Thelma and Louise

The film follows two female protagonists, Louise (Susan Sarandon) and Thelma (Geena Davis). Thelma is married to Darryl, a working man who wants his wife to stay at home cleaning/cooking. He treats her like an object not a person. Louise is unmarried and an independent headstrong woman working as a waitress. Thelma is the opposite, passive and naïve. They both start off looking very feminine; their hair styled, perfect make up. However as the film continues their appearance chances to look more masculine. They change from girly outfits, Thelma in a long white dress to their hair tied up, wearing shorts and caps, looking like truckers.


The films shows realistic representations of men. Throughout the film Thelma and Louise encounter an obnoxious sexist male trucker. The man made obscene gestures at them, suggesting sexual activity. The women decide to take care of him once and for all. As well as the sexual representation of males, kind and caring men are in the film. The film has a role reversal of the sex icon. In this instance is a young and buff Brad Pitt with an impressive six pack. This is the opposite to the male gaze, when men watch films to ogle women.


It ends with the women driving of a cliff and committing suicide. They wanted to be free.

Genre Theory

Genre is a type of media text. There are lots of different genres that fit into separate categories. Some media texts may overlap and follow more than genre e.g. Rom-Com. Different genres have different rules. A genre is a contract between the producer and the consumer; the audience know what they are going to see because of the genre.

The genre rules follow codes and conventions.  A convention is the expected way of doing something, in a Rom-Com you expect two people to meet, fall in love, realise they can’t be together, break-up and at the end they rekindle and live happily ever after.  An example of this is the film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. The three codes are symbolic, historical and technical.

Signifiers are elements which create a meaning to the audience. An example of this is the image of a gun. The audience understand that shows violence and someone has power over another. Guns are mostly seen in action and crime dramas, audience members expect this.

The three codes are symbolic, historical and technical.

Symbolic is the use of colour schemes, iconography and imagery.

Historical makes sure that the media text matches the period of time. For example, in Downton Abbey the setting, the mode of transport and the costume is how it would have been of that time.

Technical is the use of special effects and graphics on screen.

Genre in Posters

 Horror genre. This is obvious by the creepy font and title ‘Sinister” written in blood on wallpaper. The key image of the hanging people is haunting and catches the viewers eye straight away. This image symoblises death.  However there’s also a background image of what looks like a face resembling a skeleton with the dark eyes.

The producer and director are mentioned at the top of the poster. This is used for promotion and marketing purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rom-Com genre. The symbols of hearts signify love so the audience understand it will include romance. The key image of the two main characters, two A-list celebrities, will help towards promotion and marketing. Kathrine Hiegl is a poster-woman for popular rom-com’s. Gerard Butler is popular with the ladies and Katherine’s dress is revealing; this links to the male gaze and sexual objectification. The target audience is the female population. By dressing the main character in this way, a male is more likely to agree to see the movie with his counterpart. The poster also includes the release date, cast and crew and website.