No Country For Old Men

I loved No Country For Old Men. It was tense, well-written, the performances were phenomenal. There was nothing about the movie I can think of which didn’t floor me. However, after looking at the movie in relation to the Bechdel (And Mako Mori) Tests, I found that it definitely fell short.

I’ll start with the Mako Mori test, because holding the Mako Mori test to this movie is a joke. There are a small handful of women in the movie, most of them unnamed, who serve solely as plot devices for the leading roles, all of which are male. Carla Jean, the wife of Llewelyn Moss, one of the leads, barely speaks throughout the movie, presenting a shallow, very two-dimensional character. And she’s the closest to a strong female character in the whole movie. So, the Mako Mori Test? Hard fail.

As for the Bechdel Test: Initially, I assumed it failed hard as well. However, after doing some research, I found there was a scene in which Carla Jean speaks to her mother about medication. It’s barely a conversation, and there is also some contention as to whether or not it passes the first part of the Bechdel Test: There being two named female characters. In the translation from Cormac Mccarthy’s novel of the same name, a few characters were watered down to condense it to a film format. Carla Jean’s mother, Agnes Kracik, who was named in the novel, was never referred to in the movie with a name, save for a split-second scene in which her name is written. The movie technically passes the test, but so slightly that a fail is entirely debateable.

Ultimately, it’s clearly not the type of movie the creators of the Bechdel Test had in mind as an ideal. It is a story by men, about men, for men, and the fact that the movie had to be scoured for a pass makes it questionable. I loved the movie, but it’s definitely not a feminist piece.

The R/Niceguy Test

A Niceguy (Or Niceguy™) is a term for men who claim to be nice, and believe that being nice entitles them to women. Popularized by the reddit.com subreddit, r/NiceGuys, these men will often become abruptly hostile when rejected or ignored, proving that, despite the term, they are not really nice guys.

A common theme among said Niceguys, is the idea that they would be better partners to people they are romantically, or sexually, interested in than their current partners. Since I found this subreddit, I’ve been looking closer at different forms of media, and I’ve found a striking number of books, movies, songs, shows, etc. which have an empathized character who believes that they are the right choice for someone, better than others. So I came up with the R/Niceguy test.

A media piece fails the test if any of the following happen:

• A protagonist is persistently interested in someone either uninvolved or uninterested.

• A protagonist openly resents another character for not being romantically or sexually interested in them.

• A character openly resents the significant other of a character they are romantically or sexually interested in.

• A character leaves their significant other for the protagonist.

The last rule might seem a little too intense. We all know the story where the two leads are truly made for each other, but each tied down by their own commitments. They struggle to be with one another, struggling with both their surroundings and themselves, but, ultimately, make the right choice in the end, and walk, hand in hand, into the sunset. We all know this story. And that’s the problem.

This teaches people that they should pursue people, be persistent, don’t take ‘no’ for an answer, because, ultimately, the people they like will come around and make the ‘right’ choice. This leads to characteristic Niceguy behavior. Which leads to much worse things. So, I decided to hold one of my favorite movies to this standard: Fight Club.

Fight Club

Once again, a movie based on a book. And once again, I loved this movie. I’ve always struggled with how to perceive this movie from a gender-based perspective: The movie delves heavily into topics of masculinity, misogyny, gender roles in society, and there is great contention as to what is satire and what is not. The unnamed protagonist lives a boring, corporate life. He spends his time working, or furnishing his apartment, which he, himself, admits is worthless. He befriends a man named Tyler Durden, who lives an entirely opposite life from the narrator: Tyler rejects capitalism. He rejects what he perceives as the societal emasculation and castration of men, as society drifts further and further from hunter-gatherer societies. The movie explores what it means to be a man, settling on some very skewed beliefs and practices: One being the titular Fight Club, a club for men only where they beat each other senseless just to feel like men. The movie never really expresses which form of existence is better, and the story has inspired many young boys to delve into very toxic masculinity. However, that’s a different debate. I want to talk about Marla Singer, and her love triangle with the Narrator and Tyler Durden.

