Perks of Being a Wallflower vs. Rebel Without a Cause vs The Breakfast Club

In this post we will discuss the teen struggle films Rebel Without a Cause, The Breakfast Club, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. All three of these films have their similarities but they also have their differences. However, in this blog we will discuss the fact that all of the films portray a character getting into a group of people that he is situated and related to.

        The first film that clearly does this is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It starts off as the main character Charley. He a freshman in a Pittsburgh high school where the students view him below them. Throughout the beginning of the film, Charley was made fun of by other students where that was making him uncomfortable. Throughout the film, he was narrator as if he was reading the letters that he writes to his friend who passed away the previous year. However, him being one of the wallflowers was the thing that made him change and learn how to let himself go from being so afraid.
 One thing that was interesting was the way he adjusted by making friends. He did not need any help to make friends. He just went up to one of the seniors named Patrick and started interacting with him. The good thing was that Patrick was inviting and allowed him to have conversations with him and even got him involved with many of his other friends who which Charley got along with. In the beginning of the film you would think that Charley was the typical "loser" type of student who was a nerd since in the movie he constantly goes to his English teacher and asks him for more books to read.
     The second film that does this was Rebel Without a Cause. This film was interesting as it does involve the protagonist being in a group. However, this group of friends rival another group of friends. In a way compared to the other two films, this one uses a strange method of the involvement of groups. The one that was causing all the trouble seemed to have an organized group of friends who defend each other and help fight for each other. For example, in the middle of the film, there was a group of people who were making fun of the protagonist or the person we are supposed to like by messing with his car and beginning to create conflict. One thing to note was the use of knives as this implies the time period that this movie took place. Nowadays, you don't see many people using knives in everyday conflict. Finally, the rebellion which is mentioned in the title seems to be with the parents. In the film many of the characters seem to have parent problems. For example, the protagonist killed a man but even his father was trying to get him to runaway. However, the son wanted to take responsibility for his actions which was surprising coming from a son. The father would be the one to say that not the son. The son would be the one that wants to runaway from the whole problem
    The final film was The Breakfast Club. This was a very interesting film by the way it paired a group of students together. The film consist of one Saturday with a group students who have to stay for detention which in the beginning of the film it isn't clear what each of them did. One interesting thing is how they all fit into a teenage stereotype. There is the nerd, cool football guy, pretty girl, weird girl, and then there is the criminal-like student. At the beginning they seem to hate each other and can't get over their differences especially between the pretty girl and the criminal which they are constantly fighting throughout the entire film. However, as the film progressed they started to find their similarities with each other. The film went into how each one of them got there and what they did. This was one of the things that made them become supposedly "friends" even some in boyfriend/girlfriend relationships which you would not expect. Anyway, one question however against this entire post with this one movie is that "Are they going to stay friends or are they going to forget each other after that Saturday?" This question was brought up a lot throughout the ending of the film and definitely was something to consider.

        Snow White (1937) vs. The Little Mermaid (1987) vs. Princess and the Frog (2009)
All of these films are made by Disney over the course of the years through the twentieth century and twenty-first century. All these films convey different messages but at the same time similar messages. In this post, we will discuss the topic of feminism specially gender roles and Body Image. All of these films portray women in different ways.
       In the film Snow White it shows how Snow White is the person that the "Queen" is basically jealous of. She is so jealous of her that she goes to the extreme by wanting to kill her and take her heart. It definite is very gruesome, especially for an apparent "kid movie"! The movie starts to portray her as the "perfect" women as White meets the dwarfs. She is acting the stereotypical  female role as cleaning for MEN. She even stayed home while they worked to keep the house clean. White even offered to keep it clean as if she was used to that being her role. What could this be saying? This says that women are supposed to clean and pretty much be the housewife. The ending is the strangest as it demonstrates "love at first site". Although, disney may have done it for different reasons, it comes off with the wrong impression.
     In the film The Little Mermaid it shows the main character as being the "beautiful girl" . Everyone looked up to her including sea creatures. The main character Aerial was interested in a prince which it isn't clear to how old he is. However, we know that she is sixteen. Who knows how old the prince is and they are getting together. One other major thing brought up in the film is the fact that it portrays beauty is everything. Ursala the antagonist, noted that trading her voice for legs was harmless to Aerial's process in hooking up with the prince. She said that Aerial still had her beauty and that her not being able to speak wouldn't matter. The question that arises from the film is, "Does Beauty make relationships?" many children who viewed the film wouldn't notice at first but the more they view it, the more that question gets in their brain. One thing is the fact that Aerial is as beautiful so does a girl need to look like her to be beautiful. She is very skinny, has blue eyes, and light tan skin. Is this the image that forces girls to stress their body out to be "beauty".
     The final film Princess and the Frog is probably the best for kids. This one portrayed a woman at actually getting to know the man that she eventually marries unlike Snow White. The biggest controversy that obviously would go against this film is the men thinking because the character is African-American. This comes from the fact that she is the only one where she is not a princess and she also lives in the morn lower class. There was even a line in the film that said that she couldn't be rich because of her particular "background" Who knows what exactly the movie was implying with that line but it definitely would come off as a wrong message. However, despite the antagonists saying that money was everything in life which the protagonist pretty much believed at first. The entire message of the film was to follow your dream with your heart and not your wallet. This was probably the best movie for kids without having a secret message that is bad.

