It was no surprise that the movie I
chose, Shooter did not pass the
Representation Test. The plot line of the movie consists of a man who was in the
military and his skill was to be the best at shooting at extremely long
distances. He was the best too, but he fell into solitude in the mountains when
his country turned on him and left him whilst under fire with his best friend
dead next to him. Some men come showing up to his house to asking him to plan
an assassination on the president so that they could prevent him, but once
again his country had turned on him and ended up setting him up for an
assassination attempt on the president and for murdering the Arch Bishop of a
country they were striving towards peace with. The rest of the movie he spends
trying to prove his innocence, and trying to get revenge on the men who set him
up.
Before he could do that, however, he needed to get treated
for gun shot wounds. Remembering that his best friend’s wife was in nursing
school at the time that he died, Bob Lee Swagger showed up at her house to get
treated. Turns out she had stopped nursing school when her husband died and she
was now a third grade teacher, but even so she treated Swagger in her house
with common house hold items bought at the grocery store. She was there to
help, not just there for “objects for the male gaze.” She does happen to get
kidnapped in only a bra and pants and there are a couple scenes with her
wearing that, but for the most part of the movie she is dressed in conservative
clothing and she is more portrayed as the innocent type since she is a third
grade teacher.
There is one woman that is African American and although she
did not appear often, she had some speaking roles and she worked for the FBI
giving off the impression that she is a woman of power.
This movie is a difficult one to get some diversity of men’s
body types in it because the protagonist was in the military so he is obviously
going to be extremely fit. He was in great shape, being able to take down men
while harshly injured. Also, because he had been framed for an attempted
assassination on the president, the rest of the men in the movie were all
agents of some sort and in good shape. If they were not in good shape, then
they were old men who were either extremely skinny, or very fat (AKA the
senator).
This movie was very big on glorifying violent men. The
senator was very violent because he killed off an entire village just to put a
pipeline through it. The Colonel (the only man of color in the film) had helped
to kill them off, had men working for him that were very violent, had framed
Swagger, got Swagger’s girl kidnapped, and used one of his men as bait knowing
very well he would die. And of course swagger was a violent man because he had
to kill to prove his innocence and get revenge, and his profession was shooting
people at distances.
The movie did not have any LGBT People in it, and the only
person with a disability was the man used as bait. He had a very important role
in the movie because he was a key part of proving Swagger’s innocence, but more
importantly his disability was a key part of his role in the movie, making it
to where a point could not be added to The Representation Test.
Lastly, the man who directed it was a person of color, and
what is interesting is that the man who had a disability in the movie was a
co-writer. But, due to me being at an airport right now with extremely
restricted Wi-Fi that blocks any website with a picture on it, I have no
ability to find out if he is truly disabled or not. Shooter, as a movie, I would give 5 pickles because it is my
favorite movie, but based off of The Representation Test, this movie would get
about 1 ½ pickles, especially since it only made a C on The Representation Test.
I personally do not believe in The Representation Test or
the Bechtel Test. I get that they are trying to help to achieve women’s rights,
or equality for all, but that isn’t going to sell. People want to see
attractive actors falling in love. Men want to see girls with great bodies, and
women want to see men with even better bodies. It’s how movies sell and that
wont change. What can change is making them both successful, and that is
happening in movies. Having good looks will not make women less equal then men,
but having these girls with good looks play dumb will. Its not the actual
actresses that are setting men and women apart, it is the role that they play
that does this. And that is why I like this movie and the main actress in it.
She is smart, beautiful, and healthy looking. Swagger goes to her for help, and
she saves his life. The other main woman is a high authority figure in the FBI.
She is also very fit, and beautiful, and I don’t see how this could be a
problem for society.
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