Hollywood Bias: "Redemption of man by a woman" movies usually greenlighted.

me | Dec. 2 2003 | gobucks

[gobucks]

Are you fully aware of how Hollywood is attempting to control the idea of the boyhood-to-manhood process? The agenda of Hollywood producers is simple: get the watchers (the younger the better) to believe a boy doesn’t become a “man” until he submits, in some way, to a woman.

More precisely this boyhood, or "guyhood", is a state of “sin” that has to be redeemed prior to the gift of being seen as a “man” by a woman. Of course, exceptions exist, especially in older movies. But the culture wars are nourished by these films. Below, I will refer to a few movies to illustrate my point.

SABRINA: A Harrison Ford remake that’s very popular with typical “modern” women. Ford, as Sabrina tells him, is viewed as a cold businessman who doesn’t care for anyone; the "world’s only living heart donor”. At the end, his family confronts him and says he really needs to abandon his multimillion dollar company, and go to Paris to ask Sabrina to accept his love despite his previously heartless acts against her. “Save me” he says to her at the end in Paris on a dark street. She does, his sins are redeemed, and fade to music!

BRAVEHEART: Wallace, played by Mel Gibson, doesn’t work to free Scotland until AFTER his secret wife is killed. Up to then, he is not a fighter, he’s a lover, not to be dragged into messy politics. Only after the fateful mistake by an English thug does the brave heart appear (there is no historical basis for her role, but she is very pretty). It ends with his clenched fist slowly opening as he dies, her tattered handkerchief fluttering down to the executioner’s wooden deck, and him yelling the word “freedom”. Hmmmmm.

THE MATRIX (first one): Neo is dead, having just been shot many times by Agent Smith in the Matrix. In the real world, Neo is actually Thomas A. Anderson (Anderson = “son of man”) and he is lying in the chair, his heart no longer beating. Trinity (Trinity? Gimme a break!) a raving beauty who asserted earlier that she is the "ranking officer", leans over and says he can’t be dead, because he is the “man” she is in love with (the first time he is referred to as a “man”).

She kisses him, and THEN his heart starts beating again, and Neo now proceeds to see the matrix world as it actually is; he's enabled to stop bullets and defeat evil. This film is about as blantant as it gets. (Read anything about K. Reeve’s dad, and you'll get why he picks these roles).

WHAT A WOMAN WANTS: Mel Gibson, womanizer, single, ruthless falls under the spell of Helen Hunt. At the end, he begs “Rescue me” as he tells her that she is not fired from her high visibility corporate job after all, a firing he engineered.

She fires him on the spot for his crime, at first, but then claims she would be a poor knight indeed if she didn’t rescue him ... fade to music after the kiss of redemption. Of course, it’s only after reading women’s minds, including hers, that he agrees he is a creep that really needs this rescuing.

FIGHT CLUB: very violent movie, but popular with the gen X and gen Y crowd. A divided personality is trying hard to find the masculine side of himself, and everything goes downhill after he meets Helen Bonham Carter. The "Fight Club" at first is serving its purpose – he feels more tough.

But at the end, he ends up killing the tough blond-haired alter-ego – and magically, for the first time in the whole film, the woman he has been aching for suddenly appears by his side, her arms around him. Fade to black as the evil capitalist world crashes down. Moral: kill your toughness and get the woman.

TITANIC: he sacrifices himself for her at the end, and what does she do? Avoids the evil “guy” at the end who had money. Nope, the husband she should have had is dead. He stood up for her – but he had also gotten a bit of a reward too in a model T ford. He was a drifter, gambler, but a man at the end.

The list is endless (Beauty and the Beast – even cartoons don’t miss out on this). So, my point is basically this: most folks in Hollywood who make movies clearly grew up in households where Dad was absent, or submissive to the will of a powerful mother. They’re certainly not making movies about their Dad!

Boyhood to Manhood movies are simply missing where they show a high integrity Dad bringing his Son along (unless it’s a show like the Godfather, or some other Mafia type flick – so being strong is associated with being an outlaw!! - but I digress).