  

                                          Bonnie & Clyde (1967) vs.  Thelma & Louise (1991) 

     This post will talk about the feminist point of view of the films Bonnie & Clyde and Thelma & Louise. Both of these films portray women in a way that is against what its society would suggest is "right". 

     To start off, the film Bonnie & Clyde presented the female character Bonnie as a desperate and bored woman. For example: The movie starts off as showing Bonnie stuck in what it appears as a jail naked. This shows how isolated she is and wanting to do something outside of her "normal" day-to-day life. It shows that Bonnie is a waitress was sort of typical for women in that time period as the society thought. It seems that Clyde jumped into her life which was the one that changed all that. He was the one that got her into robbing. She was pretty much bound to become reckless and the "manly" She became more interested when Clyde showed her his gun as in the picture above. As Bonnie and Clyde's relationship went on their roles in their genders switched. At first Clyde pretty much was trying to be as  manly as he can saying "I ain't no ladies man" This switch was started by when Bonnie wanted sex but Clyde showed that he was too scared for it. After that moment it seems that Clyde's emotions began to show when Bonnie was becoming more and more manlier.

       The movie Thelma & Louise has a similar storyline. Although, two females, their roles switch as well. In the beginning of the film, Thelma is showed to be manipulated by her "husband". The audience can easily tell that she doesn't appreciate it which is the reason she went on a "vacation" with Louise. Her "husband" was pretty much keeping her in a cage and not technically in a good way. The moment she left for the "vacation" with Louise, she was gradually freeing herself. She maybe freed herself too fast at first which led to the changing event of the entire movie, her nearly if not actually getting raped by a man she was dancing with. At the time Louise was the manly one in the situation which actually was the one who shot him. A good portion of the film, Thelma was very scared and seemed more like a stereotypical little girl. Louise on the other hand was the one that kept saying it was alright. Thelma even suggested turning themselves in to the police. However, Louise refused to go as she argued that they would still get in trouble despite what happened to Thelma. The second changing point was the meeting of the Brad Pitt character. Even from the beginning, you could tell that Thelma and Pitt both liked each other. It did seem weird that he kept following them as Louise at first refused to trust him. However, Thelma the second time begged for her to let him get a ride. This further led to sex between Thelma and Pitt which was the huge changing point for both Thelma and Louise. They had $6700 which Pitt had stolen. Louise figured it out and that's when her emotions showed. Thelma became the manly one saying "we'll be fine" and had the idea off robbing a store.
      Both films show two characters, one manly and the other similar to a stereotypical female as sort of a damsel in distress. However, their roles are switched by an event which both films have.

American Beauty (1999) vs Citizen Kane (1941)

In this post we will be comparing and contrasting the films Citizen Kane (1941) and American Beauty (1999). This post will be discussing the similar emotions portrayed by both Kane's and Lester's wife. Also in this post will discusses the different but somewhat symbols; for Citizen Kane it was "Rosebud" and for American Beauty it was red roses.

