Elm Street...
A Nightmare On Elm Street Franchise
* It is an American Horror Franchise
* This franchise began with the film series, created by Wes Craven
* The franchise consists of 8 Slasher movies, a television show, novels, and comic books
* The movie lead to the franchise being formed
* The franchise focuses upon main fictional character of Freddy Kruger.
* Freddy Kruger was first introduced in 'A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984)'
* A series of sequels were produced by the independent film compay 'New Line Cinema'
* Compared to other American horror film series, A Nightmare on Elm Street is the third highest grossing franchise
* Further Nightmare Movie is reproted to be released in 'April 2010'
---------------------------------------------
Wes Cravens New Nightmare Part 1
The beginning of the movie almost seems as if it will not contain the elements of the horror fiml genre and follow the hother. Hoever a few minutes into the film and when the robotic hand starts hurting people in the dream and heather awakes noticing how chase has been cut in exactly the same place as he was in his dream. This then enhaces how the movie will be similar to the previous Nightmare on Elm Street movies because it follows the typical convention of the movie characters being hurt in their dreams and then awakening to find themselves hurt on reality.
* It is an American Horror Franchise
* This franchise began with the film series, created by Wes Craven
* The franchise consists of 8 Slasher movies, a television show, novels, and comic books
* The movie lead to the franchise being formed
* The franchise focuses upon main fictional character of Freddy Kruger.
* Freddy Kruger was first introduced in 'A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984)'
* A series of sequels were produced by the independent film compay 'New Line Cinema'
* Compared to other American horror film series, A Nightmare on Elm Street is the third highest grossing franchise
* Further Nightmare Movie is reproted to be released in 'April 2010'
---------------------------------------------
Wes Cravens New Nightmare Part 1
The beginning of the movie almost seems as if it will not contain the elements of the horror fiml genre and follow the hother. Hoever a few minutes into the film and when the robotic hand starts hurting people in the dream and heather awakes noticing how chase has been cut in exactly the same place as he was in his dream. This then enhaces how the movie will be similar to the previous Nightmare on Elm Street movies because it follows the typical convention of the movie characters being hurt in their dreams and then awakening to find themselves hurt on reality.
Friday the 13th!!
*Friday the 13th is an "American Franchise"
*The franchise consits of "12 Slasher Films" + "Television Show" + "Novels/Comics"
*Original film was written by "Victor Miller"
*All movies focus upon character "Jason Voorhees"
*Jason dies in 'Crystal Lake', which is later rumoured to be "Cursed"
*Jason is the key behind the movie, the murders are all linked to Jason either bieng the "Killer" or the motivation behind the murders.
*The full rights of the franchise are upon "Paramount Pictures."
*Friday the 13th is considered one of the most "Successful media franchises" in America.
Different Movie Sequels - Friday the 13th:
*Friday the 13th (1980)
*Friday the 13th part 2 (1981)
*Friday the 13th part III (1982)
*Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
*Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
*Friday the 13th part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
*Friday the 13th part VII: The new Blood (1988)
*Friday the 13th part VIII: Jason takes Manhatten (1989)
*Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
*Jason X (2002)
*Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
*Friday the 13th (2009)
*The franchise consits of "12 Slasher Films" + "Television Show" + "Novels/Comics"
*Original film was written by "Victor Miller"
*All movies focus upon character "Jason Voorhees"
*Jason dies in 'Crystal Lake', which is later rumoured to be "Cursed"
*Jason is the key behind the movie, the murders are all linked to Jason either bieng the "Killer" or the motivation behind the murders.
*The full rights of the franchise are upon "Paramount Pictures."
*Friday the 13th is considered one of the most "Successful media franchises" in America.
Different Movie Sequels - Friday the 13th:
*Friday the 13th (1980)
*Friday the 13th part 2 (1981)
*Friday the 13th part III (1982)
*Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
*Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
*Friday the 13th part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
*Friday the 13th part VII: The new Blood (1988)
*Friday the 13th part VIII: Jason takes Manhatten (1989)
*Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
*Jason X (2002)
*Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
*Friday the 13th (2009)
Halloween U.K
Things that will be kept the same:
Media Language - Camera Shot: P.O.V Shot through the mask. This camera trick is great to keep the audience in suspense.
Iconography - Knife: murder weapon, it is the classic prop used in the slasher genre, originally forming from 'Psycho.'
Audience - Same as before, as in age group etc.
Audience movie effect - Visceral, as before.
Setting - same type of house with the dead bodies inside.
Things that will change: The new movie should include:
Media Language - The killer (Michael) should be focussed upon more clearly how he has gone to an institution as this is not made clear in the original movie.
