The Cinematic Gaze - Case Study Example

The Cinematic gaze Introduction: The medium of cinema is purported to be a medium that can potentially provide a depiction of reality as it exists, because the camera does not lie and reveals things as they really are. Moreover, the cinematic apparatus turns a viewer into a voyeur who is able to gaze into the lives of others, gaining a perspective on events as they actually occur. But as many film experts have argued, the interpretation of film may be conditioned by the perspective of the viewer as well as the context and manner in which events are presented. As a result, the cinematic gaze cannot be claimed to be innocent and a tool to provide a window on reality through a representation of events as they actually are. Rather, the cinematic gaze is more akin to a loaded look, one that is laden with the cultural and social context and environment within which it is formulated. This essay undertakes an examination of the film “Monsters Ball”, in order to examine how the filmic gaze provides a distorted picture of reality and only serves to heighten the cultural and social elements that underlie the filmic narration. Analysis: Laura Mulvey(1989) has argued that the manner in which a conventional Hollywood film is enjoyed is determined to a great extent by the nature of the spectator gaze and the coding of that gaze. The object of her essay is to analyse “the way film reflects, reveals and even plays on the straight, socially established interpretation of sexual difference which controls images, erotic ways of looking and spectacle.” (Mulvey 1989: 14). The coding of the cinematic gaze is conditioned by the patriarchal elements in the spectator gaze, which in effect reduces the gaze of both the spectator and the camera to projections of the on-screen gaze of the characters. She has applied this argument to the manner in which female characters are represented on screen, contending that in the medium of film, the female is viewed as a passive object of desire and is portrayed accordingly, while the male is viewed as the active object. The action in films is generally portrayed from the male point of view, while the female is generally the helpless subject, or merely the object of male desire and gratification. As a result, the female is not represented in a realistic fashion, but from a perspective purely guided and fashioned by the film maker’s and society’s view of females. This aspect is also clearly discernable in the film “Monsters Ball,” which perpetrated racial and gender based stereotypes about black women. The portrayal of the protagonist Letiticia illustrates the overt racial sexual exploitation which was a part of mainstream life in the slave era, and unconsciously forms the social context which has fashioned the white man’s view of black women as sexual objects. The story of Monsters Ball is purportedly the love story of a black woman and her white lover, who also happens to be a Corrections Officer and her black husband’s executioner. Letiticia’s overweight son dies in an accident, while her white lover Hank’s son commits suicide during a fight with his father, right in the presence of his racist grandfather. The two protagonists, overcome by desperation and helplessness, are struggling to cope with their respective losses and come together sexually in an explosion of need. There are however, several underlying connotations to this sexual union, which are clearly evident in the film and belie the assumption that the film is a representation of reality. The filmic gaze portrays the protagonist Letiticia as an object of sexual desire, who is subordinated and dominated by virtue of her identity as a black female. According to Robert Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times, “the film’s only flaw is the way Marc Foster allows the camera to linger on Berry’s [Halle Berry] half clothed beauty; this story is not about sex appeal.”(Ebert, 2002). He contends that what the characters see is defined by need rather than desire, but this interpretation does not ring true and appears superficial. For example, the film portrays Letiticia as a symbol of failure. She fails as a wife because she is unable to support her husband who is in jail; the very fact that she has chosen a man who is a criminal as her husband suggests that her character is weak. She fails as a mother because she is unable to provide the emotional support her overweight son needs and does not understand the underlying causes of his obesity, which leads her to abuse him. Lastly, she is not even able to function efficiently from the economic perspective; she is fired from her job and evicted from her home. Thus, the overall effect is to portray her as a suffering black woman, with the underlying subtext linking her failures to her black, female identity. The crises occurring in her life transform her into a helpless black woman, whose only salvation lies in the arms of a white man. As opposed to this representation of Letiticia, the character of Hank who also goes through suffering, copes in a much better fashion. He is as devastated by Letiticia by the losses in his life, but he is able to give up his job, overcome his racial prejudices and buy himself a gas station. He also sends his racist father to a home, which also suggests the racial sub context; i.e, that racial prejudices are a thing of the past and need to be locked away somewhere, just as Hank’s old father is sent away to an old age home where he is virtually a prisoner. Hank’s success arises directly out of his race and gender – he is white and male. It must also be noted that in the film “Monsters Ball,” it is the character of Letiticia who initiates the sexual contact. After an evening together, where both the characters drink and spill their sorrows, she begs Hank to fill her up and after their intercourse, she tells him how much she needed him. This is the representation of the ultimate male fantasy and the cinematic gaze, which is the white male gaze, effectively reduces Letiticia to a status where she is suffering and helpless, having