The film, “Billy Elliot”, by Stephen Daldry,
A Spotlight Amidst the Darkness Canadian Film Reviews portrays a young British boy in the midst of the miners strike of 1984, who falls in love with ballet despite the unacceptance and chaos surrounding his immediate family and community.
Billy pushes the gender norms as he is a young 11 year old boy, who’s father, brother and community believe that men should be masculine and women feminine. Nevertheless Billy falls in love with dance and ballet; which is typically seen as a feminine sport, despite being pushed into typically masculine sports such as boxing. Billy's passion and ambition to resist the gender norms are seen more so in todays time, thus proving the significance, strength and sheer dedication it took this young boy to continue to fight for what he wanted and to break stigmas during the 80’s; in a time filled with narrow-mindedness and unacceptance to not being able to purse what you wish regardless of stereotypes and stigmas.
Another instance of Billy pushing gender norms is his acceptance and support of his friend Michael and his coming out homosexual. During
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The reality of the movie moves beyond the screen as it shows viewers the importance of acceptance. How anything is possible through dedication, hard work and faith. The film connects to todays world and touches on issues and topics that are still present today, such as; gender norms, homosexuality, class struggles, labour issues and unionization, stigmas and stereotypes. I think in order to learn from this film to better ourselves as a society we should follow Billy’s ambition and acceptance, while implementing the idea that anyone can do whatever they dream of, regardless of what society says you should do. Because isn't that the right thing to
The movie teaches us to look beyond the cover and into who someone is as a person. We also learn that sometimes contact with people makes us reconsider our judgement towards them, to find out the real person underneath.
Li’s passion for ballet shows on and off stage through his arabesques, flexibility, fouettés, grande jeté and pirouettes that were nothing less than perfection. I understood that becoming a dancer requires commitment, passion and having a great memory as there’s many moves, routines and ballet terms that you need to learn. When I was performing on stage, I felt free and that I could own the stage as it felt like it was my second home. I also felt complete within myself just as Li felt. To perform on stage, you need to be light and graceful along with connecting to the music using precise steps, poses and formal gestures. The film used dance, music, scenery, and costumes to portray a story characterised by Li’s dance. Classical ballet dancers require the utmost grace and I’ve found that you also need a tremendous level of concentration and memory. This portrays when his choreographer Ben Stevenson asked Li Cunxin to replace the main male role due to an injury on the day of the performance to memorise new dances and perform them in front of an enormous crowd. Many of my performances have been in a group where we all need to be in sync and work together. This film highlighted that in order to become a professional ballet dancer, you have to prepare to work extremely hard no matter how gruelling the schedule is in order to
But on the other hand the movie is telling us that we need to do whatever we want with our knowledge to be happy in life. You do not necessarily need to be making the most money or driving the nicest car, you just need to do whatever is going to make you happy. Will makes the decision to not take the job right away but instead go after his girlfriend in California, because that is what is going to make him the most happy. Society says that you must be pretty smart if you have a Bachelor’s Degree, or a Master’s Degree, but there can be people out there who are smarter than you just because they were not great students in the classroom, but were well educated. This movie really makes you think about the different ways that people can become educated and become a good person in
I believe this movie does a good job incorporating what we have discussed in class in terms of adolescent development. Although the movie is greatly exaggerated and blown up, the movie does emphasize on key factors to the development of an adolescent. Aside from the self-identity and friendship, the film incorporates parental relationships, academics, teacher-student relationships, risky behaviors, and moral development during adolescent
Girls are told to stay indoors and play with their dolls or bake, while boys are encouraged to go outdoors, get dirty, and be adventurous. Wade and Ferree also state “sports are squarely on the masculine side of the gender binary” (Wade and Ferree, 174). Hence, we are brought up with the understanding that playing and talking about sports is a boy’s thing, which further promotes the notion that sports are a very masculine thing. Furthermore, as playing sports is competitive and is a way to show excellence, young boys are considered as “real boys” and “real men” later on. However, when boys do not talk about or play sports, they are considered feminine or “not real men.” The same rule applies for young girls. If young girls are too into sports, they are considered to be “too masculine.” This is true for me too. When I was younger, I was told to not play too much outdoors and to behave “like a girl.” The stigma that only boys should be allowed to play sports and it is not a feminine thing needs to be erased for us to welcome a more gender-equal
...s is a good motivator. I believe that the purpose of this film is to show people that no matter who you are or what people tell you, you can always do what you set your mind to. No matter how many people tell you that you can?t do something for whatever reason, you yourself have the ability to prove them wrong, if you have the will power and the motivation you can get anything you set your mind to.