Setting: although it has become an element for the scary movies to be set in a deserted area, so will this. the only thing that will change will be, how, it will move to a country side and not a town based area. The area will have houses that are around the corner from each other, so alot of extra space..for michael to torment the characters!!!!
Murder weapon: perhaps introduce the weapon as a popular prop michael would be famous for using.
Media Language - Camera Shot: P.O.V Shot through the mask. This camera trick is great to keep the audience in suspense.
Iconography - Knife: murder weapon, it is the classic prop used in the slasher genre, originally forming from 'Psycho.'
Audience - Same as before, as in age group etc.
Audience movie effect - Visceral, as before.
Setting - same type of house with the dead bodies inside.
Things that will change: The new movie should include:
Media Language - The killer (Michael) should be focussed upon more clearly how he has gone to an institution as this is not made clear in the original movie.
Setting: although it has become an element for the scary movies to be set in a deserted area, so will this. the only thing that will change will be, how, it will move to a country side and not a town based area. The area will have houses that are around the corner from each other, so alot of extra space..for michael to torment the characters!!!!
Murder weapon: perhaps introduce the weapon as a popular prop michael would be famous for using.
Monday
Homework!
Targets =
*To expand Book Research and alter bibliography
*To use Key Concepts throughout
*Use media terminology consistently
*Add more theorists/quotes
Next Step =
I have to we-rite my opening paragraph and re-think my last paragraph.
I have to ensure that i meet my targets along the way so that my second draft is of a high standard, helping me achieve the best grade possible.
*To expand Book Research and alter bibliography
*To use Key Concepts throughout
*Use media terminology consistently
*Add more theorists/quotes
Next Step =
I have to we-rite my opening paragraph and re-think my last paragraph.
I have to ensure that i meet my targets along the way so that my second draft is of a high standard, helping me achieve the best grade possible.
Thursday
Unit 1 – Introducing Genre:
I learnt how..“Genres are not fixed”
This is important to remember because genre or groups are not fixed definitions as they change over time.
As well as this..“Genre is a critical tool”
This is essential due to the fact that genre is seen as a concept which is used to analyse the films/filmmaking and audiences response to a film.
Finally..“commentators, actors and directors, refer to a films genre”
This point is important to remember as genre is constantly referred back to by people associated with a film text which falls under a certain group.
Overall, this unit has helped me to understand how genres are not fixed and that they do change over time. As well as this I have also learnt how genre is a critical tool and is always used to analyse responses to a text. To finish I also recognise the importance of how different genre texts are also assessed by people in their different media roles.
Unit 2 – Genre classification:
I have learnt about the “Hybrid genre”
This genre term is used to describe a genre and the different types of categories it may fall under, so a mixed genre. For instance a movie likes ‘Charlie’s angels’ would fall under the action-comedy hybrid genre, as it is a mix of both.
I also learnt..“Most modern, big-budget films do not fit into one category.”
This is usually because the movies have elements of other movie genres, so for instance a movie like ‘Prom night’ which is a thriller, could also be mistakably be seen as a romantic thriller, all because the movie focuses on the love life of the protagonist etc.
Finally..“Genre is dynamic, and many theorists refer to the repertoire of elements”
This means how like genre changes overtime, as it is not fixed, the iconic images also change overtime. The different characteristics of a particular genre are acknowledged through the iconography, style, setting, narrative, characters, themes and audience response.
Overall, this unit has helped me to understand how genres fall into different categories called ‘hybrid.’ Many of the big-budget movies use the hybrid genre approach to a movie as they contain elements of different genres, which means that as genre is dynamic the repertoire of element characteristics are assessed.
I learnt how..“Genres are not fixed”
This is important to remember because genre or groups are not fixed definitions as they change over time.
As well as this..“Genre is a critical tool”
This is essential due to the fact that genre is seen as a concept which is used to analyse the films/filmmaking and audiences response to a film.
Finally..“commentators, actors and directors, refer to a films genre”
This point is important to remember as genre is constantly referred back to by people associated with a film text which falls under a certain group.
Overall, this unit has helped me to understand how genres are not fixed and that they do change over time. As well as this I have also learnt how genre is a critical tool and is always used to analyse responses to a text. To finish I also recognise the importance of how different genre texts are also assessed by people in their different media roles.
Unit 2 – Genre classification:
I have learnt about the “Hybrid genre”
This genre term is used to describe a genre and the different types of categories it may fall under, so a mixed genre. For instance a movie likes ‘Charlie’s angels’ would fall under the action-comedy hybrid genre, as it is a mix of both.
I also learnt..“Most modern, big-budget films do not fit into one category.”
This is usually because the movies have elements of other movie genres, so for instance a movie like ‘Prom night’ which is a thriller, could also be mistakably be seen as a romantic thriller, all because the movie focuses on the love life of the protagonist etc.
