Gender Roles in the Angels in America - Movie Review Example

Gender roles in the movie Angels in America directed by Mike Nichols Introduction: Starting from the early dawn of human civilization to the moderntime, a lot of changes have occurred in the socio-cultural context and perception of gender discourse within the same domain. Prior to inception of 20th century intellectual movement, social construction was considered to be founded on certain conventional outlook, such as, men will play role of earners and they will also act as leaders or decision maker of a family; whereas, women are considered as submissive, humble and expected to follow certain archetypical role, such as, mother, daughter and wife. They also were regarded as an instrument of child procreation or avenues of sensual satisfaction. Despite there are historical references regarding practice of same sex relationships, but in Western social discourse such practices were never actually encouraged; consequently, sufficient efforts were also made by the conventional social structure so that such practices can be strictly discouraged. The 20th century intellectual revolution, different range of perception regarding gender and rejection of conventional sense of morality introduced drastic change within the Western socio-cultural arena. Though it cannot be said that conventional approaches towards homosexuality, perception of roles played by men or women changed entirely, there is no denial of the fact that compared to early times a great deal of changes occurred in this existing scenario. Compared to different other Western social contexts, American society and its cosmopolitan cultural domain provided an additional impetus towards practicing or enjoying such liberal or spontaneous approaches. Thesis Statement: Mick Nichols’ film, Angels in America, which is an adoption of Tony Kushner’s drama with the same name, reflects different traits of gender interaction and identity crisis within the American social domain and how aspects like, politics or AIDS have affected the lives of common people, coming from different spheres of American life. Role of Gender and Politics of Identity crisis: Angels in America Plot of the film is centered on American society during the 1980s, when, on one hand, the American society was undergoing a very sensitive political situation under governance of President Regan and on the other hand, onslaught of AIDS left its deep impression at the psychical level of common people. On the backdrop of such social and emotional crisis, the plot of Angels in America actually shows emotional and relational conflict of human beings. The film does not contain a lot of characters, but if a careful observation is casted on nature of each character, we will find that they have been portrayed as representatives of people from different layers of American society, “Bringing together an impressive array of characters …” the Angels in America “…places itself explicitly in the current American conflict over identity politics yet also situates that debate in broader historical context …” (Geis, and Kruger 2). Title of the film as well as the opening scene carries a deep connotation to provide a clear impression to the audience about the theme that it actually aims to focus on. Title of the film bears a deep utopian connotation as if the contemporary ongoing American social and political turmoil can only be redeemed with the divine interference. The very opening scene shows movement of camera through clouds and occasional focus on the impression of congested urban existence beneath. Finally, movement of the camera becomes downward and focuses over face of an angelic architecture that seems to be coming to life (Angles in America 2003). It seems that the director wishes to imply symbolically that time has come so that every human being can explore the angelic self of himself/herself: the time has come that every human being is required to shade off the utilitarian cloak of existence and try to control the course of respective actions with their initiatives. The continuous contradiction of human existence has also been made clear by the director through continuous overlapping of utopian and dystopian existence, either explicitly or implicitly, “Throughout Angles in America the utopia/dystopia coupling … plays itself out through a host of binary oppositions: Heaven/Hell, forgiveness/retribution, communitarianism/individualism, spirit/flesh, pleasure/pain, beauty/decay, future/past, homosexuality/heterosexuality, rationalism/indeterminacy, migration/staying put, progress/stasis, life/death. Each of these functions … as … a figure of undecidability whose contradictory being becomes an incitement to think the impossible: revolution” (Savran 18). It is interesting to see that application, rather use of such binary oppositions have been done both in the contexts of conflicting gender roles and their conventional attitude, quite in contradiction to general social perception. If we take the examples of Joe, Harper and Roy, it becomes evident that while Roy represents the theme of conventional male flamboyance and success to dominate, Joe is quite meek and non-expressive. Quite contrast to both these characters, Harper is different as being a female also she has a very clear and aggressive attitude towards sensuality, which remains unfilled by Joe and if given the scope, she makes it clear through her actions, she also can be equally flamboyant like her male counterparts (Angles in America 2003). On the other hand, if a comparison is done between the natures of Louis and Prior, we find that in their homosexual relationship, Louis is playing the role of a female and that is also quite close the conventional social approach regarding women, while on the other, Prior is very much masculine. He loves to dominate Louis, make him cry with the news that AIDS is gradually taking its hold over him or by inflicting harsh behavior to throw him away (Angles in America 2003). Thus, the Angels in America, within its vast scope provides us with an impression of the society that is confusing and despite the fact that each of the characters has an individual humane connotation of their own but they actually are failing to identify themselves properly. It is perhaps due to such prevailing confusion, and repeated failure to understand oneself, the impression of decay or somberness become so explicit in the film. Thus, the observation of Carla J. McDonough regarding the Angels in America becomes quite relevant as she has suggested that narrative of the film “provides a portrait of a decaying American culture” (McDonough 165). If the decay in American culture, what has been shown in the film, is interpreted in terms of moral degradation then it may be right from conventional moral aspects but keeping in mind the setting of the film, such interpretation may not receive much appreciation; rather the issues of identity crisis or theme of lack of hope, which has repeatedly emerged through the film, is actually representative of the degradation of American culture. AIDS has definitely played an important role to determine the characters’ course of action and also has determined the foundation for identity crisis with American socio-cultural context. Thus, if it is suggested that Angels in America also projects the issues of “…queer identity and concludes that it offers and openly disruptive, contradictory mingling of identities …” (Murphy 36), it will not be wrong. Works Cited Angels in America. Mike Nichols. California: Avenue Pictures Productions. 2003 Geis, Deborah R. and Kruger, Steven F. Approaching the millennium: essays on Angels in America. McDonough, Carla J. Staging Masculinity: Male Identity in Contemporary American Drama. North Carolina: McFarland. 2006. Murphy, Timothy F. Readers guide to lesbian and gay studies. London: Taylor & Francis. 2000. Savaran, David. “Ambivalence, Utopia, and a Queer Sort of Materialism: How Angles in America Reconstructs the Nation. Approaching the millennium: essays on Angels in America. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. 1997. Read More