The Relationship Between Parents and Teenagers in Teen Angst Films

     Today I will talk about the way in which the relationship between parents and teenagers is portrayed in teen angst films such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), The Breakfast Club (1985),and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). Addressing mostly how parents affect their kids life and their view on the world, these parents range from complete devil spawns to parents that are just way too "perfect". If you were a parent, how would you treat your children? Would you be abusive and make their lives miserable? Or would you spoil them to the point where they can't find themselves?  Let's take a look at what these parental attitudes do to teenagers.

     Let's start with Rebel Without a Cause. In this film, a teenager with a shady past and a extremely complacent dad, transfers to a new school and to get away from what he has done and look forward.

Jimmy arguing with his parents

In the movie, the main character gets really offended when his masculinity is insulted, it all points to him not wanting to be like his dad; a total wimp. He has been living his life without a solid road and has no discipline when it comes to life matters. Throughout the film he does dangerous things such as drive a car off a cliff and jumping out at the last second, resulting in the death of one of his friends. All his life his dad has allowed him to get away with everything by making up lies, this time he wants to assume responsibility for what he has done and confronts his parents in a rather hostile way when he tries to explain to them he is tired of running away and having no discipline.

The Breakfast Club

     The second film, The Breakfast Club, takes place in a school library in which five completely different teenagers are put together all day in detention for doing something bad enough for this kind of punishment. In thpast they come closer together, to the point in which they tell each other everything about themselves. As the viewer learns about their past they learn about their parents as well, and how their mistreat
e film, each character has an unique personality and sort of takes the role of a teenager stereotype; the weird girl, the dork, the jock, the rebel, and the prom queen. Mostly in the movie these individuals are literally incompatible, but as they talk more about who they are and their
ment makes them what they are. For example, the rebel has abusive parents, making him who he is; a huge bully that brings out the worst from everyone. Each character has different kinds of parents that they despise and wish they could explain to them what the "problem" is.

Charlie making a snow angel...

     In the last film, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, there isn't much to be said about the main character's parents, except that they are too perfect and too unaware of what their son is going through. The main character, Charlie, was raped by his aunt at a young age and has gotten PTSD from that experience. He never told his parents until the day he was sent to a hospital because he attempted to kill himself. The point I'm trying to get to is that the lack of a strong and reliable father/mother figure led Charlie to be a Wallflower his entire life, and while his past was strongly devouring him from the inside out, he couldn't find anyone like him until he reached high school.

        

Implicit Messages on Disney Films.

     We all love our classical Disney films, and they always seem like the right place to go to when you're attempting to entertain your children. But is it really safe? Is it really setting the right example for what out children should be? Today I will be addressing just a few of the messages that can be seen in most Disney's films by looking at them with a more critical eye. I will be starting with The Little Mermaid, where skin/eye color and appearance played a big role in how the film played out.

Ariel and Prince Eric

     Let's start with the main characters of this movie. Ariel, and Prince Eric. From top to bottom, their eyes are completely disproportional to exaggerate their shiny blue eyes, and every other character's eyes are small and not blue. This doesn't need much explanation but just the fact that the "good" characters have perfectly shiny and round blue eyes compared to all the others characters shows that Disney believes those are more valuable. On to the skin tones, those in power are perfectly fair skinned, such as Ariel, King Triton, and Prince Eric; while the evil people such as Ursula have purple skin, and the characters that aren't as important either have darker complexions or have no skins (They are fishies)

     Next in the list, Snow White; right of the bat, perfectly pale skin for "the most beautiful of all," implying a light skin is necessary to be beautiful. But that is not the main dilemma in this movie, it is in fact the way in which women are portrayed and how submissive they are. Also a lot about social classes can be said while watching this film. A good example of the defective portrayal of women in this film is that Snow White was weak and stupid enough to take an apple to fulfill her dreams, which  says that women are blinded by their desires and will do anything for them. Another example of the inequality between social classes would be the part in which Snow White gets to sleep in the dwarfs' beds while they fight for a pillow and sleep uncomfortably.

Snow White

     There are a lot more movies that have defective messages to children, such as Aladdin with the bad portrayal of Arabs, or The Princess and The  Frog in which the African American population is always the poorest one. The list could go on and on but the main point is that Disney is not the safest bet when trying to educate children, in fact, it might end up giving them negative values such as racism or a judgmental mentality.
Bottom of the line, find something more educational for children.

"Bonnie and Clyde" and "Thelma and Louise"; the waitress symbolism.

     In these two moderately modern films the main idea is that perhaps freedom, even though it feels good, isn't likely to have good outcomes. "Bonnie and Clyde" begins with the beautiful Bonnie completely naked in her room while laying on her bed. The symbolism of her being imprisoned is implied. Soon after, the main character, Clyde, attempts to steal Bonnie's mom's car; once Bonnie finds out she is interested in him and they soon leave to start their live fast - die young journey. They rob banks, kill people, assault an officer, and are happy together along with Clyde's best friend and his wife. In the end, after all the prosecution they are ambushed and killed by a line of fire.

Bonnie and Clyde

     On the other film, "Thelma and Louise" begins with Louise in her job and Thelma in her house being mistreated by her husband, take note that Louise is a waitress and has her uniform at the beginning of the film. They plan a field trip without consent and get in some trouble in a bar. They kill a man that raped Thelma, and that lead them to be runaways fugitives. Soon after, they meet the good-looking J.D, played by Brad Pitt. They give him a ride around then soon kick him out, he comes back to the hotel room in which Thelma is staying, seduces her, they have sex, and he finally steals Louise's money the next morning. Because they were poor now, Thelma does armed robbery which leads them to be prosecuted. They also assault an officer and run away from the police. In the end, they are cornered between a line of armed policemen and the Grand Canyon. They choose to drive the car off the cliff and inevitably die.

