Bend It Like Beckham

When choosing a film for this assignment, my original choice was Bend It Like Beckham because I had heard of it and I had a general idea what it was about. I then decided that I wanted to take on a more challenging film, one that I had never heard of, and one that I would really have to study to understand its full meaning. After looking into a few of the listed movies, I ended up choosing Whale Rider, a drama filmed in New Zealand in 2002. After watching the movie two times, I feel that I now understand some of the more drastic cultural and gender based problems that are occurring today.

Bend it Like Beckham (2002/3) is a romantic comedy written, directed and produced by Gurinder Chadha, a Kenya-born British film maker who grew up India. Director Chadha’s films often reflect on her complex background. Unlike many comedies, Bend it Like Beckham is filled with plenty of important themes. One of them addresses the importance of cultural integration.

Family ties people down and brings people together. It chains people down with rules and regulations, caging them in with familial obligations. While most would not complain or fight against being encaged and molded into their parents’ desires, some let go, abandoning these duties in exchange for happiness. In the production Bend It Like Beckham, the protagonist, Jess, struggles with the reason why it is important to abandon family obligations when it conflicts with one’s personal desires.

Another example of Gender Politics, similarly seen during the teen drama film ’10 Things I Hate About You’ uses the relationship between a Father and his

At first glance, the documentary Meet the Patels could easily be billed as a real-life My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Centered on Ravi Patel – a first generation Indian-American man – and his quest for love, it certainly displays all the trappings and inner workings of a riveting romantic comedy. However, beneath the exterior mesh of a typical boy-meets-girl frame story, as well as Ravi’s interactions within his branch of the Patel clan, one can also detect various allusions to the struggles of American homosexuality and gay marriage within the plot.

Overall, ‘Bend it like Beckham’ was an inspiring and comical film of the conflicts that arise in the clash of culture versus family/culture. Many themes were presented within the film such as wanting is will. This theme is explained with the constant perseverance of Jess, where she set a dream for herself and never gave up, in the end accomplishing what she dreamed for; her goal. Another theme explored was that of, your parents don’t always know what’s best for you. Times

Conflict of Cultures in the film Bend It Like Beckham Gurinder Chada creates conflict of cultures in various different ways in the film Bend It Like Beckham. Gurinder Chada uses techniques such as accents in the voice, contrasts, stereotypes, sarcasm, characterization and juxtaposition of British and Indian cultures which creates humour. This creates a film that attracts the attention of the audience and keeps them interested in the storyline. In the film Bend It Like Beckham a young female Indian footballer hopes that one day she will be able to become a professional footballer and play for her country.

Most people follow the footsteps of their parents because those are a person's role models. It is very difficult to break out of an economical class and make a better life for themselves than what they were raised up into. In The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, Silvia is a young girl growing up a poor section of New York City. Miss Moore is a educated lady that moves to Silvia’s neighborhood in order to help educate the youth on some important life lessons. Silvia is reluctant to listen to anything Miss Moore has to say until one day when they go to a nicer part of the city seeing how the other half of society lives.

Cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated, but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society such as race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, and ethnicity. On the movie Six Degrees of Separation, intersectionality is between parents and children and between sexuality. Flan’s son knows his parents give his pink shirt to Paul and is really mad because he respects his parents. The pink shirt implies the love between parents and children. Flan’s son is mad because he considers he is the unique love of his parents. The relationship is between Paul and Trent who is an MIT student. Paul dates with Trent to exchange sexual favors in order to gather information on Trent’s address book. Also, Paul uses the money that Flan and Ousia give him to achieve a fleeting moment of sexual connection to another man. Rick is Elizabeth’s boyfriend and trusts Paul. He takes all the money out of their joint bank account and gives Paul even though Elizabeth disagrees. During the celebration, the two men have sex a carriage ride. Paul makes Rick feeling fantastically. These examples show how intersectionality connects with the

The movie Fools Rush In is a great example of how gender as well as cultural differences can hinder communication in a multicultural society. Fools Rush In is about two people, Alex and Isabel, who come from two different cultural backgrounds who after a one night stand become pregnant and decide to get married. However, along with the marriage come compromises that include cultural traditions and personal sacrifices. The movie is a comedy but can also be viewed as romantic and shows how two people who love each other can resolve the issues of cultural and gender differences.

The film lookes at the prejudices between the families but did not touch on how interacial couples also have deal with societies biases against them. Being a interacial couple may come along with its shares of difficulties, diffrences between the indiviuals, famial prejudice, and societies prejudice.

In ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ the Indian culture is reconnoitered through conventional Sikh pious principles. For instance the importance of cultural rituals, cookery, clothing, the traditional role of a woman, and the particular importance given to elders (A. Ratna). The Indian Sikh culture integrates prayers into their daily life. For example, the Bhamra family hung a portrait of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism and Jess's mother is regularly praying and talking to the portrait. Unlike her mother, Jess has a portrait David Beckham, above her bed, and she is seen talking to the image about issues present on in her life. This portrait has a comparable part in Jess's life as that to the portrait of Guru Nanek.

Bend it like Beckham is a film that was written, directed, and produced by Gurinder Chadha, a British film maker who was grew up in India. The film focuses on the main character's desire to play football and the conflict she faces due to her obligations to her traditional Sikh family. The character, Jess Bhamra, must make the decision to pursue football or follow her parent's wishes and complete school and marry and Indian man. As Jess struggles to find her own identity without losing her family, she befriends a British footballer Jules. Jules' parents offer an interesting parallel to Jess' family, showing that although cultures may be very different in some ways, they are actually very similar in others. Director Chadha explains that

Through the use of cinematic techniques, Hidden figures, a movie directed by Theodore Melfi and Bend it like Beckham by Gurinder Chadha both explore the dangers that are inherent in a marginalised society. Each text demonstrates that hope for change is needed in society as it can build the momentum for an individual to strive. Through these texts, we see that people have no conscience about harming others until they learn the truth about their circumstances. This is depicted by the way in which Jess’ coach Joe behaves after learning about her cultural expectations in Bend it like Beckham. Similarly, this is shown in Hidden Figures by Mr. Harrison. Both directors emphasise that the abuse of power leads to corruption and this can be seen through the segregation between the black and white people in Hidden Figures and the way in which cultural values overrule the lives of the Bhamra’s in Bend it like Beckham. Both characters highlight the importance of creating opportunities rather than seeking it, this is shown when Mary Jackson goes to court for educational rights in Hidden Figures and in Bend it like Beckham when Jess stands up to her father who appears to be patriotic about his cultural values. The resolutions to both texts justify that determination comes from within and that though many factors can outweigh a person’s ability to triumph, consistency can lead to rewarding results. As an audience we are able to further increase our understanding of perseverance through

I selected to do a cultural analysis on the movie “Bend It Like Beckham”. To give a rundown on the plot of the movie, there is a girl named Jess Bhamra, who is an Indian living in England. She is a very talented soccer player, but her parents will not permit her to play. One day, she meets a girl named Jules Paxton, who persuades Jess to play soccer. Throughout her time on the team, Jess has to make sure that her parents do not discover that she is playing professional soccer and that she has a growing crush for her coach, (Chadha, "Bend it like Beckham").