The Bachelorette is movie directed and written by Leslye
Headland. It is a comic twist of what the reality of an American
has become to be. The movie centers in three friends that have been asked to be
bridesmaids of the “last member of their clique” in high school. Reagan (a
perfectionist and jealous friend), Gena (a sarcastic rebel) and Katie (a
not-very-book-smart girl) while mocking Becky (the soon-to-be-wife)for being a
plus-size, they break the wedding dress hours previous to the ceremony which
leads them to go through a series of “adventures” involving drugs, sex and
love. The movie shows that the empire has been controlling us in a way that makes
us believe that if we do the “right things” – go to school , have an education,
be beautiful in the societal limits, be a size 00… we will find someone to get
married; even though, that is obviously not how you find someone to love. Even though
the movie itself was the typical American movie where the characters do all
these "messed up" things to fix something they did wrong, it makes you reflex on
how people have been influencing you in a way that you say to yourself, “you
are not perfect, you need to be more perfect or else you’ll end up alone.” Not only
does the empire encourage us to distortion the beauty that God has gifted us,
but also to make the not-right-things “the norm”. For example, the movie portrays sex
before marriage as a completely normal thing, Why? Because in the twenty first
century fornication is being practiced by many, even Christians; majority wins,
right? Also, even though the characters
did drugs, no real police men were found addressing the problem. Although the
messages: love always wins; everyone is beautiful the way they are; there are
still gentlemen in the world, but also “jerks”; if a door closes, there is
always a window opened, etc. were developed, other issues of the real world were shown as
normal things , although they are really important and sensitive
problems (sex before marriage, adultery, abortion, swearing, stealing,
prostitution, racism, etc.) But there is a catch, even though the empire wants to monopolize our imagination (believing either that there is only one way to serve God and that Christians should act a certain-determined way or that there is no God and we are "free" to do whatever we want to) we should always remember that God wants us to use our "weird" imagination to glorify His name in different ways according to the talents He has given us -which are all different.
As I said before, the actual message of the story is good, but do you think that because of that all the other “bad things” can be justified? Do you feel like society has been pressuring to be a certain way? Knowing this, would you keep being influenced by narrow-minded standards?
As I said before, the actual message of the story is good, but do you think that because of that all the other “bad things” can be justified? Do you feel like society has been pressuring to be a certain way? Knowing this, would you keep being influenced by narrow-minded standards?
Sin Hee, thank you for your insightful and critically analysis of The Bachelorette. Even though, I have not seen the movie yet, I could reflect your response with my own memory of typical American films. You have pointed out well that movies tend to emphasize and generate false beauty and moral standards. I agree that certainly the movie portrays that our society are structured to blind our thoughts by it embracing the majority's rule and simplifying important issues. Surely, the audience will feel normal about sex, drugs,
ReplyDeleteor any serious conscious actions. However, I believe your blog might have been more thought-provoking, if it searched deeper in the director's intention to portray the movie in such way. In my opinion, the director has approached the movie to may bring the issues in America to the audience's attention and urge them to themselves practicing or being blinded under same influence.
I admire how you have reflected the issue to yourself and mentioned that God's Kingdom and standards are contrasting with what the movie is conveying.
Overall, great response to the movie!!
To start, I enjoyed this sentence: "Even though the movie itself was the typical American movie where the characters do all these 'messed up' things to fix something they did wrong." So, thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteWhen a film shows stupid behavior, it doesn't necessarily mean the filmmakers approve of that stupid behavior. Depicting (truthfully) sin isn't condoning it. What often helps when discerning these kinds of things (even in a silly movie) is to take a step back and view the consequences of character's actions. Do they realize they're being stupid? Do they change over the course of the story? Does poor behavior lead to bad situations?
I don't know this movie well enough to judge, but often artists are telling these kinds of stories to shine a light on our stupidity. Of course, we're often too stupid to realize it and end up thinking this sort of thing is simply funny (and it is partly funny, but in a different way).