Hollywood Constructions of Gender Essay

Hollywood had portrayed a variety of different categories of protagonistes in its cinematic history. None has been more important to film than the super attack aircraft and the Hesperian. Both super mavenes and Hesperian virtuosoes ar considered tough and ready to conquer the disgusts of the world. Any doer playing pane is able to portray the Man of Steel simply by displace on the red cape while tin can Wayne and Clint Eastwood embody the characteristics of dead on target Western heroes. Male superheroes and Western heroes book masterd the rangy harbor for legion(predicate) decades however there ar contradictory mythologies that these heroes as well as embody.These are discussed as they relate to superheroes and Western heroes. The role women play in establishing traits of these heroes is overly analyzed. There hasnt been another actor who has so captivated audiences with his impersonation of window pane as Christopher reeve did in social disease in 1978. In th is exposure, pane is really an alien from Krypton who has been sent to Earth out front his home planet explodes. On Earth he is adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent who raise them as their own son, Clark. Clark works at a report publisher and embodies a certain gentle persona (Donner, 1978 Engle, 744).The contradictory mythology surrounding window glass is that he is a mild mannered man in the bound of Clark Kent but is a man of steel with superhuman powers when he takes on the characteristics of Superman (Engle, 744). Superman has dominated Hollywood since Christopher reeve played him in 1978 because of his undying efforts to save the world from the clutches of evil (Engle, 744). In Superman, Christopher Reeve must save the world from the evil plots devised by Lex Luthor to launch missiles in order to make a fortune in real domain (Donner, 1978).The audience is believeing on Superman to save the day and this is what makes Superman a true superhero. The American people know that they can count of Superman to unloose the world of evil and this why Superman has move to dominate the big screen in several remakes since the 1978 classic. Throughout Superman, Christopher Reeve is pursuing Lois thoroughfare who is pursuing Superman (Donner, 1978). The superhero pursuing a good-looking female gives some human characteristics to hero status. Clark Kent was unable to persuade Lois Lane to go out with him but had she known that he was really Superman she would have loved nothing less.The beautiful female pursuing the hero gives credibility to his hero status (Seger, 317). Women have allowed male heroes to dominate the big screen because they have secret fantasies of a superhero swooping in and saving them from their troubles. Therefore, superheroes bid something for everyone. Small boys embody hero characteristics through play, men enjoy hero movies because of the action and the overcoming of evil and women enjoy these movies because of the desire to have a big, vigorous superhero risk life and limb to save them.Western heroes have also dominated the big screen for decades. The Wild West caused great attention in many civilized people from the East (Engle, 747). The Western hero was able to portray attempts to tame the Wild West through independence, self-reliance, individual(prenominal) honor, sympathy with nature, and ethical uses of violence (Engle, 747). illusion Wayne was one such actor who truly embodied the characteristics of a Western hero. In The Searchers, John Wayne plays a Civil War veteran who is searching for his abducted niece. It takes place during a time when the western United States was still considered wild.Wayne internalizes the Western hero characteristic of independence because the movie opens and no one knows where he has been for the past three years (Ford, 1956). In this way he is also expressing his own self-reliance. He is a typical Western hero because he is a loner and takes sustainment of himself without needing anyone else along for the ride. Wayne decides to search for his niece but doesnt call in many people to help in his search (Ford, 1956). Similarly, Wayne was able to show personal honor through his personal quest to find his abducted niece.Finally, John Wayne is typically associated with cowboy hats and guns blazing in to save the day. He uses violence in an ethical manner in The Searchers because he feels it is his personal duty to lede down his niece and he is instinctive to go to whatever lengths necessary to do so (Ford, 1956). Since characters desire John Wayne stood for what good American boys should want to be (Engle, 747) there was no shortage of female pursuers. The contradictory mythology surrounding Western heroes is that they appear rough and tough on the outside but have a gentle nature that isnt revealed to just anyone (Engle 747).This is opposite of the superhero characteristics that show an everyday normal person morphing into a rough and tough her o sent to save the day. Western heroes are considered brave men as compared to the more civilized men of the East. Men who were brave enough to consign up and head West were considered heroes because of their lack of fear of the wild west (Engle, 747). Therefore, women longed to attract the attentions of a Western hero because they would feel safe and protect with such a brave, strong man around.Villains help mold a superhero or Western hero into an American icon. Superheroes avoid their arch confrontation because the enemy has discovered their weakness and tries to use to defeat the superhero. Villains in Western films are usually the outlaws or Indians that must be defeated in order to preserve a peaceful and safe place to live. The villain in hero movies represents some sort of adversity that must be overcome (Seger, 317). In the case of Lex Luthor, Superman must overcome the voraciousness that he portrayed in order to save the world and celebrate it a safe and prosperous p lace (Donner, 1978).In the case of John Wayne, the villains he had to defeat were the ones who stood in the way of finding his niece (Ford, 1956). The villains force the heroes to go to whatever length is necessary in order to reach their goal. Superman had to overcome the evil Lex Luthor in order to save Lois Lane and John Wayne had to overcome his adversaries in order to save his abducted niece. Therefore, villains push heroes to change and aim in order to remain true heroes. Superheroes and Western heroes are both(prenominal) considered hyper masculine. They are what embody the true definition of a hero.They are willing to put their own lives on the line to save the lives of others. Hero stories are myths simply because one person is not capable of ridding the world of evil and saving everyone in trouble. Myths help reality create a mess of where they would like to go and what they would like to do. Myths take the injustices of the world and give mankind desire for change ( Seger, 317). What makes heroes so heroic is that they live rather childlike lives until the call to action is sent out. Superman is really Clark Kent who is a newspaper reporter.John Wayne is a Civil War veteran just like so many other men during the time of the Wild West. The expiration between normal humans and heroes is that heroes take it upon themselves to make the world a better place (Seger, 317). This is why myths are so contradictory. The heroes take on human characteristics but underneath they possess superhuman abilities to fight evil. Myths down depth to the hero story (Seger, 326). Hero myths have the power to dominate the big screen because they allow humans to imagine the contradictory aspects of heroes existence incorporated into their own lives.Small children will play hero games ceaselessly as they dream of growing up and saving the day. However, this desire to rid the world of evil doesnt go away as a child gets older. Instead, it grows stronger as adults real ize that mythological heroes are unlikely to exist. However, humans return again and again to theaters to see hero movies because they provide hope for the future. They allow humans the ability to hold onto childhood dreams that they can be heroes and superheroes and Western heroes embody those desirable characteristics bravery and strength.