Men in Film



When you speak of women in film, it’s also important to mention men’s role. As I discussed in my blog, Women in film, Hollywood is based on the dominant ideology of white patriarchal capitalism. Throughout film history white, heterosexual, and mostly wealthy men have been the main characters in many Classic Hollywood films. Part of this reason may be strongly due to the fact that white men were primarily the founders of cinema and also many men hold higher positions of power in the film industry. Although new doors have been opened for people of color, homosexuals, and women to get involved in the industry. There are still a limited number of roles that are available for these groups to play. Many of these characters are the same stereotypical roles that have just been tweaked over time. In Classic Hollywood stories white (heterosexual) men are considered the standard or “norm” in films. When films are released from the view point of another group these films are considered “others”. Comedies that represent African Americans, for example, are considered black comedies. It’s placed in a different category as opposed to being just called a comedy.

In film men are normally portrayed with very strong masculine traits. Men normally play tough and strong heroic characters. When men show emotion (sensitive/romantic) they are normally placed in the romance genre, which most consider chick flicks (or women’s films). In many Hollywood movies many of the plots show stories of men who are faced with an obstacle and who by the end of the film are able to overcome that issue. Men in most Classic Hollywood films are normally responsible for saving the day.  Supporting characters typically include a female love interest. In many action/thriller films men are usually being desired by beautiful young women. In many films there’s normally a huge emphasis put on a female characters sexual appeal. There are many films that embody these different stereotypical roles, but one movie that seems to stand out to me would be the film Disturbia.

Scene from the movie Disturbia.Shows hero (shia labeouf) with his female love interest.

Scene from the movie transformers.Shia Labeouf(right) plays the hero of the film with Megan Fox playing the love interest.

Disturbia is a film about a troubled teenager on house arrest who witness a murder when spying on his neighbor . When the people he loves are put in jeopardy he comes in and saves the day. The story includes a beautiful female love interest named Ashley who eventually ends up dating the hero (Kale) by the end of the movie. This movie follows the typical Hollywood format with a heroic white (heterosexual) male playing the main character. In the movie Kale is able to overcome his obstacles when he defeats the antagonist(serial killer) of the story.





Scene from Titanic with Jack (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet)



 Romance movies which are targeted toward women also show men in a heroic light. The movie Titanic for example is about two characters named Jack and Rose who fall in love on the RMS Titanic, despite the fact that they come from two different social backgrounds. This film breaks the typical image of the traditional hero by making Jack poor rather than rich. In Classic Hollywood movies wealthy men were the protagonist in most films. One traditional image that was still being portrayed in the movie was the image of a white (heterosexual) male hero who ends up saving the day. Throughout the film Jack saves Roses life a number of different times and he even ends up dying for her.