Finally..“Genre is dynamic, and many theorists refer to the repertoire of elements”
This means how like genre changes overtime, as it is not fixed, the iconic images also change overtime. The different characteristics of a particular genre are acknowledged through the iconography, style, setting, narrative, characters, themes and audience response.
Overall, this unit has helped me to understand how genres fall into different categories called ‘hybrid.’ Many of the big-budget movies use the hybrid genre approach to a movie as they contain elements of different genres, which means that as genre is dynamic the repertoire of element characteristics are assessed.
Wednesday
Independant Study
“In Long Beach, is all comes down to what you look like, it’s all about colour.”[1]
Does the movie ‘Freedom Writers (2007)’ reinforce common stereotypes of people from ethnic minority backgrounds?
It has almost become somewhat of a tradition, for ethnic minorities to always be related within a circle of violent behaviour. The media constantly targets youths from different minorities in ways where hegemony uses culture to promote power. In this case it would be the ruling by cultural influence where white people have the power and dominant control over people from ethnic minorities.
Set in Long Beach, California, Freedom Writers (2007) puts forward this negative stereotype of people within the ethnic community belonging to a vicious crime filled environment. The characters within the movie belong to a segregated community, where each race is divided into separate tribes. The students are represented as a central point to the movie, and the way they struggle to break free from the chaotic atmosphere around them to emerge as one, putting away the elements of the ‘Other’, and accepting their classmates for who they are rather than their ethnic backgrounds. “Racism is like a poor kid who grew up needing someone to hurt.”[2] This quote implies that racism is something which affects someone in such a way, that the outcome would be to hurt someone. Perhaps this is the reason, why the action of the youths in this film was due to all the segregation between them. Freedom Writers holds strong stereotypes of people within the African-American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caucasian race to be associated with violence, gun/gang crime and drugs which has therefore resulted in people believing in these given stereotypes.
Freedom Writers focuses on a true story in 1994 where a first time teacher (Hilary Swank) faces a group of students who have been considered by the government as “un-teachable, at-risk” teenagers. The movie represents street wise kids who have all witnessed fights out breaking in front of them as well as murders of their own friends and family. Stuart Hall (1977) talks about the way black people are characterized in the media; “…their ‘locations’ are the familiar real-life settings of ghetto, street, police station and drug-bust.”[3]This goes to show how each character in the movie also falls within this categorisation of what Stuart Hall refers to as being a representation of black people within movies, which helps support the fact that people from ethnic minorities are there to become objectified in negative ways.
The institution of the texts is a highly recognisable institution, ‘Paramount Pictures.’ Paramount Pictures teams up with ‘MTV Films’ to bring to its audience ‘Freedom Writers.’ The movie had a domestic total gross of $36,605,602[4], which supports that it was a very successful movie. The fact that Paramount pictures are such a hugely successful establishment shows that the movie was used as a mainstream distributor so many people would have watched the movie anyway. However, teaming up with MTV films would interest people from different backgrounds who would not have been that interested in the movie to come and watch it. This is due to the fact how the soundtracks used in the movie such as ‘Keep Ya Head Up’[5] and the soundtrack ‘I have a dream’ [6]is from a rap genre which would be targeted at people within a multicultural society and perhaps specifically people from a more ghetto and urbanised area. The fact that the institution is MTV films also supports how people from the urbanised areas are more likely to watch the movie, as it is a music based institution, meaning it will contain a lot of music that would usually appear on this mainstream channel. As people from ethnic minorities are usually associated with hip hop, grime and rap music, the stereotypes given to them of being associated within crime and drugs, sticks well and supports the negative representation of them within the community.
A theorist, Richard Dyer, talks about how ‘stars are important.’ Freedom Writers has used this approach in attracting their audiences to view the movie. Mario – a famous R‘n’B artist, plays one of the lead characters in the movie as ‘Andre Bryant’ who is represented as one of the teenagers who has just lost hope. Coming from a ‘typical broken home’ as a lot of black people are shown on screen, he struggles to maintain a good record at school, and as he sells drugs when he is out of the classroom, he just cannot find time to finish his school work. Andre – In fact, all of the characters in the movie are shown as dumbing one another down. All of the characters in the movie are portrayed as to have lost hope and are represented to be at school, because they have to and not the case where they feel that they want to.
