Women In Cinema: From Thelma and Louise to Bridesmaids 

Today in cinema, films are being produced with the aim of pleasing female audiences, yet very few actually have a dynamic cast of women. In 1991, Thelma and Louise put women in cinema on the map. It delivered a "truth" about women that was rarely, if ever, seen on the big screen, and joined in a momentum of powerful women in television, film, politics, etc. In today's films, women look, act, and deal with life differently than they did in 1991 and the camera captures that.

In 2011, a journalist by the name of Raina Lipsitz, wrote a piece for the Atlantic, on this incredible forward motion for women between 1991-1992 and how after twenty years, the film still resonated for the empowerment of the female race after time lapsed. But what Lipsitz mentions about films today, raises some problems in my book. Lipsitz brings up the Bechdel test for measuring a film's treatment of women, and how there are three things that are required in order for a film to pass the test. They are: (1) there must be two women in it, (2) they must talk to each other, (3) and their conversation must consist of something other than a man or men. According to Lipsitz and Bechdel, films following Thelma and Louise have yet to accomplish this; however, if we examine and dissect Thelma and Louise by these standards, the two characters fail to pass the Bechdel test.

Women in film today may not be defined by the greatness that Thelma and Louise both possessed in 1991, and maybe the characters present in today's film don't redefine or construct a new female gaze for audiences the way Thelma and Louise do, but there is a change. What Thelma and Louise did for female audience members in the early-90s, characters such as Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer in the Help, Greta Gerwig and Mickey Sumner in Frances Ha, and many other female duos in cinema today are doing for a new generation of viewers. The Girls-aesthetic, or Millenial perspective, is the main driving force behind much of the dominant sources of media today and with that the depiction of female friendship will change as well. As times change and so do women's rights, the "truth" about women will also change. Problems with men the way that they were for Thelma and Louise do not equate to the problems women face today, and the need to escape from their lives and criminal activity is not the top of the list in today's film. Today strength in women against men or life's troubles, are established through the hardship rather than running from the hardship. The significance of the female friendship, much like that of Thelma and Louise, prevails over the complications men create. That's where the films of today and Thelma and Louise come together. There is no denying the similarities in friendship through these films and how there is often the strong, stable, comforting friend who is whole-heartedly there for the messed up, damaged, subordinate friend through thick and thin. The dimensions of these friendships come from the restrictions that the societal man may place on them, or even just society in its own.
But where Thelma and Louise stray again, comes from how male driven the pressure was. A cast that primarily consisted of men were the opposing forces that ultimately push the pedal, full throttle, and drive the two women off the cliff in the final scene. Today there is so much more than the man driving the forces of women that often never even make it to the metaphorical cliff.

Although Thelma and Louise had its problems in feminism, the stereotyping of women, and its place in the world of cinema in the early-90s, it did provide the opportunity to begin exploring female friendship in a new light. Over the last twenty years or so, the changing in women, their friendships, and their relationships to men are reflected in their changed appearances on camera.

The Ideology of Which Way Home

  There is one segment of the documentary, Which Way Home, that visualizes the ideologies of young immigrant children risking everything in order to make it to America with the dream of being able to provide for their families back home. From 4:04-5:40, the film takes a focus on the statistics of the migrating children and moves with the group of young boys who we follow for majority of the film.

  Here we are introduced to Kevin, who is fourteen years old and mentions how his mother was too poor to afford to support her children, so he dreams of making it to America and providing for her. This received consciousness of many of the children on the same tragic journey is that they must break from the reality of being a child and forcibly adapt into the world of becoming an adult. The uncertainty of their journey can be reflected in the waiting game the boys play on the train tracks as they await a train that will be heading on a track that could potentially lead them to the United States. Before the scene ends, Kevin is scene speaking to his mother on the phone and informing her of where he is located. The vulnerability suggests the youth that all of the children possess.

 Speaking to the ideology of illegal immigration of children from poverished South American countries, the socialization of the young boys in these families leaving home and fighting against the odds of surviving the dangerous travels, has become the main source of reasoning and justification as to why these young men and women are subjected to lending to the notion of creating an ideology. It becomes an issue when it is recognized as a socially constructed problem where at a certain age these children feel it is necessary to take the responsibility of providing for their families by migrating to America. Children ranging from the ages of 10-15, pack up and leave home, sometimes never addressing their departure to their family. For example, when Kevin contacts his mother on the phone at the end of the scene I chose, she has an element of surprise in voice when he mentions his location. There are other children on the journey who never told their parents and just left. The scary realization that most of these children are detained, kidnapped by smugglers, or unfortunate enough to die, emphasizes how unsettling of an ideology Which Way Home depicts.

  The concept of ideologies as a “this is what we do and how we do it” mentality, parallels with the mentalities of the migrants featured in all three movies we viewed so far. Whether they are escaping crime, running from fear, searching for hope, or planning on creating a better life for their family and themselves in another country, each face of the travelling characters from Eddie to Willy to Kevin to Sayra and Sally, become representative of an increasingly heartbreaking ideology forming all over the world where the children of the future have to grow up a little earlier than expected.

Sin Nombre

    Reviewing the film Sin Nombre for this course, I started to see the film in a different light than I had previously. There was an element to each character that I had not recognized before and their significance to the film grew, whether they were present for a short duration or not. For instance, the scene that I chose to focus on this week occurs towards the middle of the film when Lil Mago kills Martha Marlen after she rejects his sexual advances.
    In this scene, the complexity of El Casper's character is visibly displayed through his emotional breakdown when Lil Mago informs him that the devil took Martha Marlen. In an effort to remain loyal to both the Mara Salvaturcha gang he is a member of and to his deceased girlfriend, El Casper begins to show a tether of emotions that parallels the tether between youth and adulthood. Throughout the entire film El Casper is put into positions and scenarios that require him to engage in things that strip away his ability to live as a teenager. Murder, theft, and a life of crime place adult responsibilities onto El Casper, or Willy as he identifies with outside of his gang. Yet, when he discovers that Marth Marlen has been murdered, he retreats to responding with emotions that remove him from this falsified adult persona he lives.
    Although this scene is reflective of the character dynamics between Lil Mago, Martha Marlen, and El Casper, it's key in understanding the other characters of the film and the various elements each possess. For example, Smiley mirrors the struggle between child and adult that El Casper goes through, by dealing with initiation into the gang and taking on the responsibilities of murder. In Smiley's character structure, the introduction of his younger, playground friends emphasizes just how young he really is.
    Age typically directs the behaviors and mentalities of individuals as the development of cognition and identity pair with the various stages of maturation. However, Sin Nombre proves that the varying degrees of growing up are conflicted with the tragic reality of a membership in a violent gang such as the Mara Salvaturcha. Instead of playing with his friends on the jungle gym, Smiley is showing off a gun he intends to kill El Casper with. Rather than enjoy the time spent with his girlfriend and express the proper mourning of her death, Willy, is forced to live within the dark identity he embodies when he is El Casper. The internal tether each character harbors creates an on-screen demonstration of the destructive elements that arise when they are fighting with who they are and who they are expected to be.
   I think that Sin Nombre explores the tensions discussed in my blog in an excellent way, yet I wish there would have been more opportunities for each character to spend time with the other self away from the crime or hardships that life presents to each individual character. From El Casper to Lil Mago, Smiley to Sayra, El Sol to Marth Marlen, created for Sin Nombre deal with a tether, whether it is with youth, relationships, poverty, traveling, escaping death, sexuality, or being a part of something at the expense of themselves.