The narrator first meets Marla Singer in a support group for people with testicular cancer. A very fitting setting given the material. Neither the Narrator nor Marla have testicular cancer, but they both find thrill in attending the support groups. They talk briefly about why they attend support groups for diseases they don’t have, exchange numbers, and don’t see each other for a long time. Then, the Narrator meets Tyler Durden.

Marla calls the Narrator further into the story, asking to see him, and the Narrator is dismissive. Not wanting to be involved in her life, he decides not to see her, and leaves, but finds out later that Tyler Durden picked up the phone which he had left unhooked, and went to see her instead. They begin to develop a sexual relationship, which the Narrator quickly becomes jealous of. While it is unclear whether the Narrator is jealous of Tyler for his relationship or of Marla for Tyler’s attention, the Narrator is clearly resenting another character’s significant other.

I’d like to talk about the plot twist of the movie, so this is a spoiler warning.

It is revealed at the end of the story that Tyler Durden and the Narrator were the same person the whole time. This complicates the love triangle a bit, being that the Narrator resents himself for being the significant other of the person he is interested in, or maybe resents Marla for being the significant other of himself. Ultimately, however, the story presents the Narrator and Tyler durden as two seperate people, so I’m inclined to count it as a fail, because the message is still there.

In class, we learned about two different movie test that judge based on  female inclusiveness and anti-gender biased ideals. The first test is called the Bechdel Test. This is a simple test that judges movies on the following three criteria: It has to have at least two women in it, the women have to talk to each other, and their conversation has to be about something besides a man. The second test is called the Mako Mori Test (named after Mako Mori from the movie, “Pacific Rim”.) This test judges movies on the following three criteria: There is at least one female character, this female character gets her own narrative arc, this arc must not support a man’s story.

The first movie I did these test on was “I, Tonya”. This movie is a biography of famous, olympic, ice skater, Tonya Harding. After watching the movie, I realized that this movie does pass the bechdel test. There are two women in the movie, Tonya Harding and her mother. They have multiple conversations with each other throughout the movie. Whenever the two talked, it was always about Ice Skating or how much they hate each other. They only talked about Tonya’s boyfriend once.

After reading the criteria for the Bechdel Test and Mako Mori Test, and analyzing them for things that could be added to improve the test, I have created my very own movie test that looks for gender and racial diversity. My test is called “The Joseph Test”, and it can be used to analyze any movie. The criteria for passing my test include: There must be at least two people of color who converse with one another and at least one of them must have their own story arc. There must be at least two women, of color or white, who converse with each other and at least one of them must have a story arc. The movie cannot be predominantly white male.

My test is actually difficult because a lot of movies wouldn’t pass my test. But, I can think of a few TV shows that would. In the upcoming Marvel TV series called “Cloak and Dagger”, the show’s lead characters are a black male and a white female. They will both have their own character arcs and the other supporting characters will mirror the diversity of the main characters. In turn, the show will not be predominantly white.

The two films that I’m choosing to review are Divergent and Black Panther. These are my personal favorite movies. Even though these are movies that have good female chracters we don’t know if they pass the bechdel test. The bechdel test is if two female characters in a movie have a conversation not involving a man.

Divergent is based on a futuristic society that is divided. It’s divided into five factions. Each faction has one specific role in their society. Everyone has to fit into either one of the factions, if you don’t your considered Divergent. In this case Tris is divergent and she has to hide her secret because divergent’s are considered a threat to their society. Tris must undergo physical and mental test in the faction she chose while also having to try and hide her secret.

The second movie that I’ll be reviewing is Black Panther. This movie was such a huge break through into the African American culture. Black Panther is a marvel movie about a technoligically advanced African civilization. T’Challa was the son of one of the King’s son. He was left in America by himself. T’Challa buit rage over the years and when he found Wakanda he took over it. Black Panther the real king of Wakanda took back his thrown after a vigorious battle.

