Xx..Mr and Mrs Smith..xX

Sunday 6 January 2008

Bonnie and clyde...1967Arthur Penn
Writers:David Newman (written by) &Robert Benton (written by)more
Release Date:13 August 1967 (USA) more view trailer
Genre:Biography / Crime / Drama / Romance more
Tagline:"The strangest damned gang you ever heard of. They're young. They're in love. They rob banks." more
Plot Outline:A somewhat romantized account of the career of the notoriously violent bank robbing couple and their gang. more
Plot Synopsis:This plot synopsis is empty. Add a synopsis
Plot Keywords:Gangster Film / Road Movie / Face Slap / Fight / Car Chase more
Awards:Won 2 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 22 nominations more
User Comments:(Top 10 choice) Superb job done by all involved. more
Cast (Complete credited cast)

trivia:The poem that Bonnie is reading as the police open fire on the rented flat is "The Story of Suicide Sal" written by Bonnie Parker in 1932. more
Goofs:Continuity: During the frustrated love scene on the bed, after he kisses Bonnie, Clyde turns to his back and puts his left hand on his chest. Next shot he takes his left hand from her breast. more

Quotes:Bonnie Parker: I don't have no mama. No family either. Clyde Barrow: Hey, I'm your family. Bonnie Parker: You know what, when we started out, I thought we was really goin' somewhere. This is it. We're just goin', huh? Clyde Barrow: I love you.

Bonnie and Clyde- 1967’s

The chosen historical text above came instantly to my mind when thinking about women being either equal to men or taking control. The 1960’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ fit the perfect representation on women. Bonnie is a character that seems to have control over her but to an extent. The reasons I say that it’s to an extent are because the patriarchy of men still exists and scenes in the movie prove this. For example. A scene from the film where Bonnie, Clyde and another couple are travelling in the car they had stolen, she says something to Clyde that gets him extremely angry he then decides to stop the car and walk off, a few moments later bonnie runs over to Clyde then blames it on herself and indirectly says to him that she can’t live without him and reassures him by saying ‘ill do anything…Clyde…anything’. This particular scene was very similar to the one where Jolie and Brad go out to dinner at a restaurant then decide to play hard to get, so they end up having a fight on the dance floor where they are very discrete about it, then after a couple of shots they get intimate.
I guess this then links to Media Studies- the essential resource- Phillip Rayner, Peter Wall and Stephen Kruger
‘Women can be powerful, Vulnerable and Feminine’
I mean yes women are having a more recognisable role and yes they do consider taking leading roles but the are also obliged to give in to the patriarchy towards men. With the character Bonnie, she is typically a ‘blonde’ woman but then funnily enough the stereotypes are discrete and not the ways in which we would see a ‘blonde’ woman. Jolie is a brunette and she plays the hard girl in the film but as said earlier both characters have been typically story told ‘Hollywood’ style. Powerful, vulnerable and feminine, are a wide range of different descriptions of women. This shows the ways in which women are. ‘Masculine roles’…they can multi task, have a good side and bad side.

Media common concern about ‘ladettes’- Mucer, Campbell, Jervis and Lewis (2001)
‘Swearing, fast driving, graffiti- painting were as acceptable in women as in men’ Bonnie and Clyde and Mr and Mrs Smith both have these in common where women are represented to the extreme and quite devilish. Bonnie is seen drinking, smoking and swearing in the film… these stereotypes of a woman is not typical at all, and it goes with Jolie character as she is seen to be drinking and swearing in the film. Which goes to show that women are taking the more masculine roles and also these women have broken the traditional norms and values. This then links in very well to the Laura Mulvey’s ‘visual pleasures and narrative cinema’ she focuses a lot on the male gaze as she represents women to be an object and just abit of eye candy for men. I agree with her as both Bonnie and Jolie are very attractive women and when males are viewing this movie they may jus watch it for there own sexual pleasures. This then also links well with ‘She is a failure if she is not beautiful’- Germaine Greer he says that the woman has to be attractive in order to be put into an advert or anything, and this patriarchy does exist.

American texts/ British texts-
similar texts to my study....

Bonnie and Clyde- 60’s
Scarface-50
Goodfella’s-70
Bronx tale –70’s

No comments:

Post a Comment

..Reveiw from about.com..

Jane and John meet while down in Columbia where they’re both on assignment. Neither has a clue what the other one’s up to and after much alcohol and a night of what we can assume is passionate love-making, they become a couple. Fast forward a few months and now they’re Mr. and Mrs. Smith. He believes she handles computer problems for major companies; she believes he’s a big shot in construction. Fast forward even further and now they’ve been married five or six years and they’ve got problems, major relationship problems that necessitate visiting a marriage counselor.
After being together for all those years, you’d think they would have figured out that something doesn’t add up. But no, neither figures out the other’s an assassin until they’re both sent out by their competing companies to take out the same target. The cat’s out of the bag and all bets are off – toss in your own cliché here – as those marital problems they were suffering from before suddenly look like small potatoes. Never forgetting it’s a romantic comedy at heart, the action sequences take over once Mr. and Mrs. discover what their partner really does for a living.
Simon Kinberg’s script is saucy and engaging and director Doug Liman (“The Bourne Identity”) adeptly handles the action and comedy. We don’t often get to see a man and woman engaged in an all-out brawl, but Liman lets the fight scene between Jolie and Pitt get as physical as possible without cutting away too much or cute camera tricks. And while it's a little unnerving to watch their hand-to-hand combat, it makes sense. She’s an assassin, why would her opponent need to hold back?
Fighting, making love, clinched in each other’s embrace on the dance floor, verbally fencing, whatever the circumstance or scene, the pairing of Pitt and Jolie works. They physically match up. Jolie plays Mrs. Smith just as physically capable – and lethal – as Pitt does Mr. Smith. In fact, the female is actually the better of the two assassins. Her moves are planned out meticulously; her actions follow a logical path. He relies more on his instincts and isn’t as fast on his feet as his female counterpart. It’s refreshing to see a female character be allowed to get the upper hand mentally and physically on her male costar, especially in a movie where the leads are portraying professional killers.

From reading this review i totally agree with it as they are chalenging the sterotypes and they are reveiwing that it's the 21st century romance relationship and they are making the whole relationship seem as if it's going to be the one that is going to be nowerdays. so they are chalengeing the sterotype for the perfect couple where the man is in control.