Grease Movie Analysis

After reading over the description of our film analysis paper, the movie "Mean Girls" that was produced in 2004, came into my mind because this movie contains several sociological themes. Although the film is over a decade old, most high school students seem to be able to relate to this film today since it shows us examples of sociological conflicts such as social conflict theory, social class, and sexuality.

The representation of the LGBT community in the film industry has long been a topic of much debate. In her article, “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV,” Amy Zimmerman addresses this topic with specific interest on bisexual representation. By appealing to the logic of her audience, using an informal tone, and referring to relatable content, Zimmerman constructs an argument which persuades readers of The Daily Beast that the film industry is unfairly and inaccurately representing bisexuals. However, her argument holds little influence over those who are not movie fans or The Daily Beast readers.

He adopts an ambivalent tone in order to examine the conflicting views of high school genre films. Denby’s purpose in writing this essay is to show how the overuse of these stereotypes results in few original teen films. Original movies expose their viewers to a diverse range of people and ways of thinking. Adolescents often mirror or find inspiration in the characters they see in media, so it is important to depict a variety of people in media targeted towards them. People of various sexual orientations should be represented more prominently and truthfully in media targeted towards children in order to promote acceptance and provide role models for those exploring their identity.

    “Tonight I gotta cut loose, footloose, kick off my sunday shoes. Jack, get back, come on before we crack.” (Footloose, Kenny Loggins) For this essay, I chose to watch Footloose made in 1984 and directed by Herbert Ross and Footloose made in 2011 directed by Craig Brewer. Both movies centered around the town of Bomont, a secluded town with out of the ordinary beliefs. In this town, dancing and partying of any sort was strictly against the law and teenagers were seemingly miserable. There was little to no self expression and even listening to provocative music or any music too loud, could get you a ticket with a hefty fine. The reason behind the strict rules is that several years back, five teens from Bomont High School died in a car wreck after they were drinking and dancing too much. Each of these movies have some things in common, but have more differences than anything. Some of the main differences are the opening credits of each movie, how and who Ren arrives to Bomont at the beginning of the movie, the “chicken” races between Ren and Jeff, and the book burning in town square.

The Breakfast Club is a classic 1980’s film depicting the various lives of a group of extremely diverse high school students; each dealing with and trying to overcome their own obstacles and challenges. Despite the initial conflict between the characters due to them all coming from different backgrounds and social cliques, they soon learn that they are not all so different from one another and are each struggling with similar problems within themselves and their personal lives. They eventually learn to accept the differences between each other and realize the falseness of some of their internalized values and stereotypes that they hold against others and themselves. The Breakfast club perfectly exhibits how stereotypes effect our lives, illustrates

Most people know the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the personification of teen rebellion and independence. It illustrates the free-spirit disobedience that lies in the hearts of teenagers. In T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” and Anne Tyler’s “Teenage Wasteland,” the reader is given a glimpse of the turbulent times encompassed during teenage years, including the questioning of authority. Through the authors’ style of writing, the theme of both stories are almost identical; the reader can conclude that both authors have diverse tactics in the way they tell the stories. Both characters in each story go through teen rebellion but have different perspectives on how to approach these issues.

The specific scene that I have decided to go over that greatly underlines the gender stereotypes we see in the media everyday, and before the eighties, is a scene where Sandy, Danny, and the crew are singing the song We Go Together. Sandy sings about her, Frenchie and Rizzo needing a man and even the girl who they believe to be the ugly one, Jan, needing one as well. Here, plain and simple, Grease is suggesting that a woman absolutely needs a man in order to function and be a whole human being. This specific scene completely reinforces that the main theme of the entire film is the guys’ race to find a woman of their own. In this scene though, the movie is leaving an impression on young men that in order to be cool and liked, they need to have a picture perfect girl on their arm that they can only show affection to when they’re not around their friends. It is telling them that in order to be someone, you need a woman that is accepted by society. The same exact message is displayed for young women who watch the movie

This movie is a great example of social groups, leadership, culture, norms, society, nature and nurture, and social lives. This movie represents how the American culture chooses our social class in society. Some sociologists believed that lifestyle choices are an important influence on our social class position (Giddens, 209). Our class position is the way we dress, where we eat, where we sleep, and how we relax (Giddens,