The culture wars have as their root these types of films. They can still be enjoyed, but they should be in the same way a cigar is every now and then. Too many can be bad for you, or maybe society. But then again, maybe that is the point of the agenda...

[gobucks]

Please let me know of other movies that illustrate this point - and also those movies that are the stellar exceptions (the latest is Luther, and perhaps, Master and Commander).

That all said, I do recommend a movie that flies in the face of all this: A Perfect World: Clint Eastwood flick.

[Numbers Guy]

SABRINA: A Harrison Ford remake that’s very popular with typical “modern” women.

Your mistake was in watching the remake. Julia Ormond is no Audrey Hepburn, and the plot of the original didn't involve the older male lead getting "saved". Could you imagine Bogart saying "save me".

[Pukin Dog]

Trinity (Trinity? Gimme a break!) a raving beauty who asserted earlier that she is the "ranking officer", leans over and says he can’t be dead, because he is the “man” she is in love with (the first time he is referred to as a “man”)

Look, I loved the Matrix films, but take Carrie Anne Moss out of all that Matrix leather, and she is a real mutt. Far from a raving beauty.

[discostu]

Wow did you ever miss the point of Fight Club. The whole complaint of the movie was how men are being womanized and not allowed to become men in a female dominated society, it isn't until he the final leap to destroy himself that he can actually love the woman (remember the halves of his personality either hate her or lust after her, love isn't in the equation).

On the other hand my youngest aunt always said you're not really a man until you make a woman miserable.

[gobucks]

That's fair. I suppose her eyes got the better of my judgement. Too bad the rest of her doesn't match those eyes...

[gobucks]

Well, he's constantly frustrated by not getting the girl, constantly frustrated watching mr. tough get rewarded. And then, bam! mr. sensitive (relatively) gets her AFTER he kills of mr. tough? I don't think I missed it.

[Pukin Dog]

A raving beauty?

[discostu]

He's not frustrated by not getting the girl, he fears the girl because she awakens his manly instinct and wants her out of his life because she challenges his comfort zone. He'S GOT the girl any time he wants her, remember she does call him at work to come over and grope her, but as the womanly guy just learning about manhood he doesn't want her. It's when BAM he gains control of his personality and merges the two halves the he finally realizes he wants her.

You missed it completely.

[Pukin Dog]

Oh, okay. Didnt see that before I found the picture.

[eastforker]

whats with the long lag in post today.50 post in 40 minutes? Anybody know whats up?

[gobucks]

Hmmmm. Perhaps you should see it again, and listen closely to the "weak" alter ego's dialogue. Further, the "strong" alter ego appears only AFTER she shows up. But it is only the "strong" side that gets the attention.

Strength, technically, is not being strong, but submitting to what SHE wants. So he kills off mr strong, and she is suddenly tender. Come on, my point has validity - especially if you get the film and slow mo through the scenes that "flicker" - the subliminal joke becomes very evident then...

[dighton]

One reviewer here REALLY loathed the original Sabrina. (Scroll down for Dennis J. O'Boyle)

Saw it years ago, remember liking it. Hard to go wrong with Billy Wilder or Bogart.

[discostu]

I saw it again a couple of weeks ago. You should pay attention to the eb and flow of how the weak personality deals with the girl, he does all the rejecting. He rejects her when they first meet, he rejects her when she reaches out to him wondering why he hasn't been going to groups, he rejects her when she's taken a pile of sleeping pills and will probably die as a result of his rejection. She NEVER once rejects him, not at all, not on any level, even when he tries to alienate her to save her life she STILL won't reject him.

Rewatch the beginning for the "glitches" the strong personality first shows up in the hospital when his doctor friend recommends he go to one of the terminal illness groups and learn what real pain is. Tyler actually appears 3 times in a single frame each all before he ever meets the girl.

She is drawn to him from the start, it's only when he's in his strong mode that he's willing to accept her. It isn't until his weak mode can overcome his strong mode with the ultimate statement of foolhardy bravery (trying to blow his own head off) that HE finally accepts HER.

Your point is horribly invalid, you have completely misinterpretted pretty much every single line of dialog in the movie. Listen to the commentary tracks, they say it quite clearly in there.

