Wednesday 23 March 2022

Revision: Free Guy (2021)


Explore how the producer utilises media language to construct representations and make reference to ideological concepts. Make reference to the theatrical poster to the US comedy film Free Guy and the poster to KOTV you have studied in class

Knee-jerk reaction

Men and women are represented in a largely stereotypical way in both Free Guy and KOTV, in order to appeal to a large and straightforward target audience

Introduction

Representation is the re-portrayal of a group of people, an issue or an event by the producer to show their ideological perspective. In this essay, I shall argue that men and women are represented in a largely stereotypical way in both Free Guy and KOTV, in order to appeal to a large and straightforward target audience

Plan 

Exclusion 

Symbolic annihilation - where a certain group are omitted from a media product

Intertextuality

Font

Colours

Bright

Low key

High production values

American/British

Iconography

Action genre

Conventional

Costumes

Stereotypical representation of white people

'guy' 

Sexualisation 

Leather outfit

Hegemonically attractive

Proairetic code of explosion

White male protagonist

Stereotypical representations of black people

Van Zoonen

Gilroy

Z line rule

Typecasting

Content

Free Guy

  • Black characters on the Free Guy poster are exclusively occupying comedic, side character roles. For example, the black cop is coded as being humorous through his exaggerated facial expression, the tag on his jacket ('Buddy'), and his larger frame. This reinforces many stereotypical assumptions about black people and their role in films, and may also be an example of tokenism, where a black person is included to tick off a box and to fulfil a representation
  • Manuel Alvarado argued that black fulfil certain roles: sexual, funny, violent or exotic
  • Jodie Comer's character is coded as sexualised and simultaneously nerdy and hegemonically unattractive, which is a clear binary opposition
  • The poster constructs a clear hierarchy of importance, with certain characters being vastly more important than other characters. This explicitly communicates with the audience the producer's ideological intentions. Clearly the most important character is Ryan Reynolds, and this notion is anchored y his position top centre of the character's hierarchy, his name being first on the cast list, his star appeal, and the representation of him being significantly larger. Under him are a range of side characters who are clearly encoded as significantly less important. However we must acknowledge that in this hierarchy, white people are positioned at the top and people of colour towards the bottom. This positioning reinforces Gilroy's theory of postcolonial attitudes and othering, through constructing a literally racial hierarchy.