Essay 3 Final

Womens Role in Film


--When watching multiple films it is common to want to compare them. In this case specifically, the role of women. The three movies: Splendor in the Grass, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, and Rear Window all show the role of women in very distinct ways. Regardless of these distinct ways that women’s roles are portrayed, these three films also share some similarities in the portrayed roles of certain women from each film. These three films were made during the 1950’s and early 1960’s which may be the reason for the roles of women being portrayed as they were. To start, I will summarize the three films to help get a better understanding of the types of women shown in the films. From there we can then begin to understand these women and their roles within the film as well as how those roles compare to each other.
--The first of these three movies is Splendor in the Grass, which was made in 1961. The story of this movie focuses primarily on a young girl named Deanie Loomis and her boyfriend Bud Stamper. This movie is set to take place during the late 1920’s just before the stock market crash. Deanie wants to be able to go to the next level with Bud but caught between her feelings and wants as well as those of her mother who tells her that “women don’t enjoy those sorts of things” as well as how she and her husband never touched each other before they were married. This tension as well as the expectations of their two families end up causing Bud to informally break up with Deanie which causes her to lose it. While being in a mentally and emotionally unstable state, she starts dressing and acting more like the typical Flapper of the time sp as to try and win back Bud. In the end however, nothing was ever the same between Deanie and Bud again.
--The second movie is Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, which was made in 1958. At the start of the movie Mrs. Archer or Nancy if you will, has a run in with an alien spacecraft which contains what is later revealed to be a 30-foot man. She runs to find her husband Harry Archer, who is only interested in her large fortune, but instead only found the sheriff. Nancy seems to know that Harry has a relationship with Honey Parker but doesn’t seem to care as long as he denies any such relationship with Honey. The two later go to find the monster which they do. Harry abandons Nancy and returns to town hoping to leave before anyone can find out however he is stopped by the sheriff. When Nancy is later found it is discovered that she has some form of radiation and in time begins to grow to astounding proportions, specifically of the 30-foot variety. At this point she goes on a rampage which ends in her killing Harry and Honey. Shortly after, she dies or is killed, however it is not very clear which.
--The third movie is Rear Window, which was made in 1954. The story focuses around two main points. The first being the suspected murder of Mrs. Thorwald by Mr. Thorwald. The second point being the relationship between Lisa and Jeff. Jeff was a photographer who was injured during an assignment which got his leg broke which now keeps him confined to his apartment where the only thing he can to is spy on his neighbors which causes him to suspect the murder. In terms of the relationship, Jeff does not seem as committed because of the lifestyle he has as a photographer which he believes Lisa would not be able to adjust to seeing as she is used to a “higher class” lifestyle. This difference causes a rift to grow between them up until both become highly interested in the suspected murder case which ironically brings them closer together.
--So now we ask ourselves, what is the common role between these three women? All three of them had to give up something for their boyfriend or husband. Deanie from Splendor in the Grass gave up her good girl lifestyle and maybe even part of her sanity for Bud so that he would take her back. Nancy in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman in a sense, unwillingly gave up her life for Harry so that she could have him all to herself. Lisa in Rear Window gave up her higher end lifestyle so that she could be with Jeff and be happy with him. Going back to Deanie, in giving this up for Bud she ended up having to spend time in a mental institution. Nancy was not getting what she wanted from Harry because he did not care for her which in the end caused her to go on her rampage. Lisa was not getting what she hoped to from Jeff which caused her to willingly give up the lifestyle she was used to. One interesting observation in relation to the situation of these three women on not their roles was that all three were having relationship troubles in some form or another which is why these three women ended up giving something up for the man in their life.
--During and after the 1920’s, women’s role in society began to change. They changed from solely being housewives to being working women and women who could have lives outside of the home. Evidence of this can be seen in the lives of the three women in each film. Deanie even though it was only because of her mental state after the breakup with Bud, became a sort of Flapper. Since Nancy was quite rich she did not have to do any work so her only role was just being a loyal wife. Lisa had her own career which she enjoyed even though she was willing to give it up. Up into the 1950’s and 1960’s women’s role began to change even more. Going back to my point about how Deanie, Nancy, and Lisa all had to give up something, it was fairly common for women of the time to give up certain things for their husbands. Specifically since WWII had recently finished and many veterans returned home, many women began to work more so that their husbands could go to college and get and education. Many gave up the lifestyle they wanted or their education so that their husbands could. This was not always the case but it was still fairly common.
--When looking at all three films, sacrifice can be seen as a common action for women. It seems as if sacrifice was common for women of the general time period for when these movies were made. It is this reason that such a concept is represented in these three movies. This concept shows us that women’s place in society and their role had continued to change even in such a short thirty to forty year period and would continue to do so in the coming years after.

