Independent study final draft

“Storm, I hadn't thought of you as my student for years. In fact, I thought that, perhaps, you might take my place someday" From Prof Charles Xavier [1]

Are the female roles in the modern day genre of superhero films a victory for women or are they still objects of desire? With particular reference to the film X-Men 3?

The superhero genre is credited for having a long history of providing great memorable films such as Superman, Fantastic 4 and the Spiderman sequels. However, they have a direct link and association with Hollywood a film industry that has been accused of "symbolically annihilated”[2] females on screen. For generations, women have been giving negative representation of being weak, dumb, narrow minded and only interested in housework just to name a few.
It is not just in Hollywood that they have been discriminated it is apparent in aspects of different industries, in sports there is the tag that they cannot play as well as men and in the corporate world there is the myth (that Barthes created)[3] that women cannot compete intellectually with men and are only there to play token employees to show the company is not sexist.
The respective feminist movements (1920s and 1970s) have played an inaugural part in creating positive representation for females and expanding the limited roles that they played in movies such as the femme fatale (where the woman would be sinister, driven and even in some cases potentially deadly) or the hero’s love interest when their only existence was generally for a purpose to be saved by the leading male protagonist. They have seen both sides of the story and this essay will be undermining the answer to the question that has been set which is to justify fully whether female roles in Hollywood in the modern era, as opposed to generations before have changed for the better or are they subjected to being objectified.

