A Bit About Actions Films In The Past...

Action Films have tremendous impact, continuous high energy, lots of physical stunts and activity, possibly extended chase scenes, races, rescues, battles, martial arts, mountains and mountaineering, destructive disasters (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires, etc.), fights, escapes, non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous heroes. Action films and adventure films have tremendous cross-over potential as film genres.

The main action centers around a male action hero or protagonist - portrayed by these most prominent actors: Bruce Lee, Steven Seagal, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, etc…Women in action-films usually play the roles of accomplices or romantic interests of the hero, although modern action films have featured strong female characters to broaden demographic appeal.

They almost always have a resourceful hero(ine) struggling against incredible odds, life-threatening circumstances, or an evil villain, and/or trapped or chasing each other in various modes of transportation (bus, auto, ship, train, plane, horseback, on foot, etc.), with victory or resolution attained by the end after strenuous physical feats and violence (fist fights, gunplay). Action films have traditionally been aimed at male audiences, ages 13 to the mid-30s in both American and world-wide markets.

This film genre actually began with the silent era's serial films around the time of Edwin S. Porter's classic action-western The Great Train Robbery (1903). And it has remained strong throughout all of cinematic history. Action films then expanded in the 80s and 90s, with the growth of special effects techniques and in response to jaded audiences who demanded faster plots (coherent or not), greater violence, and stimulation.

http://www.filmsite.org/actionfilms.html

However, actions films now have changed esp the roles of women, even though women are still gazed upon by men (Laura Mulvery Theory - 'Male Gaze'), they still are in control and dominant. Women in the past had the domestic/heroine role but now they are the protagonists/hero. We all know womens independence was due to the rise of feminism, which occured during the 1960's. In the cinema we can see the development of an impressive variety of female characters and protagonists, and the development still continues.

BloG BuddieZ...

My Blog Buddy from my class is Heena!...

• Heena's Independent Study question is... 'Are women in films represented as sex objects to entertain and pleasure men, with particular reference to Charlie’s Angels-Full Throttle (2003)?'
• Her overall study is very similar to mine as we both will be looking at representation of females in the action genre of movies.
• She is also looking at same theorists, such as Laura Mulvery 'The Male Gaze Thoery', Levi Strauss-hero vs. villain.
• We both are refering to each others main text. One of her text is will be referring to is Kill Bill and that is my main text, as i am referring to her main text.
• We both are using the same key words.
• She talks about how women are represented as sex objects and i talk about how they represented as the protagonists, so this will help us to see the other side of our question.

Waiting for a reply from the other class!...

Self Directed Research - Report

Representation Of Women In The Media -
http://www.mediaknowall.com/gender.html

Rotten Tomatoes review on Kill Bill Volume Two -
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/ny-killbill2-movie,0,5136424.story?coll=ny-movies-bigpix

Male Domination In The 1980's

Kill Bill Trailer

Laura Mulvey -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulveyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze

Levi Strauss –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Strauss

Feminsim –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism

Feminist film theory –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_film_theory

First-Wave Feminism -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-wave_feminism

Second-Wave Feminism –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-wave_feminism

Third-Wave Feminism –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism

Other Text - 'The Terminator' (1984) -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/

Other Text - 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' (2003) -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0305357/

Other Text - 'RoboCop' (1987) -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/

Other Text - 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' (2001) -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146316/

More Key Words

'A' List - The most soughtafter and popular Hollywaood actors, cast byt film producers with the aim of securing a large audience and the film's commercial success.

Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, David Carradine, etc... would be classified under the 'A' list.

Antagonist - The principal opposing figure or villian in a narrative, set in binary opposition agaisnt the progagonist.

The villian would be David Carradine Bill (Snake Charmer). However, even though Uma Thurman 'Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride (Black Mamba)' is set out to kill bill he would be our main villian but however hes not the only villian... Lucy Liu O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth) (archive footage)... Michael Madsen Budd (Sidewinder)... and Daryl Hannah Elle Driver (California Mountain Snake).

Anti-narrative - A text that challenges the traditional idea of sequential linear narravtive by using flashbacks, unrelated images and altered time sequences.

Kill Bill has a non linear narrative and uses many flasshbacks, for example when Uma was telling Bill why she had ran away from him with his baby, as we go into a flashback where she founds out when she was pregnant.

BCU - A close-up camera shot, particularly of an actor's face, showing prominent detial and facial expressions as a means of creating intimacy and audience engagaement with the thoughts and emotions of the character.

Tarantino uses lots of close-ups in Kill Bill to show the facial expressins of his character for example when Uma Thurman saw her child was alive in the final chapter of Kill Bill, she startede to cry and was in shock.

Femme Fatale - IN freanch film noir theory, a female character who uses her sexuality, often in devious, disreputable, secretive ways, to achieve the ends she desires.