Erin (Hilary Swank) is represented as determined to change the ways of these students and that is when she starts to personally buy books for them. When she learns that the students have no idea what a Holocaust is, she makes them study ‘The diary of Anne Frank.’ “When I write I can shake off all my cares, My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!”[7] The students are then given the opportunity to keep a diary themselves and then later understand the ease of writing out all of the feelings, hurt and pain they had kept inside them for so long, just like Anne Frank did, write everything our before her on blank pieces of paper, helping her emerge from what was going on around her. Their life, written on paper felt so excellent, causing them to begin changing their lives around. This part in the movie helps change the common stereotypes which are given to people from ethnic minorities. The fact that these students are prepared to leave the gang crime and swap it for books, goes to show how knowledge is something which acts like a tool in the movie and how all these negative stereotyped students really needed was someone to pay attention and not ‘dumb them down’ and classify them as ‘dangerous’ and ‘useless.’
“Racial stereotypes are among the most readily employed in the media.”[8] It is right to say that the stereotypes within contemporary society are supported with what is actually a representation of something which has been ‘constructed’ in the media. The media continuously reinforces stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, such as black people are always associated with drugs and gun crime. The “Oriental stereotype” of the people from the East being chaotically violent and of Asians being regarded as the ‘Other’ due to them lacking the qualities any average – in fact an average WHITE man would have.
However, although these negative stereotypes have been put forward in the media continuously, movies such as “Coach Carter (2005)”[9], “Honey (2003)”[10] and Freedom Writers challenge these assumptions. These movies all contain the Proppian Hero/Heroine who depicts the grimy scenes of the ghetto which are based at the centre of these characters hearts and then learn to interact with them in such a way that they are able to change everything around to favour these rebellious teenagers. The thing in common in all three movies is how we as an audience get a fairly accurate representation of street life. The way the characters go in their every day-to-day lives and struggles of not having money as they are from the ‘hood’, the neglect they face from people outside their race and social status. The movies also help support the stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, however they are also challenged and as the movies come to an end, all three movies have shown the characters have changed their lives around, from the stereotypes given, to someone who can now be accepted in society and by not being judged on their skin.
Freedom Writers reinforces the stereotypes given to the characters within the movie. This is created through the usage of props and characters clothing. The way the characters dress is in loose and street wise clothing. The male teenagers all wear hooded tops, which itself has a negative connotation stuck to it, as well as baggy jeans falling half way down their waists and loose baggy t-shirts, which look more like dresses! These are the typical clothes a teenager would wear; however, they are specifically worn by teenagers within the ethnic community and less likely to be worn by a white boy, within the same age range and perhaps even same society. The stereotypes of being violent are also supported through the usage of props which are given to these characters. The characters are seen holding weapons like knives and guns in some scenes, which strengthens the negative views of people, on the people that are being categorized here as the ‘Other’ as they are simply not like us.
“Violence only begets violence”’[11] It is always vital to remember how a person’s actions are always based upon something they may have come across in the past. Similarly, in Freedom Writers, the reason why these students are so out of control could be as they have seen one another as the ‘Other’, because they are not like them. They are different to them, they do not act and behave the way their specific ‘people’ act and behave, causing the segregation between one another.
Colonialism played a major hand in the fact that it was ok to be racist. It was used to justify oppression and was seen as socially acceptable. This reflects on the way that as well as colonialism, the way that some historical issues prevailed was also a reason why it is still ok to categorise people from ethnic minorities. As the text is polysemic it all depends on the audience’s social, cultural and educational background; however it has a purpose of challenging the assumptions made of the stereotypes the movie holds. However, movies such as ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying (2005), continuously reinforce the stereotype given to people from ethnic minorities. This is due to the way the characters are represented. Marcus (50 Cent) the lead role, is represented as a street gangster, his job is to kill. When black people are portrayed like this is the media, the representation is always degraded, as it helps fulfil the present stereotypes, and movies like these gangster films, do not really help the representation of these black males in the media. However, the changing point in the movie of when he finds his hidden talent of being able to sing and become a singer is a point of change for him and shows how he himself has now seen the light and wants to put it away, but just like in Freedom writers, when the students are constantly faced with struggles he is also unable to do so straight away.
Movies such as “Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)” [12]are seen as films belonging to a gangster genre. They follow the typical generic codes associated within this genre. These movies also use a repertoire of different props which aim in helping the genre fall in place. Weapons such as guns and knives are used within gangster films; similarly these props are also used in Freedom writers. This does not mean that this movie falls within this genre however, it does follow the typical codes and conventions of a gangster film. “The contemporary gangster film best embodies the ambivalence of film-makers towards ethnicity and race.”'[13] Winokur (1991) states a fact here, as more and more contemporary movies which are based within the gangster genre draw film makers towards ethnicity and race. This goes to show how the media is putting out new entertainment through an issue such as racial profiling and racism to become acceptable when the outcome is only just to viewing it, rather than using it as something to perpetrate in reality. The fact that the media is such a powerful tool, it acts as manipulating us into believing what we see on screen is a picture of what is happening in the real world, and it goes to show how as a naive and passive audience we are also injected with these thoughts, making ourselves believe the negative assumptions made against people from ethnic minorities.
