Gender Studies in Movies; Movies versus Poetry

Gender Studies is the examination of gender, not as a way of biologically differentiating male from female, but as a social force. In literary, drama, and film theories, gender can be examined in a way to reveal feminine, masculine, and queer undercurrents in works to further develop understanding and general reception (Spector). The study owes its roots to Freudian psychoanalysis and its criticizers, particularly Jacques Lacan and Carl Jung. Lacan interpreted femininity and masculinity based on the structure of the unconscious, and also claimed that femininity was supplementary and not complementary to masculinity, thereby giving gender a common root (Grosz). Jung worked with gender archetypes, which made gender studies more applicable to literature, drama, and film. Closely related to Gender Studies are of course Women’s Studies, such as Feminism, and Men’s Studies. A more recent emergence in Gender Studies is the Queer Theory. An amount of time was all it took for Feminism to become a player on the world stage; it took a little more for the Queer Theory. Unlike bra-burning women, LGBTs could not take early media by storm as books were not published if their themes were too flamboyant. It took a combination of the internet and uncensored film for the Queer Theory and culture to “come out of the closet.” For this reason, when assessing a film and applying Gender Studies Queer theory is impossible to ignore.

The two films I plan to compare and contrast are Il Postino, 1993, directed by Michael Radford, and The Quiet American, 2002, directed by Philip Noyce. I will apply Gender Studies to determine the dominant gender in each movie and examine how that affects the portrayal of the focal relationship. I will pay special attention to both Feminist and Queer Theory elements in the movies to bring to light the importance of film media to the visible culture of these two theories. The films’ nationality and age will serve to show the progression that both theories have made to global acceptance.

An old newsreel plays for us and an Italian audience in the 1950’s. On the screen a man gets off the train and into the arms of an adoring and emphatic crowd, particularly into the arms of a pretty blonde girl. The announcer says “Women go crazy for his poetry…maybe because Neruda writes love poems…a topic which appeals to the female sensibility.” An Italian postman watches the black and white newsreel as Pablo Neruda, famous Chilean Poet descends a train with his wife into the crowd of rustic Italians. From our view point, we watch a legendary man descend from a cinema screen and into the life of Mario the Postman. From 1950s to real time, a newsreel takes time, and puts it away for us viewers to share Mario’s experience.

In Michael Radford’s Il Postino, Mario and Pablo Neruda form a relationship based on love poetry, which Mario wishes to learn in order to woo his lovely waitress, Beatrice. What the announcer in the newsreel says about love poetry, the silent narration of the movie says about poetics in general – it is feminine. Poetry owes its womanly allegiance to the medieval troubadours. In the Middle Ages poetry was a medium for chivalrous men to express the natural power and beauty of women. Therefore, Jung’s archetypes and those that followed classified poetics as feminine (Gender Stereotypes). In Il Postino, poetry has a starring role. It is the reason that Mario and Neruda begin their very interesting relationship; I say interesting because it does not fit easily into any predefined category. It is not entirely paternal because Mario has a father, and a stock and stereotypical one at that. Though Neruda causes Mario to fall in love, it is not a romantic relationship because both men are very clearly interested in women. It is not a simple friendship, because although Mario gets his girl, his love for her wanes as his devotion to Neruda grows. It is somewhere between the two, deviating from the normal, which calls to mind Queer Theory.

By definition, any relationship that does not remain between the established lines of the norm can be defined as queer. This movie was released at the beginning of the movement into a medium that would become one of the most prominent stages for the queer culture. However, as a pioneer, we can see that it resists and compensates. For example, the women are prominent and beautiful in such a way that they seem to be forcing themselves onto the movie. This compensates for the intricate discourse between the men and makes the movie seem as much of a typical love story as it can be.