Thelma and Louise

     What I want to address is a very symbolic quote near the beginning of "Bonnie and Clyde". Clyde says that he doesn't want Bonnie to become a waitress like the one that was serving them at the restaurant. Keep in mind that Bonnie was already a waitress but she was never seen with her uniform on throughout the film, contrary to Louise in "Thelma and Louise" who is already wearing it at the beginning of the film. I personally believe that being a waitress in "Bonnie and Clyde" and in "Thelma and Louise" symbolizes not being free, or just accepting being caged.

     Finally, the reason why the waitress symbolism was used in both of these films was to express two sides of a story. Avoiding becoming a waitress, and escaping from being a waitress, or being oppressed. Bonnie never wore her waitress uniform which sort of shows she is trying to avoid fully accepting being caged, and she also eventually runs away even farther to experience "the other end of the stick", and eventually die :'(. Louise starts off the movie being a waitress, she doesn't seem very happy, but once she gets to talk to Thelma about the trip that was happening a few hours later she seemed happy and joyful. This represents that Louise attempts to escape from her oppressive uniform at least for a weekend. Things happened that made her need to stay "free", and she liked it. She and Thelma preferred to die over being waitresses again, just like Bonnie constantly refused to go back even though she had many chances.

Comparing "Citizen Kane" and "American Beauty"

      The symbolic meaning of these two very intriguing films is really up to opinion and perspective. The symbols and themes in these movies may be a little complex as they are either given to you too often to be noticed at all, or too sutile to notice at first. To begin with, Citizen Kane first significant symbol is given to the viewer at the beggining of the film, the very famous "Rosebud". By what the viewers see, they might predict that the meaning of Rosebud will be revealed at the end. Turns out the people investigating Kane and his death couldn't find the meaning of his childhood sled to him; sort of a perfect symbol to explain that what a person thinks can't be quite understood unless he explains it himself.

Kane looks at his snowglobe reminding him
of his childhood, says his last words "Rosebud",
and dies.

     But what could it mean? is the question left to the viewers and really, it is an open ended film. Some clues are scattered throughout the film but no one will ever know if they are exactly correct or not, reason why listening to some theories really can help develop what you believe it means. Several clues reveal that Kane didn't quite have a childhood, wanted to buy love, and technically tried to have everything in the world. Maybe he wanted all these things because he was trying to find the childhood he didn't have, of course, using the wrong approach; reason why he said "Rosebud" as his dying word. He mentioning the sled with which he used to play reveals that he realized that to experience childhood he would have needed to play and be a child. But then again, this is just a theory and anyone could find something more explicable and reasonable; proving that the movie is open ended.

Lester lusting of over his daughter's friend.
(This is a fantasy) Roses, symbolize desire and appear
all throughout the film.

     The adaptation of this film, "American Beauty", is really a modern version of the same idea of old an old person hunting for happiness. Lester, the hero of the movie, is a married man with a  daughter living in a normal house like a regular family would. At the beggining of the film, Lester tells the viewers that in less than a year he was going to die, but he also mentioned that he as dead anyway. This reflects on Kane as older man with everything he wanted but still sad. Lester then lusts for one of his daughter's friends reavealing that he wanted his childhood, what he could do when he was a teenager, just like Kane. Lester rebels, smokes drugs, quits his job, gets a job at a fast-food place flipping burgers (like he did when he was a teen-ager),  drinks, and works out; this reveals his attempts to be young again and do what he didn't. 

     Finally, both of these films come together to explain the value of youth and how people should value the beauty of the world and not just pass it by. This is told in a very sutile way through the use of symbolism and goes to show the geniuses behind these films. A decent way to look at these is as fables, they teach something through a story instead of just telling the readers/viewers what to do straight out. But in the end, what the viewer learns is what they intrepreted, meaning that these movies could teach a million things to a million people and they makers might not even know. That is the beauty about these films.

The Importance of the Setting, and Characters.

     While a story line and an understandable plot sequence is extremely important for the development of a cinematographic film; the Setting and characters, also known as Mise-en-scéne or the look of the film, are vital to the level of engagement the viewers would get while watching the film. Mise-en-scéne is a pretty broad term, ranging from general things such as setting, to small details such as makeup and hairstyle. These things are the ones that call a viewer's attention and keep them attached to the film. They help explain things such as character and personality and are a great way to describe a character's role in a film.

A scene from Edward Scissorhands.

     As seen in the famous 1990's film, Edward Scissorhands, our beloved main character Edward is a complete outcast in this mundane and monotone town that strives to be unique but fails in an epic way.

The first detail to take note of is his castle; once again, the setting is extremely symbolical helping tell this story. His castle is intimidating on the outside, beautiful on the inside, and broken and lonely on the deep inside. This is a great symbol for Edward himself, the castle is a huge representation of his physical and emotional structure, therefore making the setting or mise-en-scéne a vital part of this movie.

A scene from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

     Another great example of mise-en-scéne doing wonders is the classical film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in which the main character Francis tells a story to a man about the wicked Dr. Caligari and how he goes on a murdering rampage by making his somnambulist, Cesare, commit the killings while he is sleep walking. In this film everything is unrealistic and all the aspects of the setting are completely uncomfortable to the eye. Turns out the story is told from Francis' perspective as he is a crazy man that lives in an asylum and thinks that the director is a serial killer and that's why the viewers see the world of Caligari like that; because they are looking through an insane person's eyes.