There are many different social issues which have also been an influence to the way people have been represented from ethnic minorities. “Racist behaviour is based on centuries of economic exploitation and has been deeply embedded in European culture.”[14] An issue such as Black Slavery in the 1930’s is perhaps a main real reason to why the black people are shown as being under the whites. Why it is the case of the white being the rich and elite and blacks being second priority and not as good. A well known hegemonic theorist, Marcuse says how the media ‘indoctrinates and manipulates’ us. Similarly, with issues such as black slavery and Martin Luther King’s plans of liberation, the idea of the blacks rising above these specified stereotypes of the blacks just not being good enough are confirmed to be mistaken.
The Blaxploitation genre came forward in the early 1970’s where the movie ‘Shaft (1971)’[15] was the first movie belonging to this genre. This genre is specifically targeted at Black people of where the films within it tend to take place in an urbanised setting referred to as ‘the ghetto’. Blaxploitation films contain many negative stereotypes of black people, of which certain characters are portrayed in being associated with drugs, gun crime, and violence. Similarly, Freedom Writers also contains elements of this specific genre. The characters are all represented to be involved with crime as they have this hatred and this ethnic disgrace towards one another, where they are seen as being racist towards one another by the way they live their lives. The fact that all of the characters behave in such a racial way towards one another, goes to show how they themselves do not care about the issues of racial profiling and discrimination towards one another, as that is the way they have been brought up. It does not affect them. Theorist, Levi Strauss’s binary opposition theory comes hinted out at this point as people from a certain background will not associate within someone from another
Background, In this case, The Cambodians were against the Latino’s which was like Good vs. Evil, yet all of the people were innocent and only guilty for having this grudge of spite against each other as they were trying to fight for their own place in ‘their America.’
The movie Shaft does not contain specific indication to racism yet some of the characters behaviour involves them being prejudice. A scene where Shaft puts his hand out for the taxi, and the driver stops ahead of him where the other passenger is a white man. This portrays how there is a ‘fear of the black man.’ This is also reflected in ‘Freedom Writer’s’ where in one scene, Erin makes the students swap their seats, so she can divide them from the tribes they sit in. She asks Ben (the only white boy in the class) to go to the back (where all the black people are seated) and he instantly says ‘I can’t go back there.’[16] This shows the strong stereotype black people hold of being involved in violence as well as being socially unaccepted within people from another society.
To finish, Stereotypes do still exist within contemporary society and those given to ethnic minorities are seriously negative representations of these people, as they are categorised and targeted by the media regularly. This goes to show how the media acts as a major source, which controls the stereotypes given, making the stereotyped feel out of place and pushing them to the edge. This categorisation of people from ethnic minorities only just shows how we are living in a white dominated society, of where people from ethnic minorities don’t have as much respect in society as much as an ordinary man would have. The stereotypes are used to label specific people from a different culture to our own. This label is stuck to them in such a way that it affects the way they carry out their normal lives and continues to be a reason for the media to target them on a regular basis. The movie Freedom writers does reinforce these common stereotypes, however only to a certain extent. By the end of the movie, the students who were at the beginning labelled as ‘unreachable’ students are represented as intelligent and wise at the end. This goes to show that although the negative stereotypes are given to people from ethnic minorities, the media does in a way help to change this by introducing movies such as freedom writers and showing the way the stereotypes can change. Most importantly, although the media does change the stereotypes of these people, it is essential to remember that if there were no stereotypes in the first place, then there would be nothing to change within movies like these. Although the movies are purely made for entertainment purposes, people do reflect on them and compare them to what they see in reality, which helps create the realism.
Word count: 3012
[1] ‘Freedom Writers’ (2007)
[2] ROSE (1989) cited in SHOHAT, E. and STAM, R. 1994: ‘Unthinking Eurocentrism: multiculturalism and the media’ pg.21, London: Routledge
[3]Hall, Stuart (1977): Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, (1977) pg.271, London, New Delhi. Sage Publications
[4] DOMESTIC TOTAL GROSS FIGURE:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=freedomwriters.htm
[5] SHAKUR, TUPAC:’KEEP YA HEAD UP’ – 1993 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Ya_Head_Up
[6] COMMON ft WILL.I.AM (2007): ‘I Have A Dream’, soundtrack Freedom Writers
[7] FRANK, Ann (1947) ‘The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank’
[8] Representation handout: pg. 79
[9] Coach Carter (2005) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_Carter
[10] Honey (2003) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_(2003_film)
[11] ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying’ (2005) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin%27_(film)
[12] Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)
[13] WINOKUR (1991) cited in STRINATI, Dominic (2000) : ‘An introduction to studying Popular culture’ pg.61, London: Routledge
[14] Essential word dictionary: AS/A- level Media studies, pg. 125
[15] ‘Shaft’ (1971)
[16] FREEDOM WRITIERS; Hunter Parrish
Does the movie ‘Freedom Writers (2007)’ reinforce common stereotypes of people from ethnic minority backgrounds?