X-Men: The Last Stand is a 2006 superhero film and the third in the X-Men series[4]. It is directed by Brett Ratner, who took over when Bryan Singer dropped out to direct Superman Returns. The movie revolves around a "mutant cure" that causes serious repercussions among mutants and humans.
X Men 3 is based on the fighting between 2 sets of mutant teams, with the evil team fighting to take over the world and wage war on the human race, this has significant relations to the holocaust which reflects the zeitgeist of the time. In the holocaust the Jews were seen as “the other” and underneath the Germans in the same way as the evil mutants feel have been treated by the human society. The battle for equality amongst mutants also can be linked to the feminine struggle as they were fighting for the same purpose of fairness.
The use of non diegetic sound as up tempo high speed music is used to a contrapuntal effect to reflect the fast paced action and narrative of the movie, this iconography symbolises that this is an action movie and as a result due to statistics from the past (that only 29% of females are somewhat partially involved in action adventurers) [5]more spotlight is inevitably put on the roles the females play in this film. Its genre falls into the category of superhero and even in the name of the genre gender inequalities are displayed, by calling it superhero it immediately connotes that the main character is going to be a man in the same way that audiences will think it’s a female protagonist if the genre was called super heroine.
X men 3: The Last Stand supposedly gives the opportunity for women to shine on screen like they have never done before, as studies showed that “films almost always focused on male heroes they typically made the decisions which led the story and were more confident assertive and dominant” [6]Up until now films that are categorized as superhero have represented “woman as frightened and in need of protection and direction”. [7]This is reflected in some of the actions of the female characters in X Men as they are repeatedly set up as the ones that need saving from the enemies clutches and not their male counterparts. However what is encouraging for women in the film X Men from the quote is that Professor Xavier the head of the mutants team believes that storm ( a female) can take over his position In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century’s feminism emerged. Feminism was the response from angry females who were unhappy with a life of inequality. They believed that women had a right to have political as well as social equality with men. It had various movements and Feminist theory and theorists emerged as a result from these times including Laura Mulvey and Gay Tuchman.
The First wave of feminism as many people call it refers to a period of time when feminist activity was at its highest, the second wave of feminism occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. The difference between the two sets of waves was the first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning laws to function equality like in work while second-wave feminism addressed the more unofficial inequalities like house roles etc. A television study “concluded that women’s movement had largely been ignored by television and film (McNeil 1975) [8]and that that women should be subservient to men, even the more well known actresses like Marylyn Monroe at some point in the narrative had to play roles that displayed the dominance of males at the time.
The attitude towards feminism by males especially in the 1970s portrayed the roles on screen women were playing in Hollywood as the number of different roles and personalities that females could have started to expand even if they were still negative which is the case in X-Men 3 where there are both evil and good characters displaying different characteristics that portray the role of both Madonna (Storm or Rogue) and the Whore (Mystique).
For instance in Fatal Attraction when the leading character was female but she was still represented as a woman who had misused the power she had been given after having an affair with the main male character. However considering that until the creation of feminism women were treated almost as passive agents in a male world.
Nowadays there are many more roles for females to play such as the femme fatale, although the femme fatale is give negative representation she is involved further in the plot and contributes much more to the narrative then other roles do. It is the same with the “final girl” (carol clover 1987) [9]role which was developed when the slasher film came to light. Some of the more positive newer roles that have been created through time are roles that come with more power and responsibility such as the male heroes’ boss or the villain’s sidekick, this rise in important roles for women to play in superhero films suggests that slowly but steadily females in the superhero genre are becoming more significant.
Throughout time the roles have developed but not really changed in terms of female representation, it seems an injustice but in reality the first feature you have to have to play a main female role is be good looking. Taking Men in Black 2 into account (a superhero movie with Sci fi aspects) you have a female villain now even though this is not the first female villain to appear she seems to have it all regarding presentation of herself. She is powerful, seductive, smart and generally good looking, if the directors wanted to take a big step towards gender equality in Hollywood they would have hired someone who is not as naturally blessed with good looks and thus would not appeal to the audience. This can be linked to what Laura mulvey (1975) visual pleasures & narrative cinema said when she stated that females are subjected the male gaze and are only put in certain roles to be objects of desire[10]
If you look at the contrast in role requirements between male and female characters within the average superhero narrative they are usually very different. Take the early superman for instance nearly every women’s role in the film was either to be saved by superman or to provide some sort of information, they were never directly involved in the action themselves. In contrast the male characters role requirements included being the hero, villain, helper dispatcher and the passer of key information, this list has been repeated in loads of superhero movies such as Fantastic 4 the Spiderman trilogy and Batman which continues to this day.
Marie D'Ancanto (Rogue) who played the main female protagonist in the first of the 3 X- Men movies is also given a positive representation in X- Men 3 using her witt to get her out of trouble while also displaying her physical force when fighting against her opponents. Although both Storm and Rogue acting abilities produced better female representation it is undeniable that their good looks got them there in the first place and they were still symbolised as “[11]objects of desire” hence the tight clothing.
More over in the modern generation and especially in X- men 3 gender roles are a lot more equal with females getting their fair share of the action characters like Storm, Mystique, Rogue are always involved in the plot and in the inevitable fighting between the two mutant teams however it’s clear that the women on the evil mutant side are no way near as matched as their so-called powers also seem rather feeble compared to the Men on their team “Storm could just summon a hurricane and blow the woman away like troublesome flies”[12]
A stereotype has been described as a short cut to meaning [13] or a widely circulated idea about particular groups outside one’s own experiences”[14]. They are possible characters in the media who are considered as “types” rather than complex people, they are based on assumptions made by people who have been influenced by what they have seen or heard about through others (usually the government).
Usually stereotypes are developed through the media creating a moral panic” [15] emphasizing the negatively placed on these prejudgements of people, places or cultures. The concept of stereotypes is probably the main reason females have been thought of as inferior to men in the past, as a result inevitably binary oppositions”[16] have been created by men highlighting their patriarchal view of their supremacy over women. Commonly accepted oppositions include that men are strong, dominant and smart while women are weak, feeble and incapable of looking after themselves. Examples of this include texts such as James bond as in every James bond film he is portrayed as independent and focused on the job in hand but his female counterpart is always in a position where she is in need of saving. This is also apparent in Texas change saw massacre when the final girl needed the help of a male character to escape the crazed killer, this stereotype is presented in the movie industry in all types of film genre such as love, thriller or gangster.
Men have also been accused of stereotypical actions that represent the whole of their gender, they are seen as voyeurs by many feminists who strongly feel that the majority of the male population only go to watch movies with a female lead character to participate in a fetishistic gaze”,[17] this is when the man objectifies the women in a sexual manner focusing on a certain part of the body to give him visual pleasure. The term scopophilia is associated with the entire male race when looking and judging beautiful women by feminists, scopophilia is when you have pleasure in looking and being sexually aroused. If this is the case then the suggestion that women’s new respectable roles as the main character can only be seen as a minor victory for feminists because instead of males appreciating the females protagonist elegancy, brains and class they are only focusing on her body assets and therefore dehumanising them by not treating women as their equal but as a fine aspect of their fantasy life. This can be related to my film of study X Men 3 where some of the women are persistently overlooked for higher positions in the hierarchy of power because neither the good or bad mutants have a woman as their leader meaning the significant positions of power and authority go to the males.
As much as both female audiences and the female stars themselves would like to see male directors alter their gender identities (for instance their actions on screen being more linked to masculinity than femininity) that would highlight a change from the traditional objectification that they have been familiarized with by a male audience, it seems that realistically that won’t be happening for a long time as directors see good looking female stars such Catherin Zeta Jones and Jessica Albers sex appeal as a guaranteed audience puller. When considering that Hollywood is a business and a business’s objectives are to make profit and survive it justifies directors why they would not want to modify a winning formula hence the reason female roles when playing the protagonist of a superhero or action movie have hardly been changed over the years . If the female stars have to sacrifice their ideologies on equality and female exposure in order to make the movie then they will do that because it is their profession and its how they make a living.
Stereotypes do play a big part in director’s ideas of satisfying the audience because when thinking of stereotypes it relates to gender identities which most directors do not want to tamper with through fears of losing their audience. For instance they would not think that a predominantly male audience’s expectations would be fulfilled after watching someone like Halle Berry (who is a massive figure of the male gaze ) acting manly, not wearing prerogative clothing or being sexually seductive as a way of getting what she wants. This wouldn’t put heterosexual males in cinema seats thus loosing the company money; however it has been proven that if someone takes a gamble and changes the gender identity of the subject such as Quinton Tarintino did with Uma Thurman in Kill Bill it can be a success both with male and females.
Tarintino portrays Uma as a vengeful, blood thirsty killer who murders her enemies in the most brutal and disturbing circumstances, with these being her characteristics she doesn’t conform to the stereotype of the average female hero and goes against the hegemonic values of society that women shouldn’t act like that. Although she displays characteristics more accustomed to a male anti hero there are aspects of her femininity like her humility and compassion to her colleagues suggesting that it is almost impossible to give a realistic portrayal of a women without their key emotions and features.
Overall I think that while women’s roles have changed over time their features haven’t therefore making a victory for female representation a victory but a rather limited one for women and feminists in particular.
In the past by looking at the stats it suggest that females were badly treated in terms of presence on the TV screen, there weren’t many on screen and the ones that did appear where seen as token characters and given representations that degraded the female population. As miles reported in 1975[18] in adventure films only 15% of females had leads in films” which subjected them to cameo or insignificant roles which at the time didn’t show much progress. While there have been numerical improvements in the number of female hero’s they still don’t share the same respect or admiration by the male public as their male counterparts and because of that male characters are still seen as more intelligent assertive and prevalent.
If Cortes says that there is “symbolic and institutionalised sexism”[19] in advertising then this must be the case in Hollywood with the consistent representation of women as sexually promiscuous and continuously used seduction techniques on the males hero on his quest. As females on screen are conducting themselves this way within the narrative to suit male audiences this creates the ideology that sex sells and as long as that belief is in place it is hard to see women’s roles in superhero movies changing for the better in terms of female representation and therefore they are still and probably will always remain objects of desire.[20]




[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/quotes
[2] Tuchman, Gay (1978)
[3] Barthes, Roland (1984)
[4] Xmen3: The Last Stand (2006)
[5] Davis (1990) Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representations of Gender in the Past, (page 43)
[6] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 46)
[7] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 46)
[8] http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/ProfessorX.html
[9]http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/final_girl.html
[10] Propp Vladimir (1928), Bennett, Jacquie (2005) :Media Studies AS & A2 ( page 92)
[11] Mulvey, Laura (1975): Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
[12] http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/reviews/x-men3.html
[13] Lacey, Nick (2004): Introduction to film (pg 263)
[14] Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media Studies AS & A2 (page 114)

[15] Cohen, Stanley (1972)
[16] Strauss, Levi (1949): The Elementary Structure
[17] Scott Galloway, Lucy (2007) A beginners guide to Laura Mulvey
[18] Mulvey, Laura (1975): Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
[19] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 43)
[20]Cortese, Anthony: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising (1999)