The Gangster film ‘Scarface’ (DePalma) is about the rise and eventual fall of Cuban immigrant, Tony Montana. Throughout the film the viewer witnesses how Tony Montana goes from a criminal in Cuba to a drug overlord in America. The average viewer cannot connect to the arc of Tony Montana. But, the average viewer can connect to what Tony Montana is working for, the American dream. Brain DePalma chooses purposefully to have a hyper-masculine, narcissistic, megalomaniac immigrant as the main character of a story of American dream. In ‘Scarface’, DePalma show the universality of the American dream. By utilizing various filming techniques, DePalma shows how the American dream is available for everyone.

For this paper, I have chosen to analyze the sitcom That 70s Show. This show follows the lives of a group of teenage friends: Jackie, Donna, Hyde, Kelso, Eric, and Fez. The show addresses many social issues of the 1970s, including: Sexism, sexual attitudes, drug use, and the recession. It also highlights many of the inventions and developments of the entertainment industry, such as the remote control and Star Wars.

The film’s treatment of gender and sexuality connects to the time in which the film was based in and also made in. Grease connects to the 1950’s because of its relevance with the release of Playboy in 1953 (Playboy History). Playboy conveys the idea that sexually mischievous women are better than women who are not with their explicit media. Grease also connects to the 1970’s because of the feminist movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Civil Rights Act was also passed in 1964, which was intended to prevent employment discrimination of race, religion, and sex (The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement: Breaking Down Barriers for Women). In the film, women seem to have a bit more power than they are thought to have. For example, bad Sandy is able to assert sexual power over Danny at the end of the film. The producers of the film were able to connect elements from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.

After losing his wife, Walt Kowalski was left with spoiled children and grandchildren, cigarettes, Pabst Blue Ribbon and his 1972 Gran Torino. Walt was retired from the military after serving in the Korean war. In the beginning of the movie Walt appears to be disgruntled, racist and tough-minded. He was not ecstatic that a Hmong family was moving into his deceased neighbors house. Meanwhile, the Hmong family next door faces some challenges of their own. Brother and sister, Thao and Sue are settling into their new lives in America, when their cousin, gang member “Spider”, starts harassing Thao. Spider pushes Thao to initiate into his gang by stealing Walt

With reference to relevant cultural theories analyse the representation of sexuality in a film/television text of your choice.

The film, American Gangster, directed and produced by Ridley Scott is a drama based on the biography of Frank Lucas. In the movie, Frank Lucas constructs his own business of illegal work after his boss, Bumpy Johnson, passes away. Frank builds a heroin business, following in the footsteps of Bumpy, and becomes the most powerful crime boss in Manhattan. Furthermore, because of Frank’s immoral ways, he gets caught by the police and is sentenced to 15 years in prison. As the movie progresses I form a couple assumptions of what could happen in the short term and long term. First off, when Frank Lucas attains his heroin I believe that in the short term he will succeed. Frank has established a vast amount of insights into the drug business from Bumpy, and from what he has learned he will take in and apply it to his situation. However, all immoral acts will have to be put to an end, so in the long term, Frank’s heroin business will be caught. If Frank’s business is the biggest thing in Manhattan then the police are bound to question where are all the illegal drugs coming from, how, why, and who. The police were already hunting him down so it was inevitable for him to get out of his illegal mess.

The film The Breakfast Club was directed and written by John Hughes and was released in the year 1985 (IMDB, 2016). The film’s running time is 95 minutes and can be categorized under the genre of comedy and drama. It follows five teenagers, who all vary in personality and stereotype, get stuck in detention on a Saturday morning. They are all different types of people in nature but when stripped down and seen through without a stereotypical lens, they all have something to share and have something in common amongst themselves despite being so different from each other. In the movie, they are stereotyped as, a basket case, a brain, an athlete, a princess, and a criminal (IMDB, 2016). The setting takes place in a library and whilst they are in detention, they go through varying phases. They start off with solitude, then proceed to share a few words, and later into the film they start to disclose information about themselves that normally would be very difficult to disclose. While they are in the library they start off as complete strangers and barely talk to each other. As the movie progresses, they start doing a lot of things that a normal group of friends would do such as dancing, playing music, sneaking out together, and even smoking a joint together.