Specimen Answer

-Compare how gender is represented in one sequence from each of your chosen films. Refer to character from each film. [20]



This essay will explore and compare how gender is represented between the two films of Vertigo and One flew over the cuckoo's nest, focusing upon the main male character from each film
Scotty-Vertigo and McMurphy-One flew over the cuckoos' nest. A  representation is how people, places and things are shown to us, how it is shown. This essay going to show how gender is represented, how gender is shown between the two scenarios.



Scotty, the name of the dominant male character in Vertigo, played by James Stewart who is represented as a typical controlling man in the late 1950's, he deals with confronting his impotence and his repressed desires towards the woman he loves. Furthermore as he falls in love with the female character the representations of gender reflect the pre-feminist gender politics of the the late 1950's, In this period women were seen as objects, woman were doing menial jobs such as clothes jobs or in a flower shop, whereas men work as high ranking police officers and business owners, Scotty chooses how he wants Judy to look, down to the detail of her hair colour, what she wears and even hair style. This is a perfect example of how pre-feminist gender politics is reflected in the late 1950s, gender representation in vertigo truly reflects this. For example, We see this in the scene when Scotty takes Judy shopping, to buy a new suit, he looks for the perfect suit for her, makes her change the colour of her hair and style of her hair just so she looks like the Madeline, as he isn't aware that Judy is in fact Madeleine.



The placing of most of the camerawork from the male's point of view serves to make the audience identify with the male and therefore sympathise with his sexist view point. Throughout the film most of the camera work is in the view of Scotty in this film, for example when he is following her, its in the point of view of him and not Madeleine, this engages the spectator to see things from his perspective, and we start to sympathise for him even though he is being very sexist towards Judy, its hard not to sympathise when you can see his feelings for her. We can see the sexism as he is trying to objectify Judy as he make her look exactly how she want and she just listens to him and does it.



McMurphy, the name of the dominant male character in One flew over the cuckoos nest, played by Jack Nicholson who is represented as a very bold and rebellious male is a typical boisterous lad, as he makes jokes about using sexual references towards women. which is much ahead of its time in terms of the way it represented femininity, in the 1970's, femininity was well up and running, women were seen as having equality and femininity was much stronger, so you could say this film represent the male gender to be lower than females, but McMurphy tries to oppose that throughout this film. We see this throughout the film but for examples such as the scene when McMurphy walks into the nurses office without consent, which highlights this underlying male dominance he thinks he has, as he everyone sees him exerting his masculinity towards the female nurses, and we know it isn't against everyone as when he speaks to the main doctors he speaks and acts with ab it more defiance and respect.



Jack Nicholson's performance as McMurphy in this film truly defines how the male gender is represented in this film, as we can see he is rebellious, he wears his own clothes on the ward with a typical black leather jacket and jeans, which are typical clothes associated with rebellion and which suggests that he is his own man in an environment of "kept men", who truly challenges the performance of the rest of the male characters in this film, for example, he escapes from the institute and steals a bus, whilst taking people from the institute with him, and a prostitute, on a fishing trip, this is done to reiterate his rebellious nature as he completely defies the rules of a passive male in the mental institute, him taking the prostitute also outlines males to be sexist and that they objectify women for their own utilisation.



Comparing Scotty from Vertigo and McMurphy from One flew over the cuckoo's nest, both characters are perfect representations of the male gender of their time, Scotty whom had hierarchy over Madeline throughout the film, specifically as he falls in love with her, after she dies we are introduced to Judy, who secretly was Madeline, Scotty takes control of her, he is essentially taking control of a women's life so that she looks exactly like the other women he fell in love with this reflects the dominance of males and pre femininity of the late 1950's. McMurphy who is good representation of a rebellious male of the 1970's as he challenges the other characters especially females, as he fights against the authority, he re exerts his power just as women were gaining their own equality and independence, this would be really hard for him if Miss. Ratched weren't stripped of her sexuality, femininity and personality as he would find her attractive and therefore not want to challenge her. In my point of view, Jack Nicholson's character would not into vertigo, similar with
James Stewarts character as both are really excellent representations of male of their times.



This essay has explored and compared how gender is represented between the two films of Vertigo and One flew over the cuckoo's nest, focusing upon the main male character from each film
Scotty-Vertigo and McMurphy-One flew over the cuckoos' nest. This essay has shown how gender is represented and how gender is shown between the two scenarios.