Bibliography

Works cited
Books
Anthony, Cortese. Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007.
Gauntlett, David. Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2008
Kaplan, E. Ann. Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera. New York: Routledge, 1990
Lacey, Nick. Introduction to Film. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures (Language, Discourse, Society). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Sardar, Ziauddin. Introducing Media Studies, 3rd Edition (Introducing). Thriplow, Cambridge, UK: Totem Books, 2006.
Scott Galloway, Lucy (2007) A beginners guide to Laura Mulvey
Tasher, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema

Moving image texts
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2004). Kill Bill, Volume 2 [Motion Picture]. US: Miramax Home Entertainment.
P. (Director). (2004). Catwoman (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. America : Warner Home Video.
Story, T. (Director). (2005). Fantastic Four (Widescreen Edition) [Motion Picture]. USA: 20th Century Fox.
Batman Begins (Widescreen Edition). Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. christain bale. Blu-Ray. Warner Home Video, 2006.
Spider-Man - The High Definition Trilogy (Spider-Man / Spider-Man 2 / Spider-Man 2.1 / Spider-Man 3) [Blu-ray]. Dir. Sam Raimi. Perf. Tobey Maguire. Blu-Ray. Sony Pictures, 2007.
Lara Croft - Tomb Raider / Lara Croft - Tomb Raider, The Cradle of Life. Dir. Simon West. Perf. anglelina jolie. DVD. Paramount, 2001.


Internet
The Final Girl: A Few Thoughts on Feminism and Horror. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new
independant study jordan. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://jordan-murray.blogspot.com.
Gurinder Chadha. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://farm.imdb.com/name/nm0149446/
X-Men film review . (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/reviews/x-men.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/quotes
http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/ProfessorX.html
http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/final_girl.html

Works consulted
Books
Bennett, Jacquie (2005) :Media Studies AS & A2
Strauss, Levi (1949): The Elementary Structure
Moving image texts
Donner, R. (Director). (1978). Superman - The Movie (Four-Disc Special Edition) [Motion Picture]. America: Warner Home Video
Internet/ Newspaper
http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/latest/2008/10/07/clint-eastwood-angelina-jolie-is-too-sexy-115875-20780457/
Word count- 3,062

3 Exam Questions Preperation

1.Genre texts have sometimes been criticised for being predictable and unimaginative. Discuss

Introduction: I would start by going through a genre timeline stating the specific most well known films to the genre such as physco and nightmare on elm street and outline where i believe the peak was of this genre in terms of audiences going to the cinema to watch it.

Para 1: Talk about the changes in target audiences and audiences expectations throughout the slasher films genre

Para 2: Audience expectations would change throughout time so the genre would need to as well which it does in the 90s

Para 3: Compare the codes conventions and iconography of Halloween/ nightmare on elm street (70s/80s slasher ) to post modern scream and scary movie

Para 4: Whether changes in the genre and films reflect the zeitgeist of the 80s and 90s especially in reference to it being to predictable i.e feminism bringing out more fighting qualities in the final girl

Para 5: Talk about similarities between old and new slasher films and whether the differences are big enough to suggest the genre isn't predictable

Conclusion: I think that for a while they were guilty of becoming dull and predictable especially for a period in the late 70s and early 80s because they were so similar that audiences knew what was going to happen and that the final girl will survive but with the emergence of Wes craven new nightmare, scream and scary movie i know longer believe this is the case because their narrative plots have changed to appeal to their new audiences.




2. Do media producers rely too heavily on tried and tested genres? Discuss with specific examples

Introduction: I would start by bringing out the example of the zeitgeist that was around in the time of the 70s and 80s and compare that to what happened in the 90s and 00s i.e for teenagers having to rely more on themselves rather than their parents

Para 1: Highlight the limited technology that producers had in the past as a way of justifying that they did actually have to rely on the tried and tested formulas

Para 2: Talk about audience expectations as well as keeping them happy by producing the same story lines, settings and iconography that they had become accustomed to

Para 3: Censorship that stopped producers allowing audiences to see sexual material or extreme violence therefore forcing them to carry on showing what they had previously shown

Para 4: Talk about the "rules" that had proved successful for audiences in the past and why they wouldn't need to change them as long as they kept putting people in seats and making money ( why change a winning formula)

Para 5: The reason for why they would want to change and put new spins on the slasher genre -bring up examples such as positive representation of females because they have daughters or wives they are proud of

Conclusion: I think they did rely on it to a massive extent in the past and this was shown through movies such as Friday the 13Th and nightmare on elm street being similar, however in order to appeal to a younger more higher expecting generation they have had to alter the genre to make it more dynamic such as use more unexpected ways for the killer to murder someone.




3.Outline recent significant development in one genre of your choice. Illustrate your answers with examples

Intoduction: open by saying which genre i would choose and explaining why i chose that genre over others, i would pick slasher as that is what i have got a recent exposure to.

Para 1: State which movies i would be picking to dicsuss the comparsion between, i would pick texas chainsaw massacre 1 and 2 aswell as halloween and scream

Para 2: Explain terms we have learnt in class such as the audiences knowingness that seperates post modern from the movies in the past that have come before it.

Para 3: Highlight Scream and scary movie in particualr making intertextuality refrences to other films in the slasher genres in an attempt to create irony and poke fun of the genre formula and set of "rules" that have been put in place by directors of past genre movies (parody)

Para 4: I would label what is in the mise en scene and make reference to what is going on in society at the time and how it reflects what is being shown in the slasher film i.e the level of blood or sexual material

Para 5: Talk about how post modern slasher films rejuvenated the genre with its use of pastiche, narrative twists and enigma codes that weren't apparent in the likes of physco, Friday the 13Th and others and how the institutions making these films affected what was shown and how it has been developed

Conclusion: The slasher film genre has developed majorly within the last 30 years because of a number of things including changes of audience expectations, censorship and updated zeitgeists i believe producers have been forced to change the style of the slasher genre to keep up with the changing times which is why their is such a difference from what has been displayed 30 or 40 years ago compared to the 21st century.

Comparison of TCM films Essay

Both the original Texas Change Saw Massacre and the new more up to date version display characteristics of the traditional slasher film but it is their key differences majorly based on the zeitgeist that reflects the changes of time ad eras of the slasher movie.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 1974 American independent horror film and the first in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. Tobe Hooper directed the film where the plot involves a group of friends on a road trip to visit a family grave site in Texas, their gas tank almost runs out so they stop near an abandoned house where they are attacked by a family of cannibals, including the main villain who is a chainsaw-wielding psycho called Leather face.

