ACTION ADVENTURE: THE ITALIAN JOB

We watch a five-minute extract from The Italian Job (F.Gary Gray, 2003 ).

We learn how to tackle exam question 3:
Discuss how people are represented in the extract. Refer to stereotypes in your answer. 

MODEL ANSWER:
The opening extract introduces the audience first to John, an ex-convict with a criminal record for robbery, then to his adult daughter Stella, who is woken by a telephone call from her father. She remonstrates with him when told that he is in Venice, because he is breaking the terms of his parole.

Instantly we realize that John is not a stereotypical father as he is the one who is failing to be a responsible, law-abiding role model whilst his daughter comes across as wiser and more cautious than he is. 

This role reversal is all the more surprising for the audience because of the expectations raised by our first glimpse of Stella. She is represented as a beautiful blonde asleep in her bed wearing a low-cut top. The male gaze of the camera constructs her as an object of desire in a stereotypical way.

 Despite being told off by his daughter, John seems unrepentant, in fact, buoyant and cocky about his situation, and it is soon revealed that he is planning a heist in Venice. He is not only breaking parole but about to commit another crime, and he clearly can't wait to get started. Nevertheless, he has let his daughter know of his whereabouts and he clearly loves her, so in that respect, he is an affectionate and caring father.

John is equally jovial, friendly and polite towards the next person introduced, Charlie, who is young, handsome, capable and well organized: a stereotypical alpha male who is clearly in charge of the heist. Equally, all the other members of the team are pleasant, friendly and competent. 







 
Left Ear, for instance, is represented as a potential engineer, studying a book on Leonardo Da Vinci with great interest and grinning widely. Like the rest of the team, he is charming and capable. They all crack jokes, hold their nerve and work calmly as a team.

This brings me to conclude that
The most striking aspect of the male representations is that the members of the team are constructed both as villains (in that they are robbers) and as heroes (in that they are loyal to each other, charming and very capable). They are neither stereotypical villains nor heroes. You could say that this film celebrates the anti-hero. These representations glorify thieves who are clever, funny and very skilled.

LET'S ANALYSE THE HERO
Let's take three somewhat generalized hero archetypes for comparison: 

• the Stalwart Hero, who is good from the beginning and has to struggle against all that isn't; 
• the Anti-hero, who never really is or becomes good but looks cool; 
• and the hero that becomes one by improvement: the Redemption Hero.

A lot of the "classic" hero characters are the Stalwarts: Superman, Captain America, James Bond, Son Goku, Prince Charming, Ulysses, Beowulf, Attila the Hun.
Okay, that last one was to check if you were paying attention.
These types are definitive in their stance. The start out as people with a distinct uprightness in character, possessing a strong moral bent and are moved to act when they see evil in the world they live in. Their opposition mostly arises from the great number of forces that gather against their belief that selfishness and cruelty should be opposed.
(Of course, there are also a group of the Stalwarts that, for some reason, start out good and fall. This is a separate Tragic Hero category, but we'll save that for another day.)
Anti-heroes include any number of thief-glorification films like The Italian Job and Oceans Eleven and its sequels/remakes, characters like Don Juan and the Count of Monte Cristo, shows like Dexter, House, Leverage and (most ironically of the bunch) Heroes.
 
Does Batman fall into this hero category?  Though grittier and darker than other Stalwarts, his supreme moral dedication and unmoving virtues, coupled with his selfless nature, cannot make him a Byronic hero unless the definition is decidedly more stretched.

Redemption Heroes are exemplified by Spider-man, Cloud Strife, Jean Valjean, Himura Kenshin, Spawn, Nicolas D Wolfwood; shows like Human Target and movies like Hancock. There is one Redemption Hero that definitely ventured into the center stage of mass media as a movie blockbuster: Iron Man.

Tony Stark is rich, but incredibly flawed: CEO and chief inventor of a weapons manufacturing giant, he is brilliant and cavalier. His interests chiefly concern making cool toys that kill people under a thin (but ultimately vital) veil of patriotism, and womanizing.

But a change happens. He is kidnapped, taken from his riches and position, and thrust into the real world. But the kicker is not what actually, physically happens to him: its what he sees happening as a consequence of his actions.

"I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero-accountability."

This effects a change on him. His guilt, his patriotism, show him that there is a world of suffering he can cause by being callus, overbearing, or just not very careful. He takes a dying man's last wish to heart: "Don't waste it. Don't waste your life, Stark."