Na'eem Film Review

The Bechdel Test is a a set of rules that include these 3 simple guidelines: The has to have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, and talk  about something besides a man. The Bechdel was created by Liz Wallace and introduced by Alison Bechdel in 1985. During this time, the test became a huge discussion in feminist circles and, later,  became known internationally in Sweden. Simply, the test came from two women conversing with each other about something other than men. Support for women with big roles is very rare in this decade. In 2011, eleven out of the top one-hundred movies had film leads.

The Mako Mori test judges test, following these guidelines: at least on female character, a female who gets her own narrative arc, the plot is not about supporting a man’s story. It was created on tumblr in the middle of a conversation between Chaila and spider-xan. Both blogger usernames. Spider-xan was questioning feminist critiques on the portrayal of women in the film Pacific Rim. The film had already failed the Bechdel test because the women in the film never spoke to each other. Spider-xan was against the Bechdel Test because the film did have a woman of color who had a well developed role in the film. Chailia supported spiders-xan reason and came up with a test that only addresses the character development of female characters in movies. From 2013 and forward, the Mako Mori test was supported in the film fan community.

The film I reviewed is ¨Straight Outta Compton.¨ Straight outta compton is a biopic of the huge rap group in the mid 80s called NWA. The film tells the story of how five young black men from Compton grew into successful rap artist and used their platform to talk about police brutality and the hood. Straight Outta Compton received major success, receiving $129,402,415 at the boxoffice and great ratings from critics. It being a huge film in 2015, I wanted to closer analysis. Though the film is centered around three men, Straight Outta Compton was lacking in female representation. There was more scenes where a female is being treated as property you can buy or make fun of. I did not want to base my analysis only on my own observations and opinions so I decided to watch the film again. This time, I watched the film and judged it on the Bechdel Test. The Bechdel Test is a a set of rules that include these 3 simple guidelines: The has to have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, and talk  about something besides a man. Now there are numerous women to come up in Straight Outta Compton with the groupies, girlfriends, wives, and mothers. Their were even scenes that had a room full of women. The only issue is that none of got more than 2 phrases to say. No full sentences or scene of them by themselves. Most of the scene that did involve women were scenes that show women in sexual acts. The girls were all naked getting tossed around by men. They even had a scene where a man came to a hotel room looking for his girlfriend. After a long standoff that involve pointing guns, the group yanked the girl out of the room with nothing on but panties. There were a galore of scenes that showed girls being lusted on, taking off their clothes, and worshipping men. Now some may argue that these females in the film chose to be treated like that. It's true but the fact that those are the only kind of females that are shown in a biopic tells me that NWA did not respect women. Two of them had girlfriends that were in the background with nothing more than two lines in the whole film. Everytime I women spoke it was about how successful a man is, building the male ego. Straight Outta Compton is a great movie because it truly shows what happens behind the scenes of some of the biggest names in music. How objective women are treated in the entertainment industry is disgusting.

INDEPENDENT WOMAN test

A test for movies where the protagonist is the female. Films where there's a independent female lead, who isn’t a victim of violence by men, and goals aren't to find a man or get revenge. It is important for a film to meet this criteria because children need to see more representation of strong independent females in films. Every movie I saw with a female lead, she either conforming to masculine standards in order to progress, abused by a man, or apart of a team. In society today, the standards forced on women has never changed. From elementary school to careers, women are taught to be in competition against other women in all aspects in life. For a lady, you have to dress the best, be more successful, have the biggest butt and chest, and ultimately, get married with children before 30. It's a toxic mindset that is carried over through generations like a curse and a lot women go through life fighting in a game they can’t win. Since films are one of the major media outlets in the world, it's important for them to have better representation of all women and not just the ones who confide their worth in man or pleasure. The last movie I ever saw where the main female had a strong lead was the Hunger Games. Though it's a great film to review, I felt that most films with independent female leads always had the female in violent situations. “She has to have a weapon and kill the bad guys because a strong female is a female that knows how to use a gun.” This quote represents americas definition for strong female leads in media. I wanted to use a movie that has a strong female role in other areas besides violence.

Black Swan

A movie that pases the Indepent WOMAN test is Black Swan. Not only does it have an independent female lead but a strong plot. Black Swan is about this ballerina who won a audition for a show called, “Black Swan.” Everyone in the film thought of her as being this fragile girl who is easy to manipulate but she ends up proving them all wrong. The protagonist takes on the mental component of winning the role and have hallucinations of her turning into a swan, indulging in her deepest desire, and  even killing someone. Black Swan has a strong symbolic story that confuses a lot and make you want to watch it a few more times to catch things you probably missed. You can tell that the writers behind this movie took a lot of time to artistically create the beginning and end of perfection. The only conflict is that she lost the ability to understand what is real and fake. In the end, she morphs into this strong woman without the help of a man or friends. This is why Black Swan passes the Independent WOMAN test. I don't want to spoil too much of the film, Id rather yall watch to see what I mean.