The 2003 film is a remake of the 1974 version, it was directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay. In this version of the plot five college students are on their way to a music concert in Dallas which is an immediate difference from the original as in the one before they was heading for a grave yard. They are returning from a trip to Mexico when they see a girl walking in the road which is another difference from the 1974 version as it was a crazy man they had picked up. After nearly hitting her group pick her up but she is in an unnatural state and unclearly warns them that they are in danger when she says he is a really bad man and that they are all going to die. She then tries to force the driver to turn the other way when they are passing though where she was desperately trying to come from, this scene is ironically repeated almost word for word by the main character and final girl Erin after she goes through her ordeal, this is a clear difference from the original as the crew doesn’t get a warning of what they are about to face in the original.

There are some similarities particularly highlighted in the beginning that attempted to recreate the feeling of the old version such as the fact that the group of friends have a form of illegal and recreational drugs that they picked up, this could be used by the directors to reflect the zeitgeist at the time when America during the 70s was a time where drug use by teenagers was at one of its highest because of the “hippie” craze.
Another similarity was the teenagers expected promiscuity when it showed two of them uncontrollably kissing at the back of the van, this reinforced the supposed “set of rules” require to be visual in a slasher film and also reminded the audience of their eventual fates much like in the way the first one did when the two characters having sex were the first to go.
In the 2003 version there are different aspects to the original family and new characters introduced such as the little boy who instead of being a part of the cannibal like family attempts to thwart their plans to butcher the final girl Erin in the same ways they did with her friends before that.


Another new character was the sheriff who wasn’t apparent in the first film, the twist on the narrative by showing the sheriff was part of the family was designed to shock and surprise the audience, but before that they were already shocked at his brutality and aggressiveness to the teenagers so in some ways some members of the audience may had already put 2 and 2 together and realized he was part of the family before it was revealed. The sheriffs’ personality was created to reflect the attitude of real life police officers of the 70s in America as being strict, ruthless and aggressive.
One of the major changes between the two sets of characters was the willingness not to give up on life and carry on fighting until they died. In the 1974 version it seemed that not one member of the group put up a decent fight to survive and all died in weak and feeble circumstances, in the new version Michael bay gave some of the group more fighting personalities as they didn’t die straight away and tried to carry on clinging for life as much as they could for instance when Morgan was kept on his own in a cell instead of perishing he managed to stay alive and get free with the help of Erin, also Andy after having his leg cut off and being dropped on a massive hook still managed to stay alive for the course of the film before asking Erin to put him out of his misery.

Moreover the final girl actually managed to fight back against leather face and ended up chopping his arm off with a hack which was an aspect which played a massive role in leather face inability to kill her off. The characters improvement in strength and desire to fight off the killer is used by the director to give the audience a sense of the times that we are living in; audiences would not expect characters to be killed so easily as they were in past slasher a movie without thinking it is realistic.

Finally the outcome of the two movies were similar and different in some ways as the final girl in both relied on someone to come in an distract leather face but in the 2003 version Erin got away on her own without being hitched hiked like in the first movie, she also got her revenge on the sheriff in the process by running him over in his police car. Both films were a success which was probably down to their uniqueness especially the 1974 version where at the time it was new, innovate and the level of voice and massacre had not been reached or seen before which is probably why it is one of the most memorable films of all time and defiantly in the slasher genre.
Word Count- 1,014

Similarities and differences Between TCM movies

Similarities of Old and New version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre

* Both have group of teenage Friends

* Leather face is the killer and part of a family of cannibals

* The majority of murders happen in the house where other murder victims are stored

*Plot twists such as the sheriff (new version) and the shop owner( old version) being revealed as part of the family

* Both times they pick up a hitch hiker who isn't in a normal state of mind

* Both take place in the countryside of Texas far away from civilization

* Respective Girl and Boy from each film who are promiscuous at the beginning die

* Group members murdered in the same way i.e being dropped on the big hook



Differences of Old and New version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre

* Final girl gets revenge one of the family members

* Grandad doesn't need victims blood to survive

* Family have stolen a baby that final girl saves at the end

* Group of friends are warned at the start that they face danger, hitchhiker in old harms himself but doesn't die whereas the girl picked up in the second shoots herself dead in the head

* Characters don't die instantly like they do in the first one instead they try to put up a fight

* New family members such as the little boy who tries to save teenagers from their expected fate

*Teenagers driving to different destinations( old they go to grave yard, new to a concert)

* Leather face gets arm chopped off

Independent Study 2nd draft

“Storm, I hadn't thought of you as my student for years. In fact, I thought that, perhaps, you might take my place someday" From Prof Charles Xavier [1]
Are the female roles in the modern day genre of superhero films a victory for women or are they still objects of desire? With particular reference to the film x-men 3?

The superhero genre is credited for having a long history of providing great memorable films such as Superman, Fantastic 4 and the Spider man sequels. However, they have a direct link and association with Hollywood a film industry that has been accused of "symbolically annihilated" [2] females on screen. For generations, women have been giving negative representation of being weak, dumb, narrow minded and only interested in housework just to name a few.
It is not just in Hollywood that they have been discriminated it is apparent in aspects of different industries, in sports their is the tag that they cannot play as well as men and in the corporate world their is the myth (that Barthes created)[3] that women cannot compete intellectually with men and are only there to play token employees to show the company is not sexist.
The respective feminist’s movements (1920s and 1970s) have played an inaugural part in creating positive representation for females and expanding the limited roles that they played in movies such as the femme fatale (where the woman would be sinister, driven and even in some cases potentially deadly) or the hero’s love interest when their only existence was generally for a purpose to be saved by the leading male protagonist. They have seen both sides of the story and this essay will be undermining the answer to the question that has been set which is to justify fully whether female roles in Hollywood in the modern era, as opposed to generations before have changed for the better or are they subjected to being objectified.