It has almost become somewhat of a tradition, for ethnic minorities to always be related within a circle of violent behaviour. The media constantly targets youths from different minorities in ways where hegemony uses culture to promote power. In this case it would be the ruling by cultural influence where white people have the power and dominant control over people from ethnic minorities.
Set in Long Beach, California, Freedom Writers (2007) puts forward this negative stereotype of people within the ethnic community belonging to a vicious crime filled environment. The characters within the movie belong to a segregated community, where each race is divided into separate tribes. The students are represented as a central point to the movie, and the way they struggle to break free from the chaotic atmosphere around them to emerge as one, putting away the elements of the ‘Other’, and accepting their classmates for who they are rather than their ethnic backgrounds. “Racism is like a poor kid who grew up needing someone to hurt.”[2] This quote implies that racism is something which affects someone in such a way, that the outcome would be to hurt someone. Perhaps this is the reason, why the action of the youths in this film was due to all the segregation between them. Freedom Writers holds strong stereotypes of people within the African-American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caucasian race to be associated with violence, gun/gang crime and drugs which has therefore resulted in people believing in these given stereotypes.
Freedom Writers focuses on a true story in 1994 where a first time teacher (Hilary Swank) faces a group of students who have been considered by the government as “un-teachable, at-risk” teenagers. The movie represents street wise kids who have all witnessed fights out breaking in front of them as well as murders of their own friends and family. Stuart Hall (1977) talks about the way black people are characterized in the media; “…their ‘locations’ are the familiar real-life settings of ghetto, street, police station and drug-bust.”[3]This goes to show how each character in the movie also falls within this categorisation of what Stuart Hall refers to as being a representation of black people within movies, which helps support the fact that people from ethnic minorities are there to become objectified in negative ways.
The institution of the texts is a highly recognisable institution, ‘Paramount Pictures.’ Paramount Pictures teams up with ‘MTV Films’ to bring to its audience ‘Freedom Writers.’ The movie had a domestic total gross of $36,605,602[4], which supports that it was a very successful movie. The fact that Paramount pictures are such a hugely successful establishment shows that the movie was used as a mainstream distributor so many people would have watched the movie anyway. However, teaming up with MTV films would interest people from different backgrounds who would not have been that interested in the movie to come and watch it. This is due to the fact how the soundtracks used in the movie such as ‘Keep Ya Head Up’[5] and the soundtrack ‘I have a dream’ [6]is from a rap genre which would be targeted at people within a multicultural society and perhaps specifically people from a more ghetto and urbanised area. The fact that the institution is MTV films also supports how people from the urbanised areas are more likely to watch the movie, as it is a music based institution, meaning it will contain a lot of music that would usually appear on this mainstream channel. As people from ethnic minorities are usually associated with hip hop, grime and rap music, the stereotypes given to them of being associated within crime and drugs, sticks well and supports the negative representation of them within the community.
A theorist, Richard Dyer, talks about how ‘stars are important.’ Freedom Writers has used this approach in attracting their audiences to view the movie. Mario – a famous R‘n’B artist, plays one of the lead characters in the movie as ‘Andre Bryant’ who is represented as one of the teenagers who has just lost hope. Coming from a ‘typical broken home’ as a lot of black people are shown on screen, he struggles to maintain a good record at school, and as he sells drugs when he is out of the classroom, he just cannot find time to finish his school work. Andre – In fact, all of the characters in the movie are shown as dumbing one another down. All of the characters in the movie are portrayed as to have lost hope and are represented to be at school, because they have to and not the case where they feel that they want to.
Erin (Hilary Swank) is represented as determined to change the ways of these students and that is when she starts to personally buy books for them. When she learns that the students have no idea what a Holocaust is, she makes them study ‘The diary of Anne Frank.’ “When I write I can shake off all my cares, My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!”[7] The students are then given the opportunity to keep a diary themselves and then later understand the ease of writing out all of the feelings, hurt and pain they had kept inside them for so long, just like Anne Frank did, write everything our before her on blank pieces of paper, helping her emerge from what was going on around her. Their life, written on paper felt so excellent, causing them to begin changing their lives around. This part in the movie helps change the common stereotypes which are given to people from ethnic minorities. The fact that these students are prepared to leave the gang crime and swap it for books, goes to show how knowledge is something which acts like a tool in the movie and how all these negative stereotyped students really needed was someone to pay attention and not ‘dumb them down’ and classify them as ‘dangerous’ and ‘useless.’
