Film Paper - Bend it like Beckham and Escape to Victory

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Film Paper - Bend it like Beckham and Escape to Victory
Film Paper - Bend it like Beckham and Escape to Victory




Introduction
            Ideology, according to Giannetti (1972), "is usually defined as a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. The term is generally associated with politics and party platforms, but it can also mean a given set of values that are implicit in any human enterprise -- including filmmaking." This means that when ideology is presented in the film, it must have a definite meaning whether to a person or a group, through interconnection of culture or belief. It provides a vision to the film, even if the said vision is based on assumptions. In a sense, the ideological belief is based on the criterion on belief on something even if it does conform to that of the society.
            Street (2003) noted that several filmmakers have tried to examine ideologies by presenting them in their films, but only few tried to examine it deeply, on a perspective of balance and not just bias toward their leaning. When ideology is presented in the film, there should an opposition to it that is clear for the ideology to take traction against the conformity of the society or the culture. According to Mast (n.d.), "there are few cultural products more influential in contemporary American life than movies." This means that movies play an important role in the advances of ideologies. In fact, it has a direct role in the understanding of the world we live in (Mast, n.d.). It provides an explanation of the chaos happening in the world, thus creating a resonance in the mind of the person. Because films are good stimulators, ideologies raised and presented in films are easily taken by those who watched the film. In fact, this is the reason propagandist would use the film to promote their ideas.
            In this paper, I will be looking at the ideologies presented by Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Escape to Victory (1981). These two films tried to examine class and gender ideologies through presentation in the film. While the other film tried to present an ideology, another tried to discredit an ideology as used.

Synopsis 

           
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) is comic film with sports as its main subject that tries to link Indian and British culture (Steiner & Schaczke, n.d.). The film title is taken from the name of David Beckham, the popular British footballer who is known for ability to bend the ball. But the title of the film does not necessarily relate to the bending of the ball or the ability to do so. Rather, it is about the two main characters’ plight to bend the rules to fit the demands of their parents and to keep on playing the ball.
The two main protagonists are female teenagers who got interested in football. It started out when Juliet, who is also called Jules, saw Jasminder, also called Jess, playing football in the park. In the process, Jules invited Jess to join their football practice with the local girl team. While Jess was eager to be part of the football team, her parents are not persuaded that girls should be playing football and that Jess should be showing of her bare legs in public, which would be against their religious ideals as Muslims.
Without her parents knowing, Jess continued to practice and joined the team. However, when the times came that they should play in an important game for that summer, she had to choose between attending her sister’s wedding which fell at the same day as that of the summer football game. On the other hand, Jules is also facing serious opposition from her parents who are afraid that Jess is already attracted to girls because she usually hangs out with them.
            Another important film that also tackles football as its primary subject is Escape to Victory (1981). The film was set in World War II prison camp. Allied prisoners of war were interned in the camp that played an exhibition football against a German football team (Rotten Tomatoes, 2014). However, they realized that they were just used to become part of the propaganda stunt that the German had to paint their POWs in good condition. In the process, they tried to plot an escape out of the German prison camp and seek help from the French military brigade in Paris to help the entire team escape the prison camp.
            However, during their attempt to escape, they recaptured and sent to solitary confinement. To be able to get out of the solitary cell, they had to dramatize that no on other goalkeeper can play in team as the one was intentionally broken to allow Hatch out of the solitary cell. During the game, the Germans were clearly biased to the German team, but they were able to make a draw. In the last phase of the game, a penalty kick was allowed and it scored the team, but was disallowed by the German referee. The action promoted the crowd to shout: “victory”. In the middle of the chaos as the crowd went ballistic for the cheating being made by the referee, the team escaped.

Bend It Like Beckham – Gender Ideology

            Primarily, Bend It like Beckham (2002) provides an overview or small peep into the Indian and British cultures, as exhibited by the extraordinary settings that the two main characters are into. While Jess was born and raised in England and is already part of the integrated Western community and understanding, her parents still cling to their religion and tradition that they had back in India. Following their traditions and belief, girls should not be showing their legs to the public as it would mean disgrace.
            Maluleke (2012) noted that there are belief systems and traditions that do not allow girls or women to take on roles of men. This is definitely true with the parents of Jess. While they had stayed in Britain for quite a time, they still held on to the traditions and beliefs that they had regarding gender roles. This is based on the understanding that women should be women and men should be men. In the Eastern part of the globe, showing skin in public is a disgrace. In fact, Muslims, the religion of Jess in the story, had to cover their whole body and wear a veil to avoid being exposed to the public.
            The apparent opposition of Jess parents to her football interest is specifically drawn from the understanding of their belief system and tradition. Even when they are away from the native land, they still hold on to the culture and they want they preserve that culture. In a sense, the parents of Jess are afraid that if they completely integrate or assimilate with the Western culture, they may forget or just ignore their culture, beliefs and traditions in their native land.
            On the other hand, with the cause of Jules, her father was supportive of her playing football, but her mother is not. Her mother noted that football is a male sport and should remain the same. Blackstone (2003) noted that the acceptance of the society toward the switching of roles or the adoption of gender roles is difficult. It was hard for the mother of Jules to accept that fact that her daughter is playing football because she was accustomed to seeing only men playing the game. However, for the father of Jules, it is even awesome to see her daughter playing football because it speaks volume of his being a dad. In a sense, the perception of her parents toward the sport is driven by their understanding of gender roles.
            Now leaving the gender ideology issue, let us take into the orientation of the parents. Jess’s parents were oriented with their traditional culture regarding gender roles. On the other hand, Jules’s mother grew up in an era when women took women roles and men took on men roles. Because of the differences on the era that Jules and her mother lived, their understanding or perception regarding gender roles are also different.