X-Men: The Last Stand is a 2006 superhero film and the third in the X-Men series [4]. It is directed by Brett Ratner, who took over when Bryan Singer dropped out to direct Superman Returns. The movie revolves around a "mutant cure" that causes serious repercussions among mutants and humans.
X men 3 is based on the fighting between 2 sets of mutant teams, with the evil team fighting to take over the world and wage war on the human race, this has significant relations to the holocaust which reflects the zeitgeist of the time. In the holocaust the Jews were seen as “the other” and underneath the Germans in the same way as the evil mutants feel have been treated by the human society. The battle for equality amongst mutants also can be linked to the feminine struggle as they were fighting for the same purpose of fairness.
The use of non dietetic sound as up tempo high speed music is used to a contrapuntal effect to reflect the fast paced action and narrative of the movie, this iconography symbolises that this is an action movie and as a result due to statistics from the past (that only 29% of females are somewhat partially involved in action adventurers) [5] more spotlight is inevitably put on the roles the females play in this film. Its genre falls into the category of superhero and even in the name of the genre gender inequalities are displayed, by calling it superhero it immediately connotes that the main character is going to be a man in the same way that audiences will think it’s a female protagonist if the genre was called super heroine. Their primary target audience are loyal consumers of the previous texts that were in the form of comic books; they grew up reading the comics and gradually understood the narrative as each episode was released. While reading the magazines they realised that females were supposedly equal to their male counterpart’s therefore setting up audience expectation on the film itself to represent the females as powerful and contributive as possible.
X men 3: The last stand supposedly gives the opportunity for women to shine on screen like they have never done before, as studies showed that “films almost always focused on male heroes they typically made the decisions which led the story and were more confident assertive and dominant” [6] Up until now films that are categorized as superhero have represented “woman as frightened and in need of protection and direction”. [7] This is reflected in some of the actions of the female characters in X men as they are repeatedly set up as the ones that need saving from the enemies clutches and not their male counterparts. However What is encouraging for women in the film X men from the quote is that Professor Xavier the head of the mutants team believes that storm ( a female) can take over his position in power which will ultimately mean she would become to most powerful character. [8]

In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century’s feminism emerged, and grew especially at like many other protests for civil rights in the time of the First World War. Feminism was the response from angry females who were unhappy with a life of inequality. They believed that women had a right to have political as well as social equality with men. It had various movements and Feminist theory and theorists emerged as a result from these times including Laura Mulvey and Gay Tuchman.
The First wave of feminism as many people call it refers to a period of time when feminist activity was at its highest, the second wave of feminism occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. The difference between the two sets of waves was the first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning laws to function equality like in work while second-wave feminism addressed the more unofficial inequalities like house roles etc. Many films narratives in Hollywood in the 60s 70s and in some occasions the 80s reflected society’s apparent view that women should be subservient to men, even the more well known actresses like Marylyn Monroe at some point in the narrative had to play roles that displayed the dominance of males at the time.
The attitude towards feminism by males especially in the 1970s portrayed the roles on screen women were playing in Hollywood as the number of different roles and personalities that females could have started to expand even if they were still negative which is the case in X-Men 3where there are both evil and good characters displaying different characteristics that portray the role of both Madonna ( storm or rogue) and the whore (Mystique).
For instance in Fatal Attraction when the leading character was female but she was still represented as a woman who had misused the power she had been given after having an affair with the main male character. However considering that until the creation of feminism women were treated almost as passive agents in a male world.
Looking back at the two waves of feminism they have arguably played a major role in creating new wider spread characters both on screen and off in comparison to the one dimensional characters they used to play.
Without women fighting for equality in the work place or with the right to vote then it wouldn’t of resulted in impartiality in Hollywood either and directors had to take that into account when casting and making the narrative, because not only did they want to reflect society at the time but they did not want to upset feminists groups that could potentially put negative spotlight on their movies if upset at the representation of women. “The action film has historically been a male genre dealing with stories of male heroism, produced by male filmmakers for principally male audiences”. This was the case before feminism came along and sometimes still is and feminism has helped to curb that statement if not end it.