[gobucks]

The commentary tracks? Mel Gibson in his commentary tracks doesn't say anything about non-historical nature of the secret wife in his historical tracks. He just says that the local girl he picks up for the role was great.

But that was recent. I'll watch Fight Club again and test what you state; but I did watch it more than once to see if embedded in the film, the REDEMPTION was present. To me it was clear - she was the agent of that redemption; killing off the tough guy would not have occured without her as the motivating force...

[discostu]

The commentary tracks of Fight Club, the movie we're discussing.

I'm not saying redemption isn't present, I'm saying you're misinterpretting the redemption. It's clearly a redemption movie, but redemption is achieved by getting rid of his effeminate protection, embracing his pure pure id perona and finally working out the balance between the two. That's basically the point of the movie, that society has pushed us so far toward feminist thought that we must rebel to get our masculinity back, but not rebel too far. Tyler is right all the way up until he starts turning Fight Club into a secret army. Redemption in Fight Club is a too step process: first embracing Tyler then incorporating Tyler into the whole personality in a controllable and non-destructive way.

[martin_fierro]

Things That The Hero In A Chick Flick Must Do:

• Dress up in a tuxedo for the inevitable Dinner Party Where Much Verbal Sniping Takes Place;
• Give back rubs to the heroine; and
• Lift the heavy stuff.

[gobucks]

Maybe I misinterpret - but that army wins in the end. All the buildings do get blown up. That's my point - equality, not balance, is the ultimate aim of the message of this movie. Equality wins, and thus he wins the girl as himself AFTER he rejects the guy who invented fight club. Tyler never loses a fight, no one is "equal" to him, thus he must die. Tyler invents fight club, but that army gets to end up destroying the companies buildings. We are all equal at last! BTW, how is shooting off your own head a controllable, non-destructive way to be balanced?

Perhaps you see no merit at all in the theme of my whole essay, hollywood is trying to get people to buy the idea that guys can't get to manhood without submitting to her??

[gobucks]

Ok, I read that guy's review. Boy he did hate it - sounds like a religious nut case!

[discostu]

The army wins but that's because our hero is too dense to figure out what's going on until it's too late. Equality isn't the message of the movie, that's fake equality Tyler does (and it wouldn't work anyway, offsite backups destroying every credity card company in the world today would have no impact on the general populaces credit rating tomorrow).

Again you're wrong on when he gets the girl, she's his from the first moment she sees him, but he constantly rejects her, she reaches out to him over and over and he rejects her always out of fear. She gets him when he finally over comes Tyler and grasps for real manhood. Tyler loses two fights: the one with the mob guy, and the final one with Norton.

Shooting off his own head is the final rejection of Tyler's absolutism, they both come into the movie with a black and white world and by focusing Tyler's aggressiveness against Tyler in a rejection of Tyler he finally gets to have shades of gray. And after that he can finally accept the woman who's been reaching out to him through the entire movie and admit to her that "she met him at a really wierd time in his life".

I see some merit in your essay, I don't believe in the megolith of "Hollywood" (I also don't believe in the megoliths of "big oil" or "big tobacco", I see numerous companies competing with each other for dollars). But I notice that half the movies on your list are chick flicks so we expect those to have a feminist value set. Of the other three we have one movie where the redemtive path is nearly identical to The Patriot except it's his wife getting killed by the British instead of his son; then there's the Matrix a movie I think blows chunks; and finally Fight Club which you interpret exactly opposite to it's true message.

[bluebox]

Here are a few more examples of exceptions ...

Ever seen "Notting Hill", with Hugh Grant and Julia Robert? He is not redeemed by "she" ... more the other way around. She is influenced by his steadiness.

And what about "Titanic" ... again "her" life is influenced by his character, his steadiness. (Of course, if she had kept her rear end in that lifeboat instead of being totally irrational, maybe he could have gotten to float on the door and live happily ever after with her, but I digress.)

And one more ... what about "An Officer and a Gentleman". She sure isn't carrying him at the end.

In my observation, there are very few "chick flicks" that are exceptions to your "Hollywood Bias" rule. And sadly, a lot of movies directed at teens/kids are going that direction too.