I chose to score the movie Bad News Bears. This movie is about a washed up baseball player who has been assigned by his lawyer to coach a little league team. Morris Buttermaker is assigned to the worst team in the league and he has to teach these kids how to play ball so they can become a winning team. I thought this was a good movie to score because Buttermaker has a problem with alcohol and women. This movie scored a 3 on the rep test which can give you an idea of what kind of movie this is. There are women who are “objects for male gaze” and there is some racist jokes made in the film. 

The first question that jumps out to me was “Does the film avoid perpetrating an extreme and unhealthy body ideal for men?” and this is because of how Buttermaker is presented. Buttermaker is a drunk who always has a slutty looking girl with him. Buttermaker is dressed and looks like he does not keep up with his personal health. This is seen in several films and it is even more obvious in this film because Buttermaker is the main character in this film. 

The next question that stopped me was “does the film represent women as more than an object of male gaze.” This movie did not score well in the Women category because throughout this movie women are seen as objects of male gaze. The team needed a sponsor for their jerseys and the only company that would sponsor them was a local strip club. buttermaker is always seen with women who look like they should be working in a strip club. The Bears had a dinner at a local bar and of course Buttermaker walks into the dinner with a girl who is obviously going to catch the attention of every guy in the bar. This movie did not pass this category because of the way it makes women look.

In terms of the Race category there was not any big racism or stereotypes. There is a black player on the team and an Indian on the team. This done not seem to be a problem with the team so it passed the race category. None of the characters were judges or harassed because of race. Because of this it adds up the score on the rep test.

The test passed only two categories in the rep test and received a D. I don't think this is a fair way of grading a movie because movies like The Bad News Bears are just trying to make the audience laugh and you have to put in some offensive characteristics in the movie to make people laugh. If we can laugh at our society it makes things easier. It would be extremely hard to make a good movie that would pass all criteria on the rep test. This test does not decide if the movie is good or not. I think it all depends on what kind of movie it is. The Bad News Bears did not score well on the rep test and it is a classic movie.

Scott Fisher