The roles that many female’ stars past and present have played on screen have been naturally very inadequate to a degree where they only play certain roles where their personalities are limited. Before the 1980s there were two well known type of characters that female would be cast in – the Madonna role or the hore. Nowadays there are many more roles for females to play such as the femme fatale, although the femme fatale is give negative representation she is involved further in the plot and contributes much more to the narrative then other roles do. It is the same with the “final girl” a role which was developed when the slasher film came to light [9]. Some of the more positive newer roles that have been created through time is roles that come with more power and responsibility such as the male heroes boss or the villains sidekick, this rise in important roles for women to play in superhero films suggests that slowly but steadily females in the superhero genre are becoming more significant.
Throughout time the roles have developed but not really changed in terms of female representation, it seems an injustice but in reality the first feature you have to have to play a main female role is be good looking. Taking Men in black 2 into account (a superhero movie with Sci fi aspects) you have a female villain now even though this isn’t the first female villain to appear she seems to have it all regarding presentation of herself. She is powerful, seductive, smart and generally good looking, if the directors wanted to take a big step towards gender equality in Hollywood they would have hired someone who isn’t as naturally blessed with good looks and thus would not appeal to the audience.
If you look at the contrast in role requirements between male and female characters within the average superhero narrative they are usually very different. Take the early superman for instance nearly every women’s role in the film was either to be saved by superman or to provide some sort of information, they were never directly involved in the action themselves. In contrast the male characters role requirements included being the hero, villain, helper dispatcher [10] and the passer of key information, this list has been repeated in loads of superhero movies and continues to this day.
One key member of the film Xmen is storm who is played by Halle berry, she was once voted the worlds sexiest woman in 2003 round about the same time the second x-men movie hit the cinema screens which is something that could be seen as a male gaze [11] motive from the directors to hire her . She is known for other roles in hit films like die another day and cat women where she is also subdued to wearing tight clothing and bikinis in famous memorable scenes. Even though her looks and sexual presence may have played parts in given her roles during films she portrays sophistication, intelligence and charm proving it’s not just their beauty but also their brains that plays parts in female actresses successes. She wouldn’t be in so many movies if this wasn’t the case as the audience would just get tired of her looks if that was all she brought to the role.
Marie d an canto (rogue) who played the main female protagonist in the first of the 3 Men movies is also given a positive representation in Xmen 3 using her Witt to get her out of trouble while also displaying her physical force when fighting against her opponents. Although both storm and rogue acting abilities produced better female representation it is undeniable that their good looks got them there in the first place and they were still symbolised as objects of desire hence the tight clothing.
More over In the modern generation and especially in x men 3 gender roles are a lot more equal with females getting their fair share of the action characters like storm, mystique, rogue are always involved in the plot and in the inevitable fighting between the two mutant teams however it’s clear that the women on the evil mutant side are no way near as matched as their so-called powers also seem rather feeble compared to the Men on their team “Storm could just summon a hurricane and blow the woman away like troublesome flies” [12]
An example in a working world situation would be when a company hires females to work within their business, although it seems females have more respectful jobs and actually get to keep their clothes on, real purposes for some companies is just to show that they aren’t sexist and so in reality female workers aren’t their because of what they can offer but so some companies can shrug off any accusations of sexism. In addition when they are hired the majority of their job roles are limited because in most cases their male bosses don’t believe they have the brains to handle bigger jobs so they get the simpler ones like the sectary or coffee makers.
Women in general no matter what generation they come from will have all at one point or another been subjected to being prejudged on as part of stereotypical views from others. A stereotype has been described as a short cut to meaning [13] or a widely circulated idea about particular groups outside one’s own experiences [14]. They are possible characters in the media who are considered as “types” rather than complex people, they are based on assumptions made by people who have been influenced by what they have seen or heard about through others (usually the government).
Usually stereotypes are developed through the media creating a moral panic [15] emphasizing the negatively placed on these prejudgements of people, places or cultures. The concept of stereotypes is probably the main reason females have been thought of as inferior to men in the past, as a result inevitably binary oppositions [16] have been created by men highlighting their patricidal view of their supremacy over women. Commonly accepted oppositions include that men are strong, dominant and smart while women are weak, feeble and incapable of looking after themselves.
Men have also been accused of stereotypical actions that represent the whole of their gender, they are seen as voyeurs by many feminists who strongly feel that the majority of the male population only go to watch movies with a female lead character to participate in a fetishistic gaze [17], this is when the man objectifies the women in a sexual manner focusing on a certain part of the body to give him visual pleasure. The term scopophilia is associated with the entire male race when looking and judging beautiful women by feminists, scopophilia is when you have pleasure in looking and being sexually aroused. If this is the case then the suggestion that women’s new respectable roles as the main character can only be seen as a hallow victory for feminists because instead of males appreciating the females protagonist elegancy, brains and class they are only focusing on her body assets and therefore dehumanising them by not treating women as their equal but as a fine aspect of their fantasy life. This can be related to my film of study X Men 3 where some of the women are persistently overlooked for higher positions in the hierarchy of power because neither the good or bad mutants have a woman as their leader meaning the significant positions of power and authority go to the males.
As much as both female audiences and the female stars themselves would like to see male directors alter their gender identities (for instance their actions on screen being more linked to masculinity than femininity) that would highlight a change from the traditional objectification that they have been familiarized with by a male audience, it seems that realistically that won’t be happening for a long time as directors see good looking female stars such Catherin zeta Jones and Jessica Albers sex appeal as a guaranteed audience puller. When considering that Hollywood is a business and a business’s objectives are to make profit and survive it justifies directors why they wouldn’t want to modify a winning formula hence the reason female roles when playing the protagonist of a superhero or action movie have hardly been changed over the years . If the female stars have to sacrifice their ideologies on equality and female exposure in order to make the movie then they will do that because it is their profession and its how they make a living.
Stereotypes do play a big part in director’s ideas of satisfying the audience because when thinking of stereotypes it relates to gender identities which most directors don’t want to tamper with through fears of losing their audience. For instance they wouldn’t think that a predominantly male audience’s expectations would be fulfilled after watching someone like Halle berry (who is a massive figure of the male gaze ) acting manly, not wearing prerogative clothing or being sexually seductive as a way of getting what she wants. This wouldn’t put heterosexual males in cinema seats thus loosing the company money; however it has been proven that if someone takes a gamble and changes the gender identity of the subject such as Quinton taritnino did with Uma Thurman in kill bill it can be a success both with male and females.
Tarintino portrays Uma as a vengeful, blood thirsty killer who murders her enemies in the most brutal and disturbing circumstances, with these being her characteristics she doesn’t conform to the stereotype of the average female hero and goes against the hegemonic values of society that women shouldn’t act like that. Although she displays characteristics more accustomed to a male anti hero there are aspects of her femininity like her humility and compassion to her colleagues suggesting that it is almost impossible to give a realistic portrayal of a women without their key emotions and features.

The lack of female directors in Hollywood can be seen as a direct link to the slow progression of positive representation of females in both the past and present. You could argue that the main reason there is such a drought of female directors is because so much of their time is devoted to bringing up children and if they have a husband it conforms with the hegemonic view on society that women should stay home and take care of the children. Ziaddin Sardar says a patricidal society expects an “honourable married women job is to remind the audience of men’s natural intended rightful place for women which is to raise children and dutifully supporting the more important work of men"[18] so there might be some implanted guilt on females to go off and work if they want to have children because there is the feeling society won’t allow them to have both.
With this statically being the case it shows that female off screen get just as much negative treatment as the ones on it. It could be argued that female actresses could do more to increase the number of female directors by publicly endorsing them. There is no doubt that a young new female director who shares the same patriarchal views as the actresses would result in a rise of new narratives and films that would satisfy the female audiences as opposed to exploiting them. However there is already an established hierarchy in place in the film industry that has a way of continuation on certain rules about gender superiority, this is putting females off getting into the industry because of expected sexism and objectification. This myth [4] has been around for a long time and females believe that myth to be true because there aren't any well known female directors.
Less known movie makers like Gurinder Chadha who has directed movies such as Bend it like Beckham (2002)[19] and Bride and Prejudice (2004) [20] , and has won 14 major awards in her life time have made names for themselves with a majority of niche markets and occasionally the mass market. Others like Debbie Allen who has overcome major obstacles in her life such as racism [21] have proven that with hard work women can achieve the glamour roles of directors.
Directors such as these can be inspiring to females but they haven’t got the pulling power to even make themselves known to young female aspiring directors and this is what makes it harder for females, male directors such as Steven Spielberg and Quinton Tarintino have so much exposure it’s almost impossible not to hear of them.

