Thursday, 1 October 2015

Male dominance

In the film momentum the male character is represented very defiantly to most crime/gangster films. The main character instantly seems less dominant than typical men in crime gangster films. The trailer opens with a non-diegetic voice over. The voice over is of the characters thoughts. The first line said is “where am I” this line of confusion signifies that he is not in control of himself, it also shows weakness and subverts a typical male character in this genre of film as men do not usually show weakness only dominance and masculinity, This is also shown in the next scene of the trailer when the male character is having a diegetic conversation with a women, a conversation in which he is confessing weaknesses he has. This completely subverts a mans stereotype of being tough and strong as he is asking a women for advice, women are stereotypically weaker than men so it was a surprise to see a man seeking a women’s philological advice. The trailer overall does show that men play an active role in films even when the film is about a emotionally wrecked character connoting a male dominance in the film industry.


A double pan is used in which causes the screen to go blurry for a few seconds. This has been specifically used in order to show the disorientation and confusion of the male character that clearly is struggling with his mental health. A male showing such weakness is unheard off in this genre of film therefore connoting that the men in this film are intentionally going against the typical stereotype of men

The rest of the trailer shows the character stampeding through the city committing numerous murders and assaults(even on women) The ideology of this connotes that men will always be  the violent , tough villain even when they are mentally insane , this conforms with the stenotype of men being the stronger gender, he is seen punching the women who he previously asked for advice from, connoting he was always more dominant and was just going through a rough patch.

The first two minutes of the film are full of many different enigmas. The film starts with an Anachronic narrative in which does not follow the same style of a typical film. The film begins with no equilibrium and uses a forking path to give the audience clues on the main plot. Low-key lighting is also used throughout the first two minutes of the trailer to give that dark gloomy effect. The male characters hands are covered in blood connoting his a committed some sort of murder or assault or has possibly been assaulted himself. This leaves the audiences asking questions of how the male character, used in this film is being represented.


Male dominance is also showed in the first few minutes in the film. The opening scene connotes that this film is very patrichal film as not one female character is included. Lauren Mulveys theory in which was influenced by an idea from fraud and Lucan as the ration of female to male characters is 0:2.

Gender representation

One film in which subverts a stereotypically male dominant film industry is a film that is called the assassin. The trailer shows from the start that the film is female dominant film. The denotation of  a close up of a women criminal connotes that she is the main character as she is the first person to be seen in the trailer. The close up used connotes that the women may have been in some sort of scrap or fight as she has deep looking scratches pouring down the side of her face. She is being guarded by  a large male character connoting that she may be very strong so a stereotypical man , who is tough and strong is needed to guard her.

A jump shot is then used to switch the scene. The non diagetic voice over is of a judge convicting this women character with charges of murder. A stereotypical women is expected to be weak and in the kitchen cooking the dinner. The murder charge and the prison guard connote that this is not the case and this women defiantly subverts the typical women stereotypes and is in fact a very, very dangerous women. This ideology is to connote that women can be dangerous too and not all are weak, emotional bimbos.

The next scene in the trailer goes back to conforming Laura mulveys theory in which males dominate as this scene sees the same women character being man handled and tied up by two men. The denotation of this strong women being tied up connotes that even though is very strong and subverts the typical stereotype of women, there will always be a man out there somewhere in which she cannot compete with. Even though she is not showing that she is like most other women , the film makers have included these male characters to show even strong women are not as powerful as men.
Now the scene has jumped again and this woman has been scientifically transformed into an assassin. The main focus on this part is the women receiving her assassin instructions. She is also seen to be holding and using a gun in a target shooting exercise. An exercise in which she succeeds with flying colours. The denotation of this once again connotes that this film subverts the typical female stereotype as she can use this weapon a lot better than her male counterparts. However the person giving her these instructions is indeed a male connoting that even though she is a strong, lethal assassin she still has to answer to a man connoting a patriarchal society


Women dominance is shown strongly in the next scene of the trailer. This part consists of two fighting scenes. The first of the two is a karate fight against a man. The man stereotypically is a lot stronger than her and should easily beat her, obviously in this instance this is not the case as we get a high angled shot of this women wrestling the man to the ground. This connote she is starting to earn resect and is slowly but surely becoming stronger than the men. This second scene includes her having a agent fight with another man who she eventually defeats after forcefully smashing him with a chair. Both these scenes connote that the ideology  behind this film is very metrical and defiantly subverts the steryotypes.