Action Adventure Representation

Representation and Action

Adventure

Action Adventure film characters are usually stereotypes (they mostly fit in to a certain type of character).

However we often just take for granted that certain characters will look and behave a certain way, some modern audiences see this as a real problem as some characters misrepresent genders and ethnicity.

How is masculinity represented in these films?

How has the role of the princess changed in action adventure films?

Account for the reasons why the representations of women have changed?

How do they still have conventional aspects of a female character?

Representation of women

Lo: To analyse the representation of women in action adventure films

Link to media terminology: Mise-en-scene, sound, cinematography

How is gender represented in this scene?

Stereotype Character:

Function in the film: Problem (misrepresentation):

The Action Adventure hero Is usually a white male who is often played by a western actor (mostly American or English). He is good looking, athletic and fights for good.

Against all the odds, he saves the day by defeating villains, saving the leading lady and making the world a better and safer place!

Women and other ethnicities are NOT represented as strongly as men in the role of Action Adventure hero. Female and black lead characters are starting to appear more regularly in more modern films but still not as frequently as white males.

Stereotypes and Action Adventure



The Leading Lady (Princess) Is mostly white, beautiful and falls in love with the Action Adventure hero.

For a long time the leading lady was in the film to look good, be rescued by the hero and provide him with somebody to seduce through the film

Other ethnicities are rarely represented by leading ladies in Action Adventure films. And, the leading lady is often seen as useless, needing the male hero to rescue them. And, should all leading ladies be beautiful? Normal looking females are rarely represented by the

leading lady.




The Villain The villain is often rich, powerful and a criminal. The villain is often ugly compared to the Action Adventure hero and physically less impressive, needing henchmen to do most of their evil deed for them. The villain is more commonly from a non western country (Russian, Middle Eastern and Chinese are favourites)

The villain usually wants to do something evil, taking over the world, stealing large amounts of money, hurting and even killing innocent people and appears almost impossible to defeat.

With the hero being handsome and villain ugly, this reinforces the idea that good people are good looking and bad people are ugly. And, the rich powerful villain can seem to suggest that if you are rich or powerful you must be evil! And, with the villain often foreign, this can create racism/ prejudice towards the country that the villain comes from!




The Sidekick (Helper) The sidekick usually is a more humorous character who is less athletic and handsome than the Action Adventure hero. Sidekicks are more likely to be foreign, children, female or even a robot than the male Action Adventure hero.

The sidekick is often in the film to make the audience laugh. They usually bumble their way through the film, only helping the hero by accident.

Again this shows that heroes have to be male, white, athletic and good looking. This reinforces the idea that if you are not: - White - Male - Athletic - Handsome You are inferior and cannot be a hero and are only good for laughing at!


Applying knowledge

A criticism of Action Adventure films is that they reinforce stereotypes in terms of both gender and ethnicity. Do you agree? Give examples

Lo: To analyse the representation of women in action adventure films

Fill out your profile sheet Name: Age: Gender: FEMALE Target audience: Character qualities: Catchphrase: And DESIGNED character

Design a Heroine

In most action adventure films the narrative is driven by a single hero also called the PROTAGONIST who is in conflict and opposition to a villain also

called the ANTOGONIST

This is also known as binary opposites where opposing influences create drama and conflict- eg. Good VS Evil, Man Vs Woman, Rich Vs Poor,

Man Vs nature, Water Vs Land

What do all these Heros and Villains have in common?

Heroes & Villains In Action Adventure

HERO VILLIAN

Add more to this list Are the women represented as

masculine or feminine? Does one gender dominate? Why?

Textual analysis skills are important when discussing character types.

Watch this clip and write 200 words to analyse the two character types

Watch the clip Who is the hero? Give evidence Who is the villain? Give evidence How are binary opposites used? Link to mise en scene, sound, cinematography Ext: Do either challenge conventions?

Action Adventure

Summarising & Applying knowledge

Consider how character is represented

Typology of characters

Attributes of heroes/ heroines

Women tend not to be the lead

Do heroines act like women or men?

Do the representations reflect gender roles in society and how we value men and women?

Heroes white, English speaking from Western democracy (more so USA)

Villains contrast the hero

Are there characters that break with traditional hero stereotypes'?

How do the brake from them?

What sort of actors are employed to play theses roles?

How do action adventure films shape our values?

It could be argued that Action Adventure films are a means of exporting western ideologies to the rest of the world (specifically from American)

The values attitudes and beliefs in these film are being subtly imposed on other nations. How far do you agree with this?

Action Adventure Film Star

Hollywood is famous for its movie stars; Hollywood celebrities can command huge fees for appearing in films. A Hollywood star is often seen as a box office draw someone that audience will pay to see at the cinema and hopefully increasing a films success when it is released.

Who are the great Hollywood stars of the action adventure genre?

Some actors are known for playing mostly Action Adventure heroes throughout their whole film careers. These actors are films stars who can be seen as more important than any other element in the film. In fact some audiences will go and see a film just because a certain actor is playing the Action Adventure hero.

One such film star was Arnold

Schwarzenegger who starred in numerous Action Adventure films and whose name attached to a film would automatically make is a box office success.


Arnold Schwarzenegger became bigger than any of the films he starred in and most film trailers would use his popularity stating his name before the title of the film. For example.

The latest Schwarzenegger film or Arnold Schwarzenegger in ..... Arnold Schwarzenegger often played a

similar character in Action Adventure films, a tough, strong, muscular, cigar chomping, gun totting hero who spoke very little (due to his strong Austrian accent) using catch phrases and physical action to portray his character.

Despite his acting receiving very negative reviews from film critics, audiences did not care and loved his simple, no nonsense, muscle bound characters.


Research a film star who has often appeared in Action Adventure films.

What type of role does he/she play?

How important are they to the success of the film?

Who would be a suitable star for your film? (Think about your audience, how marketable the star is and if they are right for the genre)


Documents

Action Adventure Representation