How is Skyfall a product of its time?

Gender- Women are often portrayed as objects used for Sex in the earlier films in the Bond franchise, where Bond makes women succumb to his charm, Bond uses women to get information out of them by taking them to bed. We see the character Monneypenny in both Skyfall and earlier Bond films and Bond is Skyfall is being flirted with by Monneypenny rather than Bond flirting with Monnepenny in the earlier films. We also see characters such as Q that aren't portrayed as the masculine run and gun type compared to earlier films where most males are masculine fighters.


Terrorism- Terrorism in Skyfall suggests just one individual with a decent computer setup and a advanced mind can become a terrorist just by working in one room compared to earlier films such as Thunderball where there is an organisation which is more physical terrorism. Terrorism in the earlier films were to do with having power and money where in Skyfall it is a personal vendetta.


Criminality- Criminality in the earlier films people work together and usually shares a plan with their organisation members where in Skyfall Silva keeps all his plans to him self, it is much harder to track cyber crime compared to having a big organisation where all members are in one room.


Sexuality- Gay characters are much more camp and distinct in the earlier Bond films such as Diamonds Are Forever where the gay characters wear women perfume and hold hands skipping with each other, the characters are there to be mocked rather than taken seriously, we also see Bond mocking them where as in Skyfall Bond takes Silva very seriously and also suggests he has had a gay encounter in the past where as in the earlier films this would nit be acceptable compared to todays standards. Silva is also suggested to be camp however he is the main villain and taken very seriously by everyone.

Consideration Points - Genre

Skyfall (2012)

Prisoners (2013)

The Green Mile (1999)

What are the generic identities of the two films you have chosen?

The Green Mile - Fantasy/Crime film

Prisoners - Crime film/Thriller

Is there any evidence of sub-genericity?

The Green Mile - Mystery, Sci-fi, Romance 

Prisoners - Mystery, Detective Story, Psychological thriller, Crime Fiction

How do you know?

The Green Mile -

Prisoners -

In what ways do the films challenge the genre conventions?

Outline the films' generic identities using non iconographic means

Choose a key sequence from each film and explain how it captures the film's genre 

Initial Practical Ideas

I want to create a film poster and DVD packaging for a film I have created, I would like the poster and packaging to focus on representing white British males. I will use original photography for most of my product if not all.

Essay 1st draft

The purpose of this essay is explore the representations of British males in film, specifically in the films Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), Grimsby (2016) and Legend (2015 . Representations are how people, places and things are shown in the media. More often than not representations are based upon stereotypes, stereotypes are a commonly held belief of a particular type of person, place or thing with at least a grain of truth to them. 

British males are often portrayed in the media as football hooligans, football hooliganism is everywhere in the world however when we think about football hooligans a typical English male is instantly thought of. This is because the media influences our beliefs on a certain type of person, this is present in the film Grimsby where the main character is a football hooligan along with the main character the rest of the town is also found to be football hooligans. The main character ‘nobby’ has the word England tattooed on his back showing the extremes he is willing to go to for the England team, he also has the England crest tattooed on his arms. During a scene in the pub an England game is playing and the town decides to celebrate the goal by acting like hooligans drinking letting off fireworks inside the club and throwing things around this is an example of English football hooliganism.    Nobby also has England flags across his house along with football shirts. Another example of football hooliganism is the scene where the town Grimsby are watching a live England game and start making a commotion taking their shirts off and pitch invading whereas the other team is completely calm and normal making it the English fans look much worse. Nobby chants ‘come and have a go if you think your hard enough!’ during a fight showing that football has taken over his life and it’s in everything he does.

Another way British males are represented in film is the upper class, well brought up type of British male, these types of British males are often portrayed as stuck up, usually think they are better than everyone else almost as if they have a disgust for anyone in a lower class than them.  This is demonstrated in the film Kingsman: The Secret Service where the main character ‘Egsy’ is being trialled along with other contesters to see who will become the next agent. Egsy is the odd one out as everyone else there are from an upper class with rich families where as Egsy has been brought up in a normal household in a poorer area. The upper-class contenders approach him and try to attack him sating remark like ‘where did they dig you up’ because of the way he is dressed compared to them. They ask him if he’s ‘Oxford or Cambridge’ then proceed to mock him by implying he doesn’t have an education therefore he must have served them in McDonalds once. The scene where Egsy’s first trial occurs the team is saved by Egsy when egsy smashes a two-way mirror to save them a remark is made ‘must have seen a lot of them’. From these scenes, we clearly see that the upper-class snob type characters think they are better than everyone lower than them because they have money and fancy suits. When Egsy and his mentor are having a drink, things start to get heated and Egsy immediately says ‘snobs like you judging people like me from your Ivory towers with no thought about why we do what we do' showing he is also aware of the fact upper-class think they are stuck up and snobby.

paragraph on green street instead of legend

'The concept of representation embodies the theme that the media construct meanings about the world - they representation, and in doing so, help audiences to make sense of it.' (PAGE 113 Timo'sulivan Brian Dutton Philip Rayner). The media uses stereotypes to help the audience make sense of a character and helps them to understand the character.