“Racial stereotypes are among the most readily employed in the media.”[8] It is right to say that the stereotypes within contemporary society are supported with what is actually a representation of something which has been ‘constructed’ in the media. The media continuously reinforces stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, such as black people are always associated with drugs and gun crime. The “Oriental stereotype” of the people from the East being chaotically violent and of Asians being regarded as the ‘Other’ due to them lacking the qualities any average – in fact an average WHITE man would have.
However, although these negative stereotypes have been put forward in the media continuously, movies such as “Coach Carter (2005)”[9], “Honey (2003)”[10] and Freedom Writers challenge these assumptions. These movies all contain the Proppian Hero/Heroine who depicts the grimy scenes of the ghetto which are based at the centre of these characters hearts and then learn to interact with them in such a way that they are able to change everything around to favour these rebellious teenagers. The thing in common in all three movies is how we as an audience get a fairly accurate representation of street life. The way the characters go in their every day-to-day lives and struggles of not having money as they are from the ‘hood’, the neglect they face from people outside their race and social status. The movies also help support the stereotypes given to people from ethnic minorities, however they are also challenged and as the movies come to an end, all three movies have shown the characters have changed their lives around, from the stereotypes given, to someone who can now be accepted in society and by not being judged on their skin.
Freedom Writers reinforces the stereotypes given to the characters within the movie. This is created through the usage of props and characters clothing. The way the characters dress is in loose and street wise clothing. The male teenagers all wear hooded tops, which itself has a negative connotation stuck to it, as well as baggy jeans falling half way down their waists and loose baggy t-shirts, which look more like dresses! These are the typical clothes a teenager would wear; however, they are specifically worn by teenagers within the ethnic community and less likely to be worn by a white boy, within the same age range and perhaps even same society. The stereotypes of being violent are also supported through the usage of props which are given to these characters. The characters are seen holding weapons like knives and guns in some scenes, which strengthens the negative views of people, on the people that are being categorized here as the ‘Other’ as they are simply not like us.
“Violence only begets violence”’[11] It is always vital to remember how a person’s actions are always based upon something they may have come across in the past. Similarly, in Freedom Writers, the reason why these students are so out of control could be as they have seen one another as the ‘Other’, because they are not like them. They are different to them, they do not act and behave the way their specific ‘people’ act and behave, causing the segregation between one another.
Colonialism played a major hand in the fact that it was ok to be racist. It was used to justify oppression and was seen as socially acceptable. This reflects on the way that as well as colonialism, the way that some historical issues prevailed was also a reason why it is still ok to categorise people from ethnic minorities. As the text is polysemic it all depends on the audience’s social, cultural and educational background; however it has a purpose of challenging the assumptions made of the stereotypes the movie holds. However, movies such as ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying (2005), continuously reinforce the stereotype given to people from ethnic minorities. This is due to the way the characters are represented. Marcus (50 Cent) the lead role, is represented as a street gangster, his job is to kill. When black people are portrayed like this is the media, the representation is always degraded, as it helps fulfil the present stereotypes, and movies like these gangster films, do not really help the representation of these black males in the media. However, the changing point in the movie of when he finds his hidden talent of being able to sing and become a singer is a point of change for him and shows how he himself has now seen the light and wants to put it away, but just like in Freedom writers, when the students are constantly faced with struggles he is also unable to do so straight away.
Movies such as “Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)” [12]are seen as films belonging to a gangster genre. They follow the typical generic codes associated within this genre. These movies also use a repertoire of different props which aim in helping the genre fall in place. Weapons such as guns and knives are used within gangster films; similarly these props are also used in Freedom writers. This does not mean that this movie falls within this genre however, it does follow the typical codes and conventions of a gangster film. “The contemporary gangster film best embodies the ambivalence of film-makers towards ethnicity and race.”'[13] Winokur (1991) states a fact here, as more and more contemporary movies which are based within the gangster genre draw film makers towards ethnicity and race. This goes to show how the media is putting out new entertainment through an issue such as racial profiling and racism to become acceptable when the outcome is only just to viewing it, rather than using it as something to perpetrate in reality. The fact that the media is such a powerful tool, it acts as manipulating us into believing what we see on screen is a picture of what is happening in the real world, and it goes to show how as a naive and passive audience we are also injected with these thoughts, making ourselves believe the negative assumptions made against people from ethnic minorities.
