How Does Bringing up Baby Invert the Trajectory of the Romantic Comedy - Book Report/Review Example

For you to fill in For you to fill in For you to fill in Due How does Bringing up Baby "invert the standard trajectory of the romantic comedy and the cultural norm of male-dominated courtship patterns Introduction Romantic comedies tend to contain light hearted, amusing story lines that give confidence in the viewer that romantic love is possible, can overcome all obstacles and that mostly no matter how crazy the situation there is someone, somewhere out there for us.! Bringing up the baby with its fast pace, screwball antics and riskiness on the face of it certainly does just that. Described as the "cinematic equivalent of red bull" (Valdez), the fast paced film concludes in love overcoming the series of accidents, mishaps, zany antics that shape and mold this 1930's classic. The two main protagonists Susan and David are portrayed by actress Katharine Hepburn and actor Cary Grant playing against type in a classic "conflict" of the sexes: a mad-cap, scheming, aggressive, impulsive, accident-prone and daffy society heiress, and a bumbling, clumsy, absent-minded, straight, nerdy and stuffy paleontologist from a natural history museum.( Dirks) It is these against type characters that see Bringing Up Baby deviate from the supposed trajectory of films of this era. It is important to remember the historical timing of this film; the 1930's was time between two world wars, shortly after the Great Depression and only 18 years after national women's suffrage had been granted in the US. The film is widely credited with being the first, obvious and blatant time the word gay was ever used in the context of homosexuality.i When the film was released, its failure at the box office led to Hepburn having to buy her way out of her contract and Hawks ( the director ) being sacked from RKOii . A number of film critics attribute the failure of the film due to the fact that it was way before it's timeiii. Baby and George The scene in which this essay concentrates is when Susan and David embark on their slapstick hunt for 'George', the dog responsible for the stealing and supposed burying of David's precious bone and ' Baby' the leopard. As a dog barks in the distance David shouts with excitement "that's a dog" and the two scramble after the sound into a dense bush. Often the typical romantic comedy is said to revolve around the improbability of the love match between the two main protagonists and certainly, at first glance this scene appears to follow the formula. The ensuing chase through the woods is full of misdoings by Susan and the consequences, normally negative that fall on David. However this is where the scene on closer examination begins to deviate from the normal formula applicable to romantic comedy and hint of a hidden depth below the surface. To begin with David assumes what we could consider to be the stronger male position, persuading Susan to keep back as they crawl through the bush with a "let me go first" for fear that Susan might get hurt- whilst simultaneously allowing all the branches from the bushes to hit her on the face. However when Susan, shortly afterwards is trapped by poison ivy, David refuses to rescue her citing that his fianc, a Miss Swallow, would be unlikely to get herself trapped in such a situation- rejecting Susan, who is seemingly pretends not to notice David's apparent dislike for her. Throughout the next scenes dealt with by this essay he repeatedly rejects, puts down and protests Susan, he is also relatively rude to her telling her to "shut up" and speaks harshly to her on a number of occasions. There are a number of interesting reviews and theories that point to this part of the film in considering to what extent this film deviates from standard trajectories of male dominated courtship patterns. The male dominated courtship pattern in films, particularly of this era often see's the male protagonist as strong, self assured confident, able to provide for the weaker and less self assured women. In Bringing up Baby we see a clear role reversal with Susan as the dominating, confident women and David, following Susan around despite all his better instincts, putting his confidence and faith in her despite repeated mistakes. This is seen in a number of occasions- for example when they try to cross the stream and Susan glibly announces that the stream is shallow and that they would experience no problems in crossing it. With that the two of them attempt to cross the stream only to find it is in fact a deep pool that covers them both from head to toe in water- David emerges further exasperated by Susan. The laughs in Bringing up Baby are real, almost completely disguising its deft analyses of 1930s-style gender expectations, sex, and marriage. So suspicious was the censor of the script's deeper and possibly sexual meanings that Huxley's quest to find his "lost bone" was queried as a reference to lost masculinity. (Cinema Snob) If the search for the lost bone and the dog that takes place could be considered part of David's lost sexuality - also exemplified in other parts of the film with the famous 'dressing' gown incident. Then Susan's hunt for the leopard also represents her passionate, sensual and savvy sexuality. This is particularly exemplified when she goes on all fours in the bush- the image is one of a provocative, come play with me woman, David's response, is a somewhat nervous and predictable " it is not time to play games". This underlying