this challenges the conventional representations of women in films as they often are portrayed as naive and dependent individuals. Usually these women are dependant on a male character for safety and protection, however in Captive the lead female is made to look confident and independent.
We successfully made her appear this way by the use of mise-en-scene. (the text on slideshare is too small to read, it says ) An example of females being portrayed as physically weak to males is shown in the film ‘Stepfather’, when a woman goes to fetch an umbrella from her pool, the ‘step father’ takes her vulnerability to this advantage and drowns her by forcing her head in the pool. He is not strong enough to release herself form his grasp and dies. Her reaction to seeing him in her house also reinforces she does not know how to defend herself as she does try to protect herself from him, she only screams.
However, she can be viewed as weak emotionally through the narrative, as the Thriller is about a young woman who kidnaps a child after she finds out she is incapable of conceiving one. This means that she was strongly lead by her emotions, which lead her to do something obscene. This way we have conformed to the stereotypical representation of women in media. As they are usually portrayed as emotional beings who are strongly driven by emotion and can sometimes allow these emotions to lead them into mental instability. Unlike men who are better at withdrawing strong emotions that could make them appear weak.
We conformed to the stereotype of a child in reality and in media, which is that they are naive and easily amused. This is presented by the way Natalie (playing Melanie) is captured in the opening of the Thriller.
In the opening of Captive she can be heard singing a song which sounds very childlike and innocent, this communicates her innocence but also brings a eerie feel to the opening. In media voices of children have also been used to convey innocence and bring a haunting feeling to the audience.
I feel that these social groups have been presented in a realistic and positive yet negative aspect, this is because realistically children are viewed as very gullible and naive people. Women on the other hand in media a represented as dependant on men and they often find themselves in tragic situations an example of this is in fatal attraction when Dan attempts to end his affair with Alex, she is not emotionally stable enough to accept the relationship is over so in a state of distress she performs self harm in an attempt to win Dan's sympathy.
In contrast the adult female character presented in Captive, does not beg for sympathy from anyone else, she takes matters into her own hands and decides to give herself what she is naturally incapable of having and does not appear to fear the consequences. This way she could be viewed as somewhat fearless and brave, which are usually the traits conveyed through men in media. In this way it is fair to argue that we (my group and I) have positively, represented adult female characters in our thriller. On the other hand one could also say that we have still presented women in a negative light as we still allowed our female character to act recklessly due to her emotions and was incapable of restraining them, unlike male characters in media who are able to withdraw strong emotions when necessary.
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