2. Class
Class has more importance at the start of the film due
to the clear divide in clothing between the interrogator
and terrorist, however in this case class doesn’t show
importance, the terrorist is more ‘valuable’ than the
protagonist due to containing valuable information.
the protagonist is a stereotypical upper middle class
agent (represented by the white shirt), which is then
disrupted by his travelling on the bus, as stereotypically
people from the lower income bracket use the bus.
3. Race
Middle eastern male (Muhammad) seen as weak when
being abused in the interrogation scene, therefore
stereotype of the middle eastern man being strong is
rejected.
Middle eastern male is not a terrorist and is
innocent, completely rejects classic stereotype used
particularly in Hollywood movies.
White male becomes part of a terrorist organisation, not
traditional at all, makes the white man the villain.
White male starts off in a good job, wealthy – changes
completely after incident
4. Age
The interrogator is fairly young which contradicts with
the classic action man stereotype and usually we see a
middle aged man playing the role of the ‘hero’, in our
case he he needs to be young and fit. We counteracted
his physical strengths with his mental weaknesses.
This shows binary oppositions; strong vs. weak.
The general stereotype of terrorists represent how
people think of young indoctrination of Muslims. We
used this is our interrogation scene as we used a
younger male as the ‘terrorist’.
5. Gender
We portrayed the male protagonist to have power, whilst in the flashback
shots he is in control. A male fit the role better than a female due to the
violence needed, we used a stereotype there due to it suiting our film.
We focused our film on the message that racial stereotypes are no longer
relevant within today's sociality and the ideology that all terrorists are from a
middle eastern background is wrong. Therefore we thought the use of males
would be easier, following the general Hollywood platform of male’s being
violent. We felt it to be too much of a challenge to use females for the
interrogator/suspect.
However we did play with gender a little, we challenged the stereotype that
mental strength accompanies masculinity. We applied Butler’s theory of
gender performance. The interrogator shows worry and brakes down upon the
bus, these are stereotypically features of femininity therefore the male
protagonist is show to put on a feminine performance.
6. Sexuality
The sexuality portrayed in my production is
heterosexual, we created a heterosexual male as it
didn’t question stereotypes. This can be seen through
the masculine role as the action man, which my
protagonist has, this confirms the stereotype that men
are seen as masculine.
We didn’t want to change the protagonists sexuality as
we wanted the focus of the plot to be on the terrorist
ideology, not the protagonists sexuality.