play with sexuality demonstrates that the film also turns on their head the expectations of gender roles, sex and marriage in the US in the 1930's and thus challenges the assumed notions of romantic comedy during that time. The Hawksian Woman The term 'Hawksian Woman' was first identified by Naomi Wise in 1972. The actress depicts a strong female character who has no problems in speaking her mind and getting what she wants, by contrast David is a much weaker character. "Such sex reversals become the dominant theme in Hawks celebrated comedies where they often work to comically undermine such rigid social and sexual differences between men and women" (John E. O'Connor, Peter C. Rollins, 116) In the scene that this essay refers to we see that despite attempts at asserting his masculinity David repeatedly listens to, takes orders from and is persuaded by Susan, despite the fact that her suggestion tend to end in disaster. We also see Susan as a failed domestic goddess, something else untypical of gender role expectations of the time. While they both sit by the fire in an attempt to dry of after crossing the river, Susan inadvertently sets fire to David's sock. When it becomes apparent that the sock is beyond salvation she throws the other sock into the fire as well. Later on she falls down the hill, bumps into David and they both end up sprawled on the floor and David's glasses end up broken. Both these events show Susan's inability at domestic matters, challenging expectations of women at that time and alluding to Hawks feminist tendencies. One of the functions of the Hawksian women is to lead the male character from a state of emotional aloofness to a discovery of his real feelings (John E. O'Connor, Peter C. Rollins, 116) As the characters progress through the scene David is driven to breaking from his normal, aloof, polite, nerdy self to expressing rawer emotions of anger and frustration. David tries very hard to send Susan home citing that it would be best for both of them and rejecting Susan and her well meaning ways. This acknowledgement of emotional constipation in the 1930's in itself is unusual. David, the paleontologist is dedicated to his work not to ridiculous notions of love and flights of fancy; Susan however throughout the hunt succeeds in breaking him down by provoking him to anger. Provoking David to exasperated, finally demand that Susan goes home. Despite the feminine tears designed to melt David's heart, Susan meanwhile continues to play the role of the seductress, shortly after David's cruel words she trips over a branch and pleas to stay with him to continue the search for the dog and leopard. As David heart thaws they move closer and closer together in an almost embrace. David repeatedly attempts to take control over the situation at various times during the scene, when at the end of the part covered by this essay he responds to Susan's question of what she can do it is a shaky and unconvincing ""don't do it until I let you know." ( Bringing Up Baby) Susan is also clearly the one on the dominant courtship role, as both characters tumble down the slope out of the bush it is Susan who places her net over David's head, snaring him on the hunt that they are on and to say I got you! Conclusion The combination of Susan's strong, confident women role and David's weaker, un-macho role means that this scene challenges many of the social stereo types of the time and thus the typical courtship played out in films of that era which saw the male in control and dominating is inverted and turned on its head. The definition of romantic comedy of one that see's two protagonists, opposed to each other, in an improbable situation seemingly fits well with Bringing Up Baby and in particular this scene. However the term screwball comedy fits much better when attempting to define the scene of this film. Screwball films have been defined as Films where everything was juxtaposition: educated and uneducated, rich and poor, intelligent and stupid, honest and dishonest, and most of all male and female. When two people fell in love, they did not simply surrender to their feelings, they battled it out. (Modern Times) The scene covered by this essay does exactly that in classic style! the characters are engaged from the first moment the beginning of their hunt for the lost leopard in a battle and everything about them is opposite and up-side down from what we had come to expect. Yes there is a love story below the surface but it is marred and becomes seemingly impossible from the myriad of mishaps that occur during the film. By looking at this scene we can see that the standard trajectories of romantic comedy and male dominated courtship have been inverted by turning gender roles upside down and playing with the expectations of marriage, sex and relationships of the 1930's Bibliography Books 1.John E. O'Connor, Peter C. Rollins, Hollywood's West: The American Frontier in Film, Television, and History Published by University Press of Kentucky, 2005 Websites 2.Dirks Tim Bringing Up Baby Review 1938 Film Site, 1996-2008 Accessed 10/11/2008 http://www.filmsite.org/brin.html 3.Johnson Bill The Art of Romantic Comedy 1996 A story is a promise, Accessed 10/11/2008 http://www.storyispromise.com/wromance.htm 4.Valdez Joe Bringing up Baby 16/7/2006, This Distracted Globe, Accessed 10/11/2008 http://thisdistractedglobe.com/2006/06/16/bringing-up-baby-1938/ DVD 5. Bringing Up Baby. Dir Howard Hawks Per: Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Warner Bro 1938 Read More