Escape to Victory – Class Ideology in Action

            Escape to Victory (1981) is a film of the World War II. It was during the period that several millions died because of the problematic understanding and view of class or race. In a sense, the film is a story of class and how racial discrimination affects the way people view other people. Foremost, to Hitler and the Nazi the only race that should dominate the world is the German race. Hitler pictured and posed the German race as the best race in the world, of having the best racial DNA and so on. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2014), the ideology of race that Hitler and the Nazi adopted is based on the understand the each race has distinctive features, which dictated their mental thinking, their creativity and ability, intelligence and physical strength. This definition of the German race is greatly shown in the film. Because the German team was losing the game, the German referees had to circumvent their decisions in favor of the German team. It would have been embarrassing for the Germans to lose in the game as they were pictured as the best in the world.
            According to Holborn (1964), the German propaganda is based on the idea that Germans can provide the best to the world. In fact, the team, in the first part of the film, became part of the propaganda stunt that the Germans had to paint a good condition of the prisoners of war. This was propaganda to show that Germans are better managers of the world. This is still in complete adherence to the racial ideology of the Nazi. In fact, Holborn (1964) noted that the ideology had to become a political one because racial or class issues are political in scale.
            However, as in terms of orientation and beliefs, the Nazis were just doing what they believed was right based on their orientation and belief. This is also the same with gender roles and sensitivity. Whatever the person is accustomed to or is acquainted to with, he will surely defend it. While there are those who believed on the mistake of the ideology, they are living in the German soil which was dominated by the Nazis, thus they are obliged or forced to follow the ideology of the Nazi. (In comparison with that of the first film wherein the character of Jess is being forced to follow the traditional beliefs of the religion they have, but she is living in a country that believes in the individualism of a person, thus it is easier to fight back.) This is shown by the way the Germans reacted to the obvious cheating and bias of the referees. They shouted “victory” in support of the POWs team. However, they cannot do more than that because they are living in the domination of the Nazis in Germany.

Conclusion 

            Films are always used as media or channel of ideology. It would be impossible for the filmmaker to just ignore the holding of ideology in the film. There is always the demand of having an ideology thrown in the film to make it more substantial in a sense. According to Wojik-Andrews (2002), "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas...specifically in relation to the representation of class and gender in children's films." Simply, even in children’s films, there is a representation of class and gender. It would be impossible to separate the film from the society that it tries to become an audience or it tries to comment on.
            According to Street (2003), several films have tried to indulge on the question of class, but only few offered complex analysis of its essence or "of class and gender from different stylistic and ideological perspectives (p.40)." Bend It Like Beckham (2002) tried to examine the deep cultural differences and how they shaped the gender roles of people. However, it also tried to integrate the meaning of assimilation with another culture. It would be impossible to separate a person from the society which he or she lived. This is a striking element being added to the complexity of the film. In the same manner, the film also tried to examine how two people of different era or time can have different perception on things or issues even if they live in the same culture. It tries to question the generalization of cultural orientation through the perspective of era. This means that cultural orientation changes through period of time.
            Nonetheless, the question of class tackled by the film Escape to Victory (1981) tries to provide an overview on how class or racial ideology is built. While there are people who may not believe on the ideology, because of the size and vastness of the scope of the ideology, it seems that everyone are in acquiesce to accepted ideology. However, in the film Escape to Victory (1981), it tries to provide a clear overview on how other people within the geographical limit of class ideology may have different view.

References

Gianetti, L. (1972). Understanding Movies. Pearson.
Holborn, J. (1964). Origins and Political Character of Nazi Ideology. Political Science Quarterly

Vol. 79, No. 4 (Dec., 1964), pp. 542-554
Mast, G. (n.d.). How to Watch Movies Intelligently Retrieved from
Maluleke, MJ. (2012). Culture, Tradition, Custom, Law and Gender Equality [2012]
Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal
Rotten Tomatoes. (2014). Escape to Victory. Retrieved from
USHMM. (2014). The Holocaust. Retrieved from