I really fell in love with Divergent because Tris the main female character was a good example. She was strong and brave through out the movie. There were many task that she had to overcome but with the support of her family/firends they were able to escape oppression and abuse. This movies does pass the bechdel test because a lot of female charcaters talk with one another about their struggles.

Black Panther was a huge step forward for African/African American culture. The main character was not a female but there were a lots of females that played inportant roles too. For example, Okoya played role as the head of Wakanda’s special forces. She was such a strong female character because she was true warrior. Okoya risked everything for her country and was loyal to her leaders. She displayed an honorable warrior throughout the entire movie. This movies passes the bechdel test because there was a small snipit of two females having a conversation not regarding a male.

Now that you know background information about the two movies that I chose it’s time to make up my test of choice and see if it passes. For my test I’d like to see if there is at least one main female chracater that leads a group of people that doesn’t involve any sort of romance. It can’t be a minor part of the movie but important. With the new test that I made I’ll be reviewing Divergent and Black Panther to see if they pass the test.

I personally think that Divergent does not pass my test. Throughout the movie Tris has a romantic conncetion with Four the entire time. She is the leader of a group but the romance stands out more. Maybe in the other movies that came out after the first one do pass because Tris and Four already have the love it’s not like they need to build it. For example, Tris and Four are new lovers which involves more time on them to build that feeling throughout the movie. On the other hand, in the other movies the focus can be on building communities not love. If that makes sense.

Moving onto Black Panther, I think that it does pass my test. The Queen of Wakanda was a leader and she wasn’t involved in romance. She lost her husband and she wasn’t trying to rekindle a new flame. Next, Okoya was the general of Wakanda’s army. She did have a lover but they didn’t come in contact a lot in the movie. Okoya was even put to the test if she would chose her lover over her country and chose her country. I feel like it passes teh test because this idea of a women chosing her future over a man is not seen in many movies. Most movies the women leaves her job to fit into these men’s lives. So I feel like it showed a ver strong image on women today.

2 Films 2 Tests

1. The Bechdel Test:

1. At least two women in it

2. Who talk to each other

3. About something besides a man   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r 3UdYPD 0

2. The Technical Test:

1. At least two black males

2. Who talk to each other  

3. About motivation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvt zO6 UAE

Kick-Ass is about Dave, a 16 year old kid that fights for the good. He ends up killing a villains father for justice. Afterwards the villain wants revenge for what he did. He walks around NYC to defend and protect people, with the help of his friends. Eventually he takes out the supervillain and saves NYC.

This movie passes the bechdel test. How you may ask? Well in the movie there a scene where there is a group of girls in the lunchroom talking about popularity, clothes, and well feminine things. One of the main characters Mindy aka Hit Girl usually dresses as a “regular female” no makeup, no dress, no ordinary life style. During this scene in the beginning Mindy decides to put on nail polish, lip gloss, heels, and a nice dress. She walks up to a group of girls that are “popular”, they eventually start saying she can’t be like them just because of what she wears.  

The Pursuit of Happyness is about  a man that goes broke and tries to support his family. Going through all the struggle the only motivation he has is his son, his only child, his only family member left.

This film passes the test that I made up.  At least two black males that talk to each other about motivation. In the film there is a certain scene that shows Chris Gardner and his son playing basketball. Chris tells his child, “You got a dream you gotta protect it .”

THE DEFINITION OF HAPPY-NESS

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.

The Bechdel Test is a way of evaluating if a movie or film portrays women in a way that is sexist or characterized by gender stereotyping. In order for a movie or film to pass the bechdel test the movie must feature two women and they must talk to each other about a topic other than a man.

The Mako Mori Test is considered a media test which analyzes that have these different requirements:

• At least one female character

• She gets her own narrative arc

• And it's not about supporting man's story

I think these test exist to show how women are represented and portrayed when during a film. Also when the different films do not pass these test it shows lack of diversity.

