The Unconvential Truth of The Twlight Series

The Twilight Series has encouraged a heavy amount of hype, primarily with teenage girls. Lusting over two very different portrayals of the ideal man.

Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) is the blood sucking, soulless guy. Feminine in appearance, lean in build and he plays hard to get with Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) throughout the series. He is the broken man. The emo.

Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) in contrast has muscles, he is tanned and makes his feelings about Bella strong and clear from the beginning.

These two leading men can be compared to male stars from the past. Edward Cullen as the bisexual icon, James Dean and Jacob Black mirrors the masculine in every shape and form, Marlon Brando.





Teen flicks such as Mean Girls, Cruel Intentions and She's All That often sexualise the female body - The camera often pans from bottom to top on the leading lady's body. We see this in the sequence in She's All That when Laney Bloggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) has just had a revolutionary make over and as she walks down the stairs, the camera adopts the view point of Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr).

Therefore the audience instantly adopts a hetero sexual male voyeuristic view point of the female being the hunted. Metaphorically, the male is merely at opposite ends of the camera, being the hunter.

The Twilight Series has flipped over this tradition that occurs in teen flicks and for that matter, all mainstream films. Ironically, plot wise, Bella Swan is constantly being hunted by the blood sucking hunters however, the underlining messages of the film are extremely different from this notion.

The camera sexualises the two leading men instead of Bella or any other of the female counter parts. The constant slow motion shots of Edward entering a room, is the camera adopting Bella's view point.

Edward Cullen is also extremely feminine and Bella is certainly not the archetype of the idealised feminine character. Her style is casual and somewhat dull, she is very much in the background.

The character of Edward Cullen challenges audience's notion of the ideal male and furthermore, The Twilight Series has reflected that sexuality in the twenty-first century is versatile and constantly evolving. We are entering into yet another sexual revolution and the film industry seems to be picking up on this.

Everybody's Fine Dir. Kirk Jones (2009)

Despite the film clearly failing with it's mission of mirroring About Schmit - Everybody's Fine is a warm-hearted, easy viewing film to endure. Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) is a recently retired and widowed father who decided to go on a trip to visit each of his children once they all miraculously cancel on him for their annual dinner.

As Frank travels, he realises that his kids have been telling him a false story about their lives — Happily married advertising executive Kate Beckinsale is far from living in domestic bliss, big-shot dancer, Drew Barrymore is actually a bisexual waitress with a child .

The movie continues on this with rest of his children, growing less gripping each time yet it continues to be an enjoyable film due to De Niro's emotional performance.

The real tragedy occurs when Frank discovers what has happened to his youngest son - The ending is somewhat unsatisfying but leaves room for the audience to continue enjoying their lazy Sunday afternoon with the family.

A cup of tea and some digestives are recommended during viewing.

Shutter Island Dir. Martin Scorsese (2010)

Martin Scorsese was inspired by three things prior to making Shutter Island:

1. B-Movies
2. Alfred Hitchcock
3. Good Cinematography

These are all evident with this feature - I was hesitant to see this film, the trailer and the overall marketing of the film proposed the vision that Scorsese had sold himself out to Hollywood, to the mainstream.

How wrong I was - Indeed, Scorsese does follow with the tradition of thrillers with this feature, there is the antagonist, private detective, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo Dicaprio) and the protagonist being the institution, Shutter Island. Or so it seems at first glance.

The film is particularly successful in delivering the sensitive nature of mental health care in the fifties. The horror of the fifties mental health system is a political message in Shutter Island - As well as this, the political message of an ex-war veteran is one of the more current issues that the film focuses on.

Teddy Daniels is a broken man, bruised and clearly still haunted by the horror he witnessed at war. Without giving too much away, there are many twists in the film, the ending is particularly touching leaving not even the slightest crumb of comfort to the audience.

These issues distinguish Scorsese's feature from the usual mainstream thrillers that usually carry Capitalist, anti-feminist and conventional messages.