Kill Bill doesn't have the femme fatale which normally is most films, as women in Kill Bill ar erpesented as dominant and strong instaed of 'damsel in distress' or a 'femme fatale'.

Flashback - A scene in a film which disrupts the chronological narrtive by going backward in time ro recall past events.

Tarantino uses qiute a few flashbacks to tell the story and events and how it had lead to Uma wanting to kill bill.

Gender - Psychological and cultural aspects of behaviour associated with masculinity and feminity, acquired through socialisation, in accordance with the expectations of a particular society.

Representation - The process whereby the media construct versions of people, places and events in images, words or sounds for transmission through media texts to an audience.

Representation is very important to my study because women are represented with a higher position than men and Kill Bill challenges the traditional leadiong roles in action films, which tend to be men.

Director - the individual responsible for the overall creation of a film, including the mise-en-scene and the structuring of individual shots and with artistic control over the film's final appearance, including the way in which it is edited and constructed.

Homage - when one film director pays tribute to another including images, scenes or stylistic features typical of the other director as an acknowledgment of his/her influence and importance.

Other Text - 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' (2001)

'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' (2001) Directed by Simon West

Angelina Jolie .... Lara Croft - Protagonist

Plot - Lara Croft is a wealthy, British archeologist/tomb raider who tries to thwart a secret society/doomesday cult seeking two pieces of a mysterious device hidden in two different places of the world in order to use it during a rare planetary alignment to bring them unlimited power to control or destroy the world.

I also will be refering to 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' because this text like 'Charlies Angels', also shows how women are becoming more independent and have dominant roles in films. However, this isn't to say that women still ain't 'gazed' upon by men because they still are.

Other Text - 'RoboCop' (1987)

'RoboCop' (1987) Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Plot - Detroit - in the future - is crime ridden, and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphys body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of supervillian Boddicker.

Peter Weller... Officer Alex J. Murphy/RoboCop - Portagonist

- I will be refering to Robocop as Robocop (1987) also shows how men dominanted the past and how women were not seen as equal to men till feminism was introduced. Just like 'The Terminator', men were seen to have the lead roles in action films but now this has changed as society has became less patriarchal and women now are gaining there independence and equal rights and many films such as 'Charlies Angels' and 'Kill Bill' show how women are becoming more independent.

Other Text - 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' (2003)

'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' (2003) Directed by McG

Plot - Natalie, Dylan, and Alex, three glamorous, tough-as-nails, investigative agents - who work for the Charles Townsend Detective Agency - are sent undercover to retrieve two missing jewelry bands. These are no ordinary wedding rings. They contain valuable information that reveals the new identities of every person in the FBI's Witness Protection Program. After five of the program's participants turn up dead, only the Angels can stop the perpetrator, using their expertise as masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts.

All three are the main protagonist -
Cameron Diaz... Natalie Cook
Drew Barrymore...
Dylan Sanders Lucy Liu... Alex Munday

- I will be referring to 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' (2003) because this text shows that women have their independence, are strong and just as equal as men. This also, shows how society has grown from being patriarchal, however men still do hold more power, as we have a male director in for ‘Charlies Angels’ and male directors represent females different compared to how a female director would represent females. Males still have that power and control, but ‘Charlies Angels’ along side other action films with leading female protagonists, show how women now have broke that ‘traditional woman’ of being the ‘damsel in distress’ or the ‘femme fatal’.

Other Text - 'The Terminator' (1984)

'The Terminator' (1984) Directed by James Cameron.

Plot - A machine that looks human is sent back in time to the late 20th century. His mission is to kill Sarah Connor and her unborn son, John Connor. Doing so would result in having John's entire existence destroyed so he won't exist to help the humans fight a war against the machines. Kyle Reese, one of the soldiers in this war, has been sent back in time to stop the Terminator.

Arnold Schwarzenegger... The Terminator - The Protagonist.-

I will be referring to ‘The Terminator’ because this shows and proves that womens roles in actions films have changed. As you can see men were seen more dominant and had all the leading roles, for instance in 'RoboCop' (1986). This shows and reinforces the fact that society was much more patriarchy, but now this has all changed as their are many action films with leading females roles.