      Both films begin as telling exactly what was going to happen to both main character as they both were going to die. However, they both were presented in different ways. In Citizen Kane it showed the ending of the film and him lying on his deathbed and said the biggest idea that the entire movie was trying to prove what it was "Rosebud" However, in American Beauty Lester was narrating that he was going to die but not telling specifically HOW he was thus creating a mystery on how and when he was going to die and by what feeling does he die from.
     The main character Kane was an empowered figure that had supporters and people that disliked him. He was a rich person that collected many expensive items such as paintings, antiques, newspapers, and junk. This implies that he most likely collected these items to feel less alone. One thing that isn't an object but was something that he wanted to collect was people's hearts and consideration. He wanted "love" which in the movie it didn't seem like he was getting from his wife. The main character in American Beauty, Lester didn't collect things but he definitely was alone despite having a wife. Even more than Kane because he was trapped in that phase of not knowing what to do. He was such a boring person at first. Something in his life had changed when he used to be happy with his wife and daughter. In the movie his daughter Jane and himself got into a conflict and Lester asked the question "What happened to us? We used to be cool" This implies that they had a less conflicting relationship where they were disagreeing. The wife was explained by a picture that he viewed which showed the entire family having a good time.
   Both films use symbolism to drive their stories. However, they are presented in different ways. In Citizen Kane "Rosebud" was depicted as the snowglobe which no one mentioned what exactly "Rosebud" was until the end where the audience can sorta find out aAmerican Beauty the film heavily uses the symbol of red roses. There are many different meaning for the red roses. However, what I personally thought the roses meant was desire and love. In the film Lester was interested in Jane's friend Angela who DEFINITELY was different than Jane. Lester had a dream or halucination where he imagined Angela dancing in the gym by herself specifically for him. However, when she opened her jacket a bunch of roses came out. The amount of roses showed the amount of desire and love there was. There was one scene in the movie where it Lester's wife Carolyn was trying to sell houses but there was only single roses. However, when Angela was over his house, the roses were closer to her and there was a bunch of roses showing that there was a lot of love going towards her.
nd analyze what exactly does "Rosebud" means.

        The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) and Edward Scissorhands (1990) are two different but similar movies in their own regards. One of the major things that will be discussed is the attitudes between both characters (Cesarek and Edward). Another one of the major things that will be risen up in this blog is the setting of both of the films. The finally thing that will be discussed is what both films say about the society and it's acceptance on "different" people.
        Both films open up as seemingly odd and somewhat creepy. However, in  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari the environment throughout the entire film seems quite more odd than in Edward Scissorhand. 

Notice in this picture above how the environment is quite unrealistic to objects we see today. The vines are curvy and thinner than what they are modeled after. Everything in the background is just very curvy and bizarre. In a way, everything is sorta dream like. Everything else in the film is basically the same way the abstract design elements and how everything seems to look like it was made out of cardboard.It's kind of an unfair comparison since one movie is in black and white. However, just by looking at the shades of the different textures and environment factors show that if this movie was in color, it would have way more color variety than Edward Scissorhands.

Compare this to  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as the environment and setting of Edward Scissorhands. The first thing anyone can notice is the fact that the entire movie itself has color compared to the previous film. However, all this was is just tinting not actual color as we see in movies today. Another difference is that the environment looks way more realistic than the previous film does However, the houses in this photo and pretty much everything else in the movie are bland. Everything is a solid bright color with no difference whatsoever. It's not just the houses, even the cars are bland and even match the house they come from. One thing to note is that the men in the film are on a fixed schedule that they go by every day. The women of the movie seem to be just gossipy housewives that know everyone in the neighborhood. 

Another comparison that needs to be made is the main protagonist themselves.

To start off, Cesare seems to be more accepted for more of who he is. The objective of Cesare is similar to Edward's as to hook up with a girl that he likes. However, Cesare makes it more clear what he wants as Edward gives glances with the girl he wants. There were people that didn't acceot him because of his orgins and by how scary he looked. However, he was not offended by it mostly because he relied on the scientist that created him. Secondly looking at the designing of Cesare. One may notice that they really focused on the makeup on both characters. Cesare seems to have makeup focused primarily around his eyes and above. Edward seems to have moderate makeup all over the place around his face. However, both seem to have that wild monster-like hair style where its all over the place.  


Edward's story is a bit more upsetting than Cesare's. In the movie he is up in the most different object in the movie which is the chasel on the hill. There are many different forms of symbolism just by the place he lives in. The place is dark and creepy which at first glance at him, many thought he was a monster just by his appearance. All he wanted was for people to accept who he is, similar to Cesare. There were the handful of people that actually did accept him. However, at the climax of the film, most of the suburban neighborhood hated him. The only part where people sorta adored him is when they noticed how good he was at cutting bushes and hair. However, these are only things that made him feel as if he was being used but didn't show it that much. All this says about the society is that most people do not accept different but there are that few that do.