Watch the clip on YouTube here (it doesn't seem to be embedding correctly unfortunately).
The analysis:
The representation of men in this clip is stereotypical of the action adventure genre. The main character, Indiana Jones, is a stereotypical classic male action adventure hero. He is rugged, white, brave, intelligent and manages to outwit many opponents. He is shown to actually enjoy the danger and challenge of dealing with so many attackers. He also begins the clip on a horse (a stereotypical American hero’s method of travel). Towards the end of the clip, he actually gets shot but doesn’t let it break his concentration from the mission or quest he is on. This is the representation we expect of men in this genre.
There are two interesting representations of non-Americans in the clip. The first is the local population (probably North African). These people are stereotypically represented through their costume and the underlying message is that these people are insignificant and of less importance than our American hero. At several points in the clip these people are used for comedy (falling off ladders, having their property destroyed or even across the windscreen of the truck). At no point are these people represented fairly or given any depth or personality. This could be perceived as casually racist in the portrayal of non-American people.
The representation of the army (German?) is also stereotypical. The armed forces are often represented as incompetent in action adventure films and this is no exception. Many soldiers attempt to take on Indiana Jones and meet a series of comedy ends (driving off a cliff, crashing a motorcycle into a puddle etc.) This suggests that both the army – and by association Germans, or non-Americans – simply don’t have the intelligence, bravery and strength or our American hero. This could also be viewed as borderline racism.
No comments:
Post a Comment