There are many different social issues which have also been an influence to the way people have been represented from ethnic minorities. “Racist behaviour is based on centuries of economic exploitation and has been deeply embedded in European culture.”[14] An issue such as Black Slavery in the 1930’s is perhaps a main real reason to why the black people are shown as being under the whites. Why it is the case of the white being the rich and elite and blacks being second priority and not as good. A well known hegemonic theorist, Marcuse says how the media ‘indoctrinates and manipulates’ us. Similarly, with issues such as black slavery and Martin Luther King’s plans of liberation, the idea of the blacks rising above these specified stereotypes of the blacks just not being good enough are confirmed to be mistaken.
The Blaxploitation genre came forward in the early 1970’s where the movie ‘Shaft (1971)’[15] was the first movie belonging to this genre. This genre is specifically targeted at Black people of where the films within it tend to take place in an urbanised setting referred to as ‘the ghetto’. Blaxploitation films contain many negative stereotypes of black people, of which certain characters are portrayed in being associated with drugs, gun crime, and violence. Similarly, Freedom Writers also contains elements of this specific genre. The characters are all represented to be involved with crime as they have this hatred and this ethnic disgrace towards one another, where they are seen as being racist towards one another by the way they live their lives. The fact that all of the characters behave in such a racial way towards one another, goes to show how they themselves do not care about the issues of racial profiling and discrimination towards one another, as that is the way they have been brought up. It does not affect them. Theorist, Levi Strauss’s binary opposition theory comes hinted out at this point as people from a certain background will not associate within someone from another
Background, In this case, The Cambodians were against the Latino’s which was like Good vs. Evil, yet all of the people were innocent and only guilty for having this grudge of spite against each other as they were trying to fight for their own place in ‘their America.’
The movie Shaft does not contain specific indication to racism yet some of the characters behaviour involves them being prejudice. A scene where Shaft puts his hand out for the taxi, and the driver stops ahead of him where the other passenger is a white man. This portrays how there is a ‘fear of the black man.’ This is also reflected in ‘Freedom Writer’s’ where in one scene, Erin makes the students swap their seats, so she can divide them from the tribes they sit in. She asks Ben (the only white boy in the class) to go to the back (where all the black people are seated) and he instantly says ‘I can’t go back there.’[16] This shows the strong stereotype black people hold of being involved in violence as well as being socially unaccepted within people from another society.
To finish, Stereotypes do still exist within contemporary society and those given to ethnic minorities are seriously negative representations of these people, as they are categorised and targeted by the media regularly. This goes to show how the media acts as a major source, which controls the stereotypes given, making the stereotyped feel out of place and pushing them to the edge. This categorisation of people from ethnic minorities only just shows how we are living in a white dominated society, of where people from ethnic minorities don’t have as much respect in society as much as an ordinary man would have. The stereotypes are used to label specific people from a different culture to our own. This label is stuck to them in such a way that it affects the way they carry out their normal lives and continues to be a reason for the media to target them on a regular basis. The movie Freedom writers does reinforce these common stereotypes, however only to a certain extent. By the end of the movie, the students who were at the beginning labelled as ‘unreachable’ students are represented as intelligent and wise at the end. This goes to show that although the negative stereotypes are given to people from ethnic minorities, the media does in a way help to change this by introducing movies such as freedom writers and showing the way the stereotypes can change. Most importantly, although the media does change the stereotypes of these people, it is essential to remember that if there were no stereotypes in the first place, then there would be nothing to change within movies like these. Although the movies are purely made for entertainment purposes, people do reflect on them and compare them to what they see in reality, which helps create the realism.
Word count: 3012
[1] ‘Freedom Writers’ (2007)
[2] ROSE (1989) cited in SHOHAT, E. and STAM, R. 1994: ‘Unthinking Eurocentrism: multiculturalism and the media’ pg.21, London: Routledge
[3]Hall, Stuart (1977): Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, (1977) pg.271, London, New Delhi. Sage Publications
[4] DOMESTIC TOTAL GROSS FIGURE:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=freedomwriters.htm
[5] SHAKUR, TUPAC:’KEEP YA HEAD UP’ – 1993 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Ya_Head_Up
[6] COMMON ft WILL.I.AM (2007): ‘I Have A Dream’, soundtrack Freedom Writers
[7] FRANK, Ann (1947) ‘The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank’
[8] Representation handout: pg. 79
[9] Coach Carter (2005) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_Carter
[10] Honey (2003) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_(2003_film)
[11] ‘Get Rich Or Die Trying’ (2005) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin%27_(film)
[12] Get Rich or Die Trying (2005)
[13] WINOKUR (1991) cited in STRINATI, Dominic (2000) : ‘An introduction to studying Popular culture’ pg.61, London: Routledge
[14] Essential word dictionary: AS/A- level Media studies, pg. 125
[15] ‘Shaft’ (1971)
[16] FREEDOM WRITIERS; Hunter Parrish
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