"Fathers and Guns"

The other movie I watched from Siff was the French movie "Father and Guns," which was a comedy/action film. It began with having one of the main characters, Marc's co-worker/friend being kidnaped by the people from a criminal organization. Marc was determined that he would have to save his friend and bring him home. Marc's father, Jacques, who was also a cop, was on the same team as Marc. The two did not get along with each other well. Jacques always looked down on Marc, and Marc on the other hand, did not really care about his father. One day, the team found out that the lawyer who was the defense counsellor for the criminal organization was going to a "Parental-Reconnection" camp with his son, Jacques and Marc were ordered by their chief to go to the camp in an attempt to find out from the lawyer the place where Marc's co-worker was hidden. At the camp, Jacques was trying his best to build a friendship with the lawyer while Marc was becoming friends with the laywer's son almost effortless. Finally, in towards the end of the movie, the lawyer decided to stand up and point out the crime committed by the criminal organization. Marc's co-worker was sent home safely, and the lawyer moved to a nice sunny place with his family. After this case ended, Marc and Jacques were still on the same team with each other, but their relationship has improved a lot since then, and were able to work together peacefully.

There were many scenes from this movie that I found interesting and liked, especially the events that happened at the parental reconnection camp. For example, one of the activities the characters did at the camp was to pick out an item from a box that they thought best reprensted their sons or fathers. The fathers and sons who had a more positive attitude towards each other picked out something more manly as a representation. For the fathers and sons who did not like each other too well, picked out item like a barbie doll or even "shits" to serve as an image. I think this activity they did indirectly related to the course concept of masculinity and restated the ideal standard/images for men. People are supposed to find it funny when the father used a barbie doll to represent his son, and are supposed to find it normal when they use something masculin (or manly) such as a superman toy. The stereotypes for female are stated by Jacques' statement in this activity. Jacques was the one who picked the barbie doll as a represeentation for his son. He explained in the movie that he thought "all sons have become mamma's boys," that their fathers must coddle them, "shower them with love and, above all, always listen to them. Listen to them some more, still more," otherwise the sons would start whining, sulking, and crying. Here, Jacques was kind of implying how these are the ways women would act and expected to treated with and that, it would be extremely ridiculous for a man to act like this.

I also found a light form of "sexism" at the beginning of the movie when the lawyer came out from the building and was surrounded and interviewed by a group of reporters. When asked by a young female reporter some questions, the lawyer stopped and turned her with a scornful look on his face. The lawyer first questioned the female reporter who does she write for. After the reporter responsed to his question, the lawyer went on to question her about her major. When given the reply "social science," the lawyer asked "with or without math." The female reporter was given a rude response "figures" when answered "without." The lawyer then replied much nicer to another male reporter's questions. From the conversation between the lawyer and the female reporter, it was not difficult to see how the lawyer did not really treat women at work place with respect. The reason for this could simply be that because they are females. As mentioned in blog 7th, movies are a form of media, they can be used to teach people about their social roles and inform them about the stereotypes for both sexs. Others may think this movie is just simply for entertainment, but one should also be awared of the underlying meanings of this movie.

picture site: website- Bell

video site: youtube- Father and Guns Trailer