... supremacist gang, to rioting in an Asian owned grocery store, to finally brutally murdering someone. We observe as family ties become increasingly strained in every way, the viewer can easily conclude that Derek’s racism as well as his eventual influence on his younger brother ultimately contributed to their own downfall. As controversial as this movie maybe for the offensive language and brutal violence, it is a movie that deserves to be seen, and even discussed. It really provides insight into some factors within society that cannot be contained by the law or even deterred by even the harshest punishments. Even though American society is becoming more modernized as time goes by in terms of tolerance, racism will unfortunately always be prevalent in society and inevitably it will also lead some individuals to violently express their distorted mentalities.
Even in today’s society, sexism is still prevalent and inhibits the people who are affected by it. For the purpose of this essay, sexism will be defined as any action that consciously contributes to a gender stereotyping society. In her essay, Marilyn Frye notes this definition of sexism stating that “making decisions on the basis of sex reinforces the patterns that make it relevant” (846). Therefore, any decision that contributes to the gender binary and its framework is considered sexist. The musical Gypsy has instances in which the main character, Rose, can be considered both going against and contributing to the “patterns that make sex relevant.” In one scene, Rose can be seen subjecting her children to gender roles which feeds in to sexism,
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
... that the film opens with. While the story may be slightly dramatic and pieces of the story “coincidentally” seem to fall into exactly the wrong place at the wrong time causing the tragedies in the film to happen, the events in this film are entirely capable of being a reality. Racism and prejudice continue to be prevalent issues in our society, but like Anthony, we can learn to overcome anything that holds us back from putting unity into practice and making our world a better place for everyone.
In order to better understand the conflict, first we must define what conformity and self image are in the story “Boys and Girls”. Conformity is action in accordance with prevailing social standards, attitudes, and practices. In the time frame of the story, as well as through much of history, it was the social norm for women to be housemaids, and to rarely venture outside of the house to perform “man’s work”. The narrator however, has a different idea as to about how she wishes to live her life. She does not enjoy “work done in the kitchen” as she finds it tedious and “endless”. She does view the work of her father though as “ritualistically important” and far more interesting. This tomboy state of mind of the girl is part of her self image, defined as the idea, conception, or mental image one has of oneself. Upon reading the story, it is clear that her views come into direct conflict with her parent’s beliefs, and even mainstream society’s. While the protagonist’s self image of herself is a driving factor in the nature of her adventures and leisure, with enough outside pressure it can b...
This movie was inspiring and encouraging to anyone who is struggling with something. Overcoming his controversies in life became the main point of the movie. Knowing that this movie was based upon a true story inspires the people even more.
When a woman or man joins a non-traditional sport for their gender or sex, it can have drastic social and cultural costs. These impact not just the individual but also the entire community. When a person challenges the gender roles of society, then they change the perceptions of what men or women are capable of doing, they further androgynize cultural norms, and they open up sports for others.
There are many more examples throughout this movie that can be connected or assessed to the many different concepts that was learned. There are many real-life events and these concepts are important because they allow people to see how different types of people and families deal with stress and problems and it is important not to judge or jump to conclusions and maybe take a step back and take time to consider what others may be going
What changes would you like to see in society as a result of this movie?