Phillip Noyce’s The Quiet American, 2002, is based off the novel by Graham Greene. It is set in French Vietnam during the 1950’s and follows the life of Thomas Fowler, an English journalist, Alden Pyle, and American idealist, and Phuong, a Vietnamese girl and the two men’s shared love interest. Though essentially a political allegory, the film is also a complicated love triangle that challenges the social constructs of the male relationship. It begins with the death of Pyle, followed by an extended flashback, and ends with the enlightened death of Pyle. During the flashback we learn that Fowler lives in Vietnam with his mistress Phuong, reporting on the war to a newspaper in London. Pyle comes to Vietnam with “a face with no history, and no problems.” Pyle begins raw and ends tainted, and yet withholds his naivety; his face gains problems as he acts without knowledge of the real history of Vietnam. He quotes fictional author York Harding, and Fowler returns A. H. Clough. This sums up their relationship quite nicely: two men of differing ideologies who fight friendship as well as war with each other, projecting their battles on a country/woman that yields scars of their hostilities. War is the catalyst, glue, and outcome of this relationship and the movie in total. War, power struggles, opium pipes, and missiles dominate the movie in such a way that the feminine veins all but disappear, despite the archetypal role of “prize” that Phuong plays.

The gender associated with war, based on Jungian archetypes, is masculine. This idea developed simultaneously with civilization as men fought battles and women stayed home. It grew Classical roots in Mars and Ares, the Gods of War. From these roots, it grew in literature and from there, to film. War not only appeals to masculinity, but projects it as well. In “The Quiet American” it even manages to take over the love story. Thomas Fowler says “I should have realized how saving a country and saving a woman could be the same thing to someone like Pyle.” This generalization of women to war is an example of the strong masculine underpinnings in the movie. In the first voice over during the opening sequence of the flashback, Thomas Fowler narrates, “You could be forgiven for thinking there was no war…that only pleasure matters,” as we as audiences are so likely to do; we always seek comedic or romantic relief in war movies and in war reality to protect our sensibilities. He continues by describing those things that matter as “A pipe of opium or the touch of a girl who might tell you she loves you;” the traditional phallic symbol is altered in the context of the movie because only Phuong makes pipes for Fowler. He uses feminine imagery as an escape from the masculinity of war. Then, as he continues, the envelope is pushed: “And then something happens, as you knew it would, and nothing can ever be the same again.” Fowler’s “something” is war in general, and as it happens, war can erase the comfort he finds in feminine sensibilities. More interestingly however, the arrival of Alden Pyle can be considered the “something” that comes along to shake up Fowlers life, along with our preconceptions of love in the typical war story.

After sufficient time had passed since the beginning of the Queer movement, and in a liberal western industry, we would expect the envelope to have been pushed and the compensation found in “Il Postino” removed; however, “The Quiet American” takes the opposite route, injecting masculine themes and symbols to compensate for the irrelevance of the female influence. In “Il Postino” there is more feminine than masculine, in “The Quiet American’ there is barely any feminine influence. Does this deviation in gender show the progression from the simple Feminist movement to a Queer movement? Has masculinity undermined and overthrown feminism completely? Hardly. More likely, a movement has started in its own supplementary route towards an arena where gender does not simply mean masculine or feminine, but something in between. These movies show how even archetypes of something as static as gender can be changed when new mediums and arenas are opened. Film has become the new soap box.

Here at the end of my essay, I have one thing to say. These theories we apply to literature, plays, and films should never yield labels. When we use them as titles and price tags, we are doing both things injustice. To apply theory is simply a way for us to apply deeper understanding. These movies in mind, I hope that I have not here labeled. All I had tried to do was better comprehend the intricate eddies and currents that lend their delicacies to the waves and torrents of the greater point. To better convey my sentiments, I quote the ending of Il Postino. Mario has written a poem for Neruda, of which he says, “I also want to tell you that I’ve written a poem…but you can’t hear it because I’m embarrassed. It’s called ‘Song for Pablo Neruda.’ Even if it’s about the sea…it’s dedicated to you..."