How how hav previous films influenced contemporary films? Pan geria and foxy brown, shaft b movies made to reach a black audience
Death proof- vanishing point
Is Tarantino responsible for switching the stereotypical gender roles around in his films?
How far do you agree that Tarantino portrays women as 'Macho'?
How accurate is Laura Muvley's Male Gaze theory in relation to my Tarantino key texts?
In Tarantino's films, he often provides a backstory for the characters in which he wants the audience to connect with. This, arguably is mainly women. For example; Shosanna in Inglorious Basterds, the first set of women in Death Proof, and Bearrix (The Bride) and O-ren in Kill Bill. It is not often that Tarantino will provide a backstory for the male characters, as their actions should be deemed as unfair and unjust, making them the butt of the joke or the 'bad guy' with no cause. Tarantino imitates a females point of view by providing a backstory scene, this in my opinion, makes it so he is not being sexually biased and contributing to the Male Gaze theory. However, it is important to remember that Tarantino is a white male, and therefore will contribute to the Male Gaze to some extent.
Pulp Fiction: non linear structure
-focuses mainly around Marcellus, although he is rarely in the scenes
-2 hit men working for Marcellus, go to get the money from a few men living in an apartment, who owe money to Marcellus, this ends up in a mass killing.
- one of the hit men, John Travolta ( Vincet Vega) is told by Marcellus to take his wife, Mia out for dinner whilst he is away.
- Mia is clearly a strong, powerful woman who dominates the conversation and night between herself and Vincent Sucking on cherry, asking if he wants a sip of her milkshake, making him dance in the competition.
-Mia overdoses on the 'cociane' that Vincent has in his jacket pocket (going through his private possessions) however, this is heroine and she does not realise that she ODs.
-she is then taken to Vincent's friend's house where they revive her; there is no 'hero' in this scene, neither of the two males portray stereotypical masculinity
-skipping forward to another powerful woman... We are met with Butch and his girlfriend Fabienne.
-although Fabienne is not deemed as powerful and in control in the same way as Mia Wallace, Fabienne uses her stereotypical feminity. She portrays herself as weak and powerless however this characteristic reverses to Butch and therefore emasculated him, he is in her power.
-at the beginning and end we are met with HunnyBunny and Pumpkin. HunnyBunny clearly controls the the relationship, and we can see this through her body language. She also takes the centre of the shot and uses blocking when holding the gun.
List of controlling and powerful women & how the act/what they do to emasculate men:
-Mia Wallace : in tune with her sexuality, sucking on a red cherry and looking sexually in the diner, invading Vincent's privacy when they met ( can see Vincent through cameras. Voyeurism; although this is usually viewed through the male perspective.), she also goes through Vincent's jacket and uses the heroine that she finds.
-Fabienne : in tune with her feminity, she uses this to persuade Butch and control him into forgiving her and getting her own way. Portrays herself as weak, however this in turn emasculates Butch. Curling up in the corner when being shouted at.
-HunnyBunny : strong body language, always in the centre of the shot, blocking Pumpkin. She emasculates Pumpkin by controlling the conversation, interrupting him, sitting up straight to portray looking down on him.
List of male characters and their development to emasculation:
Marcellus : at the beginning we only see the back of Marcellus's head we get the idea that he is a powerful man, due to the scar located on the back of his head, and the gossip about what he did to the man who gave his wife a foot rub. However, we see Marcellus's character emasculate throughout the film as he eventually gets raped and called racist names, this portrays his character downfall
Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield : at the beginning their hierarchy is clear, the shot of them looking the the boot of the car is filmed as a low angle shot to portray their importance and control. However, at the end of the
film they are presented in 'goofy' looking t-shirts and shorts, this portrays their emasculation in comparison to the beginning scene where they are in sharp looking black suits.
List of controlling and powerful women & how the act/what they do to emasculate men:
List of male characters and their development to emasculation:
Hans : at the beginning of the film, Hans has a huge amount of power and control, so much that he can act calmly in this situation. Hans kills all of Shosanna's family with his power and control, and completely emasculates the French farm owner with his presence. However, Hans is emasculated at the end of the film as the deal between him and Aldo is twisted. Aldo results in branding him with the Nazi logo on his forehead. It is not a woman who emasculates Hans but Aldo himself, however one could argue that this only occurs because of Shosanna / Bridget's plan and success to kill the nazis in the cinema.
Death Proof: The film is almost split into two parts, the first half we are met with 3 women, including their back stories.
- the first half the of the film we are met with 3 very sexualised women; Jungle Julia, Shanna, Arlene and also Pam.
-these women have been 'Stalked' by Stuntman Mike
- all of these women play on their sexuality to tease Mike
- this however does not end well for them
In the second half...
- Stuntman Mike messes with the wrong women
-although they are too sexual, they are also strong and powerful and do not let Stuntman Mike defeat them
- Zoe, Kim, Abernathy and Lee
List of controlling and powerful women & how the act/what they do to emasculate men:
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