Textual Analysis: Kill Bill

Last Chapter- ‘Face to Face’

M-This scene (chapter) starts from a black fade in from a previous chapter. We hear music- in a different language (foreign). The fade leads us into the next scene where we see a car approaching in a hurry- the audience are left with an enigma as they wonder where she is going. We see different types of shots of Uma, we then see a sudden close-up of her face which leads us to the next scene, where it shows a different representation of women (housewives and sex objects) compared to the rest of the film. A female narrator (Uma) is heard as the music stops. She explains where and who she has come to ‘Esteban Vihaio’- a pimp, friend of Bill’s mother, ran a brothel and has a army ‘The Acuna Boys’. Estaban sees a beautiful women (Uma) approaching and he welcomes her. They both talk to each other about bill. ‘She asks him where is Bill?’ and he tells her where he is, and we have another black fade out when a close up of Esteban face is shown. This then leads us to the next scene, which is black and white, however Uma is in colour- this is one of the conventions of a art house film. We hear music as she approaches her destination and gets out of the car. The camera is now behind her and as she pulls out her gun, the music gets faster and with more tense and drama. The audience here are left with an enigma- ‘Is she going to Kill Bill?’ As she opens the door we see a long shot of her from inside the house. She checks around the house with a gun still in her hand. As she approaches the back garden door and as she turns around with the camera as well in a medium shot we see her holding a gun, showing her power and control because of the gun. Then all of a sudden we hear dramtic music as the camera quickly zooms in her with a close-up of her face, her facial expressions shows she is shocked- the audience are left with an enigma. Then we see a little girl in a medium shot in her pj’s telling Uma to ‘Freeze Mommy!’ and we also see Bill with her. We then get another close-up of Uma’s face as they pretend she shot them. Here, is when we see Uma’s weak side as through out the whole film she is shown as controlling and strong. She starts to cry as the audience sympathises with her. This is when we realise Uma child is alive. After tucking in B.B (her child, here we see her maternal side) we hear the theme to Kill Bill as Bill and Uma both confront each other. As Uma tried to grab his sword, he shots the fruit next to her on the table and she moves back and she stops. They both start to discuss how to solve the problem in a long shot view. The all of a sudden Bill is seen with more power as he shoots her with a dart full of truth serum. This shows how we see a change in the role of who’s more powerful. We then go back to a flashback as Uma starts talking as we see why she wantd to get away from Bill. We then come out of the flash back with a fade out and we see Uma and Bill sitting at a table where she attacks him- taking back control from him. We then see Bill get up and walk off slowly in a long shot view and then all of a sudden he collapses. Here Uma is shown with more power and her revenge is fulfilled. A close up is shown again of Uma crying, this is kind of shocking to the audience as Uma has been represented as power and with no fear. We then cut to see a long shot of Uma carrying away B.B, as she shuts the door, we hear the engine of the car and a black fade occurs again. We then see another heading written in big, white, bold and striking against the black background. We then hear a t.v. of a cartoon show and see B.B on the bed- enigma to audience. We establish the new setting in a hotel. Then as the camera gets closer to the door near B.B we hear a female crying (Uma). The camera then cuts to a birds eye-view shot and see her crying on the floor holding a teddy. Then we have a close-up of her crying and hugging the teddy, and then suddenly start laughing and we hear a festive music with the television and cuts to Uma waling up to B.B. The lost shot shows a happy mother and daughter relationship (which the audience my connect with also) and then cuts.

I - Its Hollywood and there has been lots of promotions to help promote Kill Bill and reach its audience, such as trailers, posters. Kill Bill can be seen as mainstream or even a art house film. There are ethnic minorities represented in Kill Bill and it also happens to be a women, who is shown as strong headed female.

G - Kill Bill is a Action, with art house conventions as it has many flashbacks and some scenes are black and white. It can also be classified into to many other genre's, drama, and thriller. However, its not your average action film as you would stereotypically expect a male to be killing and avenging people, but its a woman instead. The audience are in shock and thrown of balance as they are watching something that they did not expect, as it not very often they see a woman in control, there are some films where a women has more control over men, for instance 'Charlies Angles'.

R - In the text Uma Thurman is represented as powerful, dominant and in control. Men are shown to have less control compared to other actions films where you would expect to see the man as the main character. However, even though the main character is white we also have ethnic minorities represented as well. Vivica A. Fox ‘Vernita Green’ a black woman is represented as powerful and superior. Women are represented with much more power and independence today, they prove that woman can just as much can do the same as men. However, are not shown in a negative way but also poerful as women but women such as Uma Thurman show they have more power as she is the dominant protagonist.

A - The main target audience for this text would be the middle class, ages 18 and over. Males and females would be the target to this text. It is targeted at males because of the genre, action. Also, because of the main character Uma Thurman, as they feel attracted to her. However, females also feel they can relate to main character as she is a female who has more power then men: they feel they are just as good as men and have the same control.I - Actions films are usually a male based film however Uma Thurman breaks the action ideology, as women have the upper hand and represented as strong and more control. She sends a positive message across proving that women are just as better as men and there is less of the patricharcal society. However, even though Uma Thurman shows a independent strong female, she is directed by a male director Quentin Tarantino. It is likely that male directors portray women characters different from how women directors portray women characters, simply because it’s harder for them to relate to the characters.

N - The narrative has chapters which are spread in a two part series, Kill Bill volume One and Kill Bill Volume Two. Kill Bill is divided into ten chapters, five chapters per volume. As is common in Tarantino films, they are not arranged in chronological order.