Representation of Gender - Sherlock Holmes

Representation of Gender - Sherlock Holmes
Essay Retake

The clip opens with an establishing shot to display the setting of the scene. The scene is London at around an early 20th Century perspective. This quickly changes to a long shot that pans the movement of a horse and carriage before getting an insight into the carriage where the camera zooms in on the main protagonist, Sherlock Holmes. In this part of the scene, Holmes appears wearing clothing that is not particularly associated with stereotypical male protagonists as the clothing is unique and out of the ordinary. This is compared to the surrounding characters who dress in formal suits and uniform to express that they are upper class and from the time as well as exerting order and power. The colour of Holmes' clothing is white which sets the character apart from the supporting characters and society as he appears wearing bright clothing whereas the other characters wear darker clothing, typically black clothing. This allows the focus of attention to be on Holmes as he is at this point. A stern facial expression from Holmes emphasises confidence and intelligence of the character as it looks like the character is probably being analytical at this point and thinking a head of what is to come at the end of the journey. The make-up of the character place emphasis on Holmes' face as the character appears to be beaten due to cuts and blooded areas on the character's face. This is a stereotypical characteristic of a male protagonist as they are perceived as strong, determined and can fight through punishment. As the character faces directly toward the character, Holmes' appears to provide a slight smile, which emphasises the character's confidence while trying to do so unnoticed by the other characters. A darkened lighting is present behind Holmes' and slightly over the other characters to further emphasise that the protagonist is the centre of attention in this scene. 

As the characters enter the Parliament building through an over the shoulder shot perspective, the point of view here is that the troops are darkened, which suggests that the characters are represented as superior due to higher authority. This then jump cuts to the front of the march where Holmes is restrained by another character. Holmes continues with the determined attitude by keeping a blank facial expression in which he may appear lifeless. Whereas the other male character confident as he retains appearing like a villain by turning Holmes in to the main antagonist. Following this, an establishing is displayed. Here we can see that the characters within the building are of high authority. This is shown as they are wearing high level clothes, such as suits, top hats and pocket watches. All of these items are associated with wealth. This gives the impression that women are generally accepted (due to a stereotype) to be inferior as these clothes are generally only made for males.

The next scene opens with a close up of the two characters, centred in the frame. This is then followed by a cut, leading to a close up of the main antagonist. The antagonist appears wearing formal black and white clothing, thus suggesting that the character has high authority and wealth. The character has black hair and a clean cut, these are factors that stereotype a character as a villain. The character also has a beard. These are often associated with strength and raw power, which is the desired image and stereotype (that men are powerful and always strong). Also in this scene is the fact that in all places where there is a male presence the decor is of gold or expensive items. This could be further representative of the importance that males have in society as gold is often associated and represents high class and superiority, in this particular scenario, the male gender as a whole. 

As Holmes wanders around the room with the use of a panning movement, Holmes goes to turn the extractor fan on. In this shot the camera is clearly pointing upward and by doing this the director emphasising is the characters control over the situation, this could further link back to the question as it could be representative of the fact that males are stereotypically level headed and in control of situations. The relatively calm colours of white and black used could also be representative of the commonly used stereotype that males are always level headed and can stay calm in an otherwise stressing situation/environment. Throughout this section of the video the transitions between different shots are largely jump cuts and fade effects, the latter could be representative of the tranquility and calmness in which men can stereotypically deal with stressful situations. The jump cuts in this scene are largely used in order to create tension as well as Holmes' intelligence as he analyses the other characters clothing to identify a necessary location. Both of these transition effects back up points made earlier, for example the jump cuts that are quick are generally used to increase tension, this is likely to give the effect that the situation is quite intense and this then represents the stereotype I talked earlier about that males are strong and have a lot of power. This would cause the situation to be more tense as it is more equal. 

During this scene, when it cuts to the male in the sewers, the initial camera angle is a sort of areal view, giving the effect of vulnerability and isolation, thus portraying that in some scenarios even males (agreeing with the stereotype that normally they can always cope with situations) can be out of their depth. In a way this can be seen to promote gender equality as it gives the effect that both men and women can be out of their depth and that men went always totality in control of everything. This effect is, however reversed when we later see an up-tilted camera angle, this re-imposes the genes superiority as a camera pointing up is indicative of power and superiority. 

The lighting in the house of commons scenes is natural while by contrast, the sewer scenes are darker. This is representative of the stereotype that males are conformable;e in most situations. This gives of the general effect that the stereotype that the male gender is the strongest and most easily adaptive, as they can deal with multiple scene changes and receive no effects.

When Holmes jumps out of the window and into the river and we see the male, Dr Watson, on the boat, he is higher placed in the set consistently, which could again be signifying in-gender superiority. In this same scene there are various shots of a woman, she is clearly not important though, as the shots are short and the editors have sped up the transition speeds. We do however, get a chance to see what she is wearing, it is a tweed style (grey) coat which could represent efforts to fit in to make society in order to get some importance. She has though still got lipstick on to keep her feminism. meaning that women always try to make themselves appealing to men, this is also caused with her hair, as it is nicely made up and is styled in a fashionable (for then) way. 

The conclusion is that this video focuses largely on male superiority. As the whole idea of men fighting with guns and action is what expected of a male in that situation, stereotypically. Also touched on is how women sometimes attempt to fit into society that is run by males. Another point we can conclude from this video clip is that it also emphasises in-gender superiority throughout.