Frozen:

This 2013 film ¨Frozen¨ that is produced by Walt Disney which tells a story about a princesses who goes on a journey and gets into an ´icy´ situation. Anna and Elsa are the main characters in this film. They are both sisters and grow up to be really close. These two sisters must be separated in order for Elsa's ice powers to be hidden. Anna eventually meets her true love Hans and they fall in love. Elsa on the other hand, is having trouble controlling her powers and she decides to run away to the mountains. She began to accept her powers and began to ¨let it go¨ Considering the main factors of this movie, I believe that this movie passes the bechdel test because Anna and Elsa mainly talk about building a snowman, isolation, or going back home.

The test I would create would be called the BBT (black beauty test). In order for a film or movie to pass this test it has to include one African American couple that does not involve any abuse and stays together until the end of the movie. The reason I made my test like this is because I observe a lot of movies that  have African American couples but the man is always abusing the women and they always end up happily ever after or separate.

A movie that would pass this BBT test would be the movie Barbershop. This movie is a popular comedy. The barbershop is owned by Calvin (Ice Cube) and it is a family business that his dad passed down to him. He thinks the barbershop is a waste of time so he decides that he wants to sell it to someone else. After awhile, he realizes that selling his father's barbershop wasn't in his best interest and he sees everything go downhill. Calvin has a son and a loving wife. Who is to say that couples don't argue and get into petty arguments because they do. But that shouldn't mean he can put his hands on her, which he didn't. They talked it out like a ´normal´ couple. So considering all of this, the movie Barbershop has passed the BBT test.

The test I am creating is diving into the extras in movies and determining how do they impact the inequality or issue in the movie particulartly in a relationship. Are they around trying to help, or are they around allowing the physical and verbal abuse happen because of the main character’s position. I am calling this test the Outsider’s Reaction Test. If a film passes this test(needed at least a complete ⅔ rating) then the film has shown the outsiders involved did what they could to help the victim who is most likely loss in his/her abusive relationship. If the film fails(under a ⅔ rating) then this shows that the outsiders/extras in the film kept quiet and saw but didn’t react to their friend, associate, or another human being period being involved in a unfair, abusive relationship. I will dive into why (if the film fails) the extras decided to keep quiet instead of helping out a person of need.

The test requirements are...

1. The gender of who is being abused has people of the opposite gender trying to help out.

2. The gender of who is being abused has people of the same gender trying to help out.

3. The abusive relationship impacts the victim’s  family and friend relationships.

Movie #1: What’s Love Got To Do With It

This movie surrounds the interesting life of Tina Turner from when she was a little girl raised by her grandmother to her rise to stardom with soon to be husband Ike Turner. Ike and Tina Turner became a hit, making top songs such as Proud Mary and Fool In Love. Everything seemed great, they were at the peak of both careers, making good money, and seemed to be happily married. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Ike begin to use drugs which was quite popular in the music industry back in time after having so much success and wealth. This was reportedly the cases where Ike Turner would go on rages and argue to a point with Tina that he resulted to use his strength to physically overpower her. Beating her multiple times, and it was reported that it got so bad that it wasn’t behind close doors anymore, he would abuse her verbally and physically in front of their friends. Tina promised Ike she wouldn’t leave in the beginning of their relationship when he explained to her how so many people that benefited from him would walk away after some time. Tina, in love with Ike felt bad and never wanted to repeat such actions to hurt him again and she stated in an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show that she stayed for so long because of that promise she made to him. She wanted to help Ike, yet she was just keeping herself in a situation to get hurt. This movie places males above women, as Ike took over Tina life as they got into a relationship and formed the iconic music group of Ike and Tina. Also, in this movie Ike keeps an entourage around him, most are his security or bandmates. It is obvious in the movie that everyone, including her sisters, friends knew about Ike Turner violent ways towards Tina Turner. Of course many friends wanted her to get away but there were many on Ike side that didn’t really put in effort to stop the pain emotionally and physically he was causing Tina.