Selina Scott the news reader was one of many women discriminated by ageism, she claimed that she wasn’t chosen for the role that was filled by a leaving Natasha kaplenski because the managers though she was too old and would not appeal to their mass audience, this act of age discrimination has repeated itself and in Hollywood it is very apparent. Looking at the stats the comparison between the length of careers females and males have in the movie industry is clear to see, and with the hierarchy being defined by defensively masculine directors and managers in charge of the casting it seems like women are ultimately refused a voice[22].
Depending on what model audience you tend to follow it will be a different reading of the situation, people who consider themselves hegemonic and therefore a passive audience will feel that it is just part of the circle of life when someone old gets replaced with the “perfect provocateur”[23] who is young, good looking and sexually perfective both in Hollywood and in the TV industry, while others that believe the pluralistic model will be active and see that it is a blatant case of discrimination and unfair as it would represent almost all working females and possible create a moral panic for any hard working women.
In my film of study X men 3 gender equalities are more fair and even though it doesn’t represent the whole of the superhero genre it is a big step to have the head chief in power Prof chares display a confident faith in a female character storm that she could one day take his seat of power and lead the rest of the Xmen. The fact that he sees her potentially as his heir to his throne demonstrates the improving relations and esteem between the men and women of the film purely because he believes that a women could handle that much power and responsibility many would argue that speaks volumes about the new roles women play are much more positive and respectful.
The discrimination they suffer in their representation would affect the consumers of the text as well because there is supposed to be an aspect of idealization between the consumer and the hero. For instance strong powerful minded females would not want to look up to a female actress that is a patriarchal male directors money making puppet but instead a independent elegant classy female hero so they can personally identify [24] themselves with the protagonist, " feminist critics have in particular been attracted to iconic images of strong women"[25]. Some factors that lead to the exposure of women on screen such as the props (i.e. tight clothing) split audiences down the middle in opinion. Some members of an average audience would question whether Lara croft in tomb raider played by Angelina Jolie is a feminist icon or a heterosexual male’s wet dream [26]
Overall I think that while women’s roles have changed over time their features haven’t therefore making a victory for female representation a victory but a rather limited one for women and feminists in particular.
In the past by looking at the stats it suggest that females were badly treated in terms of presence on the TV screen, there weren’t many on screen and the ones that did appear where seen as token characters and given representations that degraded the female population. As miles reported in 1975 [27] in adventure films only 15% of females had leads in films which subjected them to cameo or insignificant roles which at the time didn’t show much progress. While there have been numerical improvements in the number of female hero’s they still don’t share the same respect or admiration by the male public as their male counterparts and because of that male characters are still seen as more intelligent assertive and prevalent.
If Cortes says that there is “symbolic and institutionalised sexism” [29] in advertising then this must be the case in Hollywood with the consistent representation of women as sexually promiscuous and continuously used seduction techniques on the males hero on his quest. As females on screen are conducting themselves this way within the narrative to suit male audiences this creates the ideology that sex sells and as long as that belief is in place it is hard to see women’s roles in superhero movies changing for the better in terms of female representation and therefore they are still and probably will always remain objects of desire.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/quotes
[2] Tuchman, Gay (1978)
[3] Barthes, Roland (1984)
[4] Xmen3: The Last Stand (2006)
[5] Davis (1990) Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representations of Gender in the Past, (page 43)
[6] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 46)
[7] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 46)
[8] http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/ProfessorX.html
[9] http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/final_girl.html
[10] Propp Vladimir (1928), Bennett, Jacquie (2005) :Media Studies AS & A2 ( page 92)
[11] Mulvey, Laura (1975): Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
[12] http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/reviews/x-men3.html
[13] Lacey, Nick (2004): Introduction to film (pg 263)
[14] Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media Studies AS & A2 (page 114)
[15] Cohen, Stanley (1972)
[16] Strauss, Levi (1949): The Elementary Structure
[17] Scott Galloway, Lucy (2007) A beginners guide to Laura Mulvey
[18] Sardar, Ziaddin: Introducing Media studies 2000 (page 138)
[19] http://farm.imdb.com/name/nm0149446/- Gurinder Chada
[20] http://farm.imdb.com/name/nm0149446/-Gurinder Chada again
[21] http://jordan-murray.blogspot.com
[22] Kaplan Ann (1983): Ann Kaplan’s Women and Film
[23] Cortese, Anthony: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising (1999)
[24] Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media Studies AS & A2 (page 90) Uses and Grats theory
[25] Tasher, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema (page 9)
[26] Lacey, Nick (2004): Introduction to film (page 203)
[27] Gauntlet, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: Representation of Gender in the Past (page 43)
[28] Cortese, Anthony: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising (1999)


Bibliography

Works cited
Books
Gauntlett, David. Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2008
Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures (Language, Discourse, Society). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Lacey, Nick. Introduction to Film. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
Scott Galloway, Lucy (2007) A beginners guide to Laura Mulvey
Sardar, Ziauddin. Introducing Media Studies, 3rd Edition (Introducing). Thriplow, Cambridge, UK: Totem Books, 2006.
Kaplan, E. Ann. Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera. New York: Routledge, 1990
Anthony, Cortese. Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007.
Tasher, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema

Moving image texts
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2004). Kill Bill, Volume 2 [Motion Picture]. US: Miramax Home Entertainment.
P. (Director). (2004). Catwoman (Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. America : Warner Home Video.
Story, T. (Director). (2005). Fantastic Four (Widescreen Edition) [Motion Picture]. USA: 20th Century Fox.

Internet
The Final Girl: A Few Thoughts on Feminism and Horror. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new
independant study jordan. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://jordan-murray.blogspot.com.
Gurinder Chadha. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://farm.imdb.com/name/nm0149446/
X-Men film review . (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/reviews/x-men.html

Works consulted
Books
Bennett, Jacquie (2005) :Media Studies AS & A2
Strauss, Levi (1949): The Elementary Structure

Moving image texts
Donner, R. (Director). (1978). Superman - The Movie (Four-Disc Special Edition) [Motion Picture]. America: Warner Home Video

Internet/ Newspaper
http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/latest/2008/10/07/clint-eastwood-angelina-jolie-is-too-sexy-115875-20780457/

Word Count- 4,189

Scary movie Franchise

Scary Movie

As you might expect, a group of teenagers -- not-terribly-bright Buffy (Shannon Elizabeth), her best friend Brenda (Regina Hall), stoner Shorty (Marlon Wayans), fey football player Ray (Shawn Wayans), loudmouthed Greg (Lochlyn Munro), sexually overexcited Bobby (Jon Abrahams), and his prim girlfriend Cindy (Anna Faris) -- are on the run from a maniacal killer who is looking for revenge after the kids accidentally kill a man following an auto accident. They also find themselves having to contend with intrusive reporter Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri) and eccentric high school principal Squiggly (David L. Lander). Incidentally, the title Scary Movie is something of an inside joke: it was the working title for Scream, the movie that kick-started the mid-'90s slasher film revival.