nothing to offer but her body. She then becomes the sexual aggressor, literally begging Hank to rape her, because nothing else apparently can bring her satisfaction and relief during her time of distress except becoming the sexual object of a white male. The cinematic gaze thus transforms the character into a mere object of sexual gratification for a white male, rendered helpless by her circumstances and suffering. In view of the coding that produces a cinematic gaze loaded with the cultural and social sub context of the patriarchal gaze , Mulvey has contended that there is a need to allow the female image to “burst through the world of illusion...to free the look of the camera....and the look of the audience into dialects and passionate detachment.” (Mulvey, 1989:26). She argues that the cinematic gaze, rather than being a true representation of reality, is actually phallocentric, with the woman representing the object of desire that the man fantasizes about, yet denies because of some underlying limitation or restriction. Hence, cinema affords the viewer the opportunity to partake of the pleasure in looking and gazing upon the female body. In the film “Monsters Ball”, the character of Letiticia represents a male fantasy that the white male protagonist Hank, simultaneously desires, yet denies himself because of the social and racial barriers that exist. Mulvey has expressed the view that the position of the spectator represents a “repression of their exhibitionism and projection of the repressed desire onto the performer.” (Mulvey, 1989: 17). Letiticia initiating the sexual contact with Hank, therefore is the fulfilment of the male fantasy, whereby Letiticia becomes the sexual object subjected to the viewer’s controlling gaze. The woman is therefore presented not as a character in her own right with her own strengths and abilities, but rather as an erotic object. According to Mulvey, “As the spectator identifies with the main male protagonist, he projects his look onto that of his like, his screen surrogate, so that the power of the male protagonist as he controls events coincides with the active power of the erotic look, both giving a satisfying sense of omnipotence." (Mulvey 1989: 20). Applying this perspective, it therefore becomes evident that the cinematic gaze cannot be viewed as a strict representation of reality; rather it is in fact, a gaze that is fashioned by the cultural context within which it appears. The patriarchal gaze that turns women into passive objects of desire is the result of the manner in which women are viewed in society, whose role is primarily one where they are subservient to the men. This is more so in the case of the black woman, who in a social context occupies a subordinated position and at the same time, is also a representation of heightened sexuality. The portrayal in the film represents a lustful, sexually desirable black woman who in effect, throws herself upon a white male, thereby allowing him latitude to ravish her because black female sexuality in effect offers itself up for exploitation by the white male. Hence, the film rather than providing a window into reality, actually manipulates this reality and shapes it to fit into the realm of male fantasy of the black woman as a subordinated object that may be sexually exploited by the white male gaze. It is Letiticia who throws herself on Hank, begging him to have sex with her, and this scene is redolent with the cultural sub text of the black female slave offering herself to her male master. It is in effect the representation of the white male fantasy of the black whore who oozes lust and is always willing for her body to be exploited. After the sexual act, when the character of Letiticia moans “I needed you so much”, this further heightens the gender and racial connotations inherent in American culture, approving and condoning the male supremacist role of the Hank character in the film. Conclusion: While the film Monsters Ball is purportedly an interracial romance, the representation of the characters is not one of equal partners. It is a portrayal where the female partner is completely subservient and dependent upon the other, having turned out a miserable failure in every aspect of her life. As opposed to this, the male character, who also goes through losses similar to the female protagonist, is able to overcome them and emerge successful. Since the female character is portrayed as a sexual object of desire, she has no recourse other than to depend upon the white male, so that the only area where she retains some initiative and aggression is in the sexual contact. In this portrayal, she represents the ultimate male fantasy of the wanton and willing whore who is completely dependent upon the male and also functions as the medium for his sexual gratification. As a result, the woman is not portrayed cinematically as a human being and a woman; rather she becomes no more than a sexual object, fashioned by the paternalistic and slave oriented cultural context which forms the underlying basis of the film. As a result, the cinematic gaze in this film is a controlling, white male gaze; it is loaded with elements that make the female protagonist no more than a sexual object, a prostitute who through her actions in offering herself to the white male, exemplifies all the negative stereotypes associated with the black, willing whore. The reality, on the other hand, is that black woman in actual society today are making significant advancements and are generally the economic supporters of their families, with levels of education and sophistication as well as equality with the white race on the rise. Hence the film Monsters Ball is not a window on reality, rather it is a loaded cinematic gaze that represents the controlling white male gaze that views the black woman as no more than a slave and a whore. References: Ebert, Roger, 2002. "Monsters Ball." Chicago Sun-Times. 1st February, 2002. Forster, Marc, 2001.  Monsters Ball.  Lee Daniels Entertainment, 2001 Mulvey, Laura, 1989. “Visual and other pleasures”, London: Macmillan. Read More