Essay 3 Draft

--During the past week, we watched three movies in our Literature class which dealt with the role of women. These three films: Splendor in the Grass, Attack of the 50ft Woman, and Rear Window each portrayed the women in the film differently. The ways in which they are portrayed could be attributed to when they were made. All three were made during the 1950’s and early 60’s. Splendor in the Grass was made in 1961, Attack of the 50ft Woman was made in 1959, and Rear Window was made in 1954. It was in 1919 and 1920 that woman finally got the right to vote. From that point on, women’s role in society has grown as they have become more involved in all aspects of society and began to change their role in life. Before the 1950’s, suburbia was on the rise and many women reveled in this change and began to change their roles even more in society. Specifically that they had to give up certain things so their husbands could succeed. This can be shown in their portrayal and roles in the three films. So what is common between the three women in each film? They all had to, in some way shape or form, had to give up something or another for their boyfriend or husband.
--In Splendor in the Grass the main woman portrayed was Deanie. However it could be argued that Juanita could be the main woman in the film because this film was set during 1928 and she portrayed the Flappers. However it will be easier to just stick with Deanie as the main woman of the film. Deanie started out as not wanting to fool around with her boyfriend Bud and later her mother began to explain how her and her husband had not touched each other once until they were married. Deanie kept refusing to give into Buds advances for such until Bud ended up leaving her although not directly. Because of the sadness and misery she felt she ended up becoming more and more like Bud’s sister Juanita in terms of the way she dressed and acted. More specifically like a Flapper. It was then that she continually tried to get Bud to take her even though he wouldn’t stating that she was a “good girl.” She ended up giving up her original good girl lifestyle for the more Flapper oriented lifestyle just so that Bud would take her back and keep her.
--In Attack of the 50ft Woman, Mrs. Archer or Nancy was the main woman in the story. This one is a little more difficult to tie into how the woman ended up giving up something for her husband. When the movie started Nancy was not actually giving anything up for her husband, she just wanted him to stay loyal to her.

Synthesis Week 5

When comparing the play and movie of “The Children’s Hour” there are still quite a few similarities in terms of story and plot points yet there were quite a few differences. The main similarity is that the main story was still intact i.e. Mary lied to her grandmother, Rosalie lied about Karen and Martha as well because of the necklace, Martha committed suicide, and Mrs. Tilford trying to apologize. Regardless of these similarities there many differences in the movie adaptations that were not in the original play. The first main change is that it showed Mary reading a book that obviously was about lesbianism which explains why she chose that specific lie. The next major difference was that the movie showed a scene where the necklace was found and Mrs. Tilford getting angry with Mary about it. The next major difference was that Martha did not commit suicide by shooting herself before Mrs. Tilford arrived. The biggest difference however was that Martha instead hung herself when Karen went out and committed suicide that way. The final difference was the extension of the play when the last scene was of Martha’s funeral and of Karen walking down the road and smiling. I’m not entirely sure why it was these changes are made. I could guess that they were trying to make the movie a little more family friendly but when looking back, at the changes that does not seem likely. That and there’s that possibility that the producers wanted to try and extend the film to longer than an hour and a half. That would explain all the additions and plot changes that all contributed to the movie being long.