Outsider’s Reaction Test(My Test) What’s Love Got To Do With It Rating

1. The gender of who is being abused has people of the opposite gender trying to help out. Rate:0

2. The gender of who is being abused has people of the same gender trying to help out. Rate:1

3. The abusive relationship impacts other family and friends relationships:½

Total: 1.5/3 FAILED

After rewatching Tina Turner’s biopic, I feel this film failed my test because of Ike’s power and control over his entourage. His position was the leader, he made people famous and received the respect because of it. Also, he was a violent man. Nobody wanted to deal with him on that level when he’s cutting them a check that helped them pay their bills. Their decision was just to mind their business as their loyalty began with Ike, not Tina. In Ike’s life, with his fame women came and went, they weren’t going to risk their relationship with Ike over females that was Ike’s business, which I don’t agree with but I can understand.

Bechdel Test: This test asks a work of fiction features at least two woman that converse about something other than a man or surrounding what that man does and impacts the movie. This test comes from the idea that women in movies majority of the times are shown by their relations with a male character in the movie.

The Bechdel Test requirements are…

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it.

2. Who talk to each other.

3. Conversation is about something other than a man

This test exists because it creates awareness on not the amount of roles of women in movies but the stories behind them in the movie. For example, in Tina Turner this movie would be nothing without Ike coming into her life. Her conversations with his sister, mother, friends, and more were mostly over Ike Turner and how things were getting worse in their lives behind the fame.

Mako Mori Tests: This test was brought about in 2013 by chalia on Tumblr user who questioned feminist critiques of the depiction of women in movies, in this situation it was the movie Pacific Rim. The goal of this test is to determine what is truly a strong woman in film.

The Mako Mori Test is a media test which analyzes films in the following ways…

1. At least one female character

2. Who gets her own narrative arc;

3. That is not about supporting a man’s story

This test exists because it begins the search for strong women in films and making sure they have an impactful role in a movie without the surrounding of a man. It changes the conversation on a “strong woman” in a film by making movies create a backstory for a woman based off of her life and even make men apart of the film because of their relationship to her instead of the typical vice versa.       

Movie #2: Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman is a movie starring a prostitute and wealthy businessman falling in love with each other, creating a relationship that the outside looks at as unhealthy and unlikely. They both live in what looks like to be different worlds, more respectful and proud achievements for Edward and for Vivian she is known hooker who has a backstory of men who were attracted to the sexual experience she made available to them for money. Edward hires Vivan to stay with him for a weekend, the two gets closer and this is when the number one rule of prostitution is broken, never share a kiss as this shows a sign that there is love besides romantically. Obviously because of there two different lifestyles, there are a lot of differences and barriers for them to work through just to get through what was only suppose to the weekend.

The Bechdel Test requirements are…

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it. Rate: 1

2. Who talk to each other. Rate:1

3. Conversation is about something other than a man Rate:0

Total: ⅔ PASSED

The Mako Mori Test is a media test which analyzes films in the following ways…

1. At least one female character Rate:1

2. Who gets her own narrative arc; 1

3. That is not about supporting a man’s story 1

3/3 PASSED

Pretty Woman passes both the Becdel and Mako Mori test requiremnts in my eyes because the movie is based off of BOTH Edward and Vivian life. Now of course, Edward brings Vivian into another world by hiring her to be his woman for the weekend, but it’s her backstory that creates the bumps and diversity of lifestyles in the story. Basically, Vivan’s role is as big as Edward role in the Pretty “Woman”. The movie cannot be created completely without Edward and Vivian. Pretty Woman passes the Mako Mori Test more than Bechdel Test however. Even though Vivian has her own backstory and purpose in the beginning, once Edward comes into her life, Vivian falls into trying to change herself to suit his lifestyle but she has to do this as this is what she was paid to do. She’s attractive and lights up the room with her beauty, this is her purpose of the weekend with Edward.