The film was released on July 7, 2000 and grossed $42,346,669 (USD) in the opening weekend in the box-office. It went on to gross a total of $157,019,771 at the domestic box-office and a world-wide total of $278,019,771. Critics gave the film mixed reviews. The film currently has a "Rotten" rating of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a rating of 48 out of 100 from Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Other movies linked to scary movie

Scary movie 2- The sequel to Scary Movie begins with a parody of The Exorcist, in which Megan Voorhees (Natasha Lyonne), is possessed and two priests, Father McFeely (James Woods) and Father Harris (Andy Richter), must drive the demon out. The exorcism doesn't go as planned, and a chain of The Exorcist-like vomiting occurs. Megan insults McFeely's mother and he shoots her in the head.

The Sixth Sense- sixth sense is a 1999 psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It tells the story of Cole Sear, a troubled, isolated boy (Haley Joel Osment) who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who tries to help him, only to discover that he himself is dead. The film established Shyamalan as a writer and director, and introduced the cinema public to his signatures, most notably his affinity for twist endings. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture

The Blair Witch Project - Blair witch project is a low-budget American horror filmreleased in 1999.Though the film is entirely fictional, the narrative is presented as a documentary pieced together from amateur footage. The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company.
The film tells the story of three young student filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams) who supposedly go into the Black Hills of Burkittsville, Maryland to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The three students never came back. The viewer is told that neither the students nor their bodies were ever found, although their video and sound equipment (along with most of the footage they shot) were discovered a year later.

Definitions

Parody: A parody is in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation

Spoof : a composition that imitates or misrepresents some body's style, usually in a humorous way

Scary Movie is both these things as it takes mocking other movies to a level that had not presiously been reached before. In the past movies such as scream have slighty made fun of movies that had come before them with little bits of dramtic irony in thier narrative here n there but scary movie is based enitlry of mocking the set of "rules" that have been buitl up on years of slasher/ horror movies.

Scream franchise

Original Scream

Scream is a 1996 film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. The film revitalized the slasher film genre in the mid 1990s, similar to the impact Halloween (1978) had on late 1970s film, by using a standard concept with a tongue-in-cheek approach that combined straightforward scares with dialogue that satirized slasher film conventions. The film features many teen idols of the time, including: Neve Campbell, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Drew Barrymore, David Arquette and Courteney Cox Arquette.
Scream became a major commercial success upon its release, and was one of the highest grossing films of 1996. It was also highly acclaimed by many critics worldwide, who appreciated the film's tongue-in-cheek approach. It received an 84% "fresh" rating on Rottentomatoes.com As a result it spawned two sequels, Scream 2 and Scream 3. A fourth film was announced by The Weinstein Company in July 2008.

Scream 2

Scream 2 (1997) is a horror thriller film, the second part of the Scream trilogy. As with the other films in the trilogy, Scream 2 combines straight-forward scares with dialogue that satirizes conventions of slasher films, especially (in this case) slasher film sequels

Plot- Sidney (Neve Campbell) and Randy (Jamie Kennedy) are attending Windsor College. They see news reports that a couple (Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps) were murdered in a movie theatre at the preview of the Stab movie, which was based on a book by Gale Weathers(Courteney Cox) about the Woodsboro murders (in other words, the events of the movie Scream). Phil Stevens is stabbed in the head through the wall of a bathroom cubicle. The killer then enters the cinema and sits next to Maureen Evans, and she assumes the killer is simply her boyfriend wearing a mask. During the Casey Becker kill scene in the film Stab, the crowd goes wild. Taking advantage of this, the killer stabs Maureen multiple times. Since many of the movie-goers are wearing the killer's costume (as publicity material provided by the movie studio) and are all carrying fake knives, nobody takes Maureen's attack seriously. Seriously wounded and dying, she climbs up the stairs in front of the movie screen and lets out one final cry before falling down dead. Soon, Sidney and Randy realize that the nightmare is starting all over again.

Scream 3

Scream 3 (2000) is the third installment in the successful Scream series of satirical horror films. It was originally meant to be last installment of the Scream series, but in 2008, Scream 4 was officially announced by Dimension Films.
The film stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox Arquette, each reprising their roles from the first two films. This is the only part of the Scream trilogy not to be written by Kevin Williamson, as he was busy working on his short-lived television series Wasteland. Ehren Kruger (writer of the film Arlington Road who would later go on to write the screenplays for The Ring, The Ring Two and The Skeleton Key) was given the task of writing the script based on notes Williamson himself had sketched out


Summary

Scream is considered a post modern movie because of its refrences to movies that have come before it, in a spoof style way they have made up thier own rules based on the unlucky outcomes that victims of past horror movies have reciveded thier main set of "rules" include


You wont survive the movie if you have sex.
Dont answer the phone
You wont survive the movie if you drink or do drugs.
Not opening the door
You may not survive the movie if you say "I'll be right back","Hello?" or "Who's there?"
Dont Scream


Other movies scream makes refrences too

Nightmare on elm street
Halloween film series
Night of the living dead
Dementia 13
The thing with 2 heads
Candy man
Prom night
The Howling

Definition of Terms

Pastiche: A media text made up form other media text pieces or of imitations of other styles

Irony:Irony is when humor is based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaning

Intertextuality:
The practice of purposely including a reference of one text in the narrative of another, it can generate levels of meaning for the viewer.

How it links to Scream

All these 3 terms can in some way or another be linked to all three scream movies, firstly pastiche suggests that scream imitates other movies styles from the past which is arguably true because of the amount of slasher/ horror movies they make refrence to. There are aspects of texts such as halloween and nightmare on elm street that they imitate to give audiences a sense of genre identification towards the film such as the iconography they use like knifes, blood and brutal killings.

There is a high level of irony in scream with what they say because when they say certain puns they dont mean what they are saying but say it with comic effect because the adueince know what they realy mean and usually by saying particualr things they are making fun of movies in thier genre from the past. The intertextuality used in scream is blatant because that if the effect wes craven wanted to create with the target audience he selected, as he wanted his audience to be familiarised with the seruois aspects of the slasher film scream allowed him to use intertextuality from other texts and include it in his own films to create greater meaning for audiences so they could relate back to texts from the past and compare it to the imitated narrative that scream used.