CLUELESS 1995

 

  

CLUELESS is a movie made in 1995. It was directed and written by Amy Heckerling. This movie is rated PG-13 and considered to be a comedy or romantic film. CLUELESS is certainly a celebration of unapologetic femininity. The main character takes responsibility for her actions, cares for her loved ones, and constantly goes after what she wants. Cher, Dionne, and Tai are confident women who are empowered by their personal choices and through their friendship with one another to be the best versions of themselves they can be. Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies and social movements that share a common goal that to define, establish and achieve political, economic, personal, and social rights for women. The history of feminism is composed of 3 waves which are first wave between 1792 to 1960’s, second wave between 1960’s to 1990’s and third wave between 1990’s to present time.

The first wave marked the beginning of the women’s movement toward equality. Mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century had much activity for the women’s movement. Women wanted to improve with education, employment, and marriage laws. The right to vote became a key factor that voice their opinion. Creation of American Women Suffrage Association. During World War One, women had more job opportunities. This period ended in 1960. In addition, the second wave of feminism came from the civil right movement of the 1960’s. Women were being oppressed and this era was called liberation. Liberation is the free woman from the oppressive practice of patriarchy, and woman’s second class societal understanding of woman. This era was about ending gender bias in society. Besides, the third feminist wave came from the 1990’s after the second wave of feminism began to reach adulthood. This wave emphasized the politics of language and culture issues growing in the 1990’s. They also focused on reinventing woman’s identities, languages and symbols.

Feminist theory is the common goal in feminism is to define, recognize and achieve equal right for women. The literary theory of feminism explain one’s work, defend literature’s value, analyze and interpret works for those that may not understand them. Feminist theory is to establish the impact of gender when writing and reading a text. It also to recognize a patriarchal culture in literature. Feminist theory is to see how women are portrayed in texts. It also to determine whether gender effects everything, or that all gender differences are imposed by society, and gender determines nothing.

The synopsis of CLUELESS is about the shallow, rich and socially successful Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school’s pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other. Emboldened by her success, she decides to give hopelessly klutzy new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) a makeover. When Tai becomes more popular than she is, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) was right about how misguided she was and falls for him.

The character Cher is a person that likes shopping, fashion, cartoons, cute guys, giving, Calvin Klein, entertainment shows, losing weight and makeovers. But the archetype of Cher is hero. In the movie CLUELESS, Cher is the leading lady and the hero. Her life is not quite like the others around her but it is close enough. She is a rich and pretty teenager. She deals with problems average teenagers do not such as not being able to wear her “most capable looking outfit” for her driving test. She takes the whole movie to realize her act and change into a better person by the end. She also has archetype of shadow such as Cher has to defeat is by herself and to overcome the type of person she once was and figure out what she wants. Her switch as a person is somewhat drastic. Although her attitude is the only real thing that changes, it switches things up a bit. Cher becomes an improved person and matures into the person she wants to be.

The character Tai is a person that likes drawing, popularity, the song of ‘Rollin’ With The Homies’, Elton, coke and sex. Tai was the new girl at school, who Cher and Dionne “adopted” and transformed to be more like them. With her approval, she was improved with new clothes, better vocabulary and so on. Her exterior was changed for good not evil and her personality never dramatically changed. She is boy crazed and thinks that every guy is in love with her and or is just simply obsessed.

The character Josh is a person that likes the news, jokes, plaid, good reads, law, politics, music and collage. Josh has a archetype of mentor. Josh is Cher’s ex-stepbrother. He teases her often, as every older brother should. Josh teaches Cher about how selfish and inconsiderate she can be by calling her names like “brat” and “a superifical space cadet”. All of this helps her figure out that she does not want to be that type of person and helps her change.

The character Christian is a person that likes holiday, disco dancing, beautiful and interesting things, good investments and art. He has archetype of trickster. For example, Christian is a normal high school boy. He is very simple but still makes a statement. Cher refuses to date any of the boys in high school because they are all “dogs” however when Christian shows up, things change. He is mature and has a sense of fashion which Cher loves. It takes a while and some talk from Murray but Cher finds out that Christian is a great guy, but she cannot date him due to the fact that he is gay.

The scenes or shots that use in opening montage of Cher and friends gives viewers the clue that the setting is someplace warm and sunny such as natural, bright sunlight for the lighting. Long shot of Cher’s “classic’72” mansion where she lives with her father. Long shot of the mansion best friend Dionne lives in. Not only that, long shot of Dionne which suggests there is some bit of diversity where Cher lives. The lighting that use in the shots are all bright and highlight the colors of the costumes, makeup, and scenery. The props, costume and makeup hat show in this movie is the main characters are carrying designer handbags, wearing designer clothes and designer jewelry. Cher has a computer that picks out matching clothes for her. Short shot of a group of girls who have bandaged noses that suggesting they all have enough money to pay for nose jobs.

In summary, CLUELESS is a movie based off an average teenager’s life. The main character’s name is Cher, and she is named after the singer. Cher is very free-spirted, but her father is the opposite. Cher’s father is a very serious lawyer, and barely interacts with her. Although Cher can be very ditsy and blonde, throughout the movie you discover that she has a big heart. The movie starts off when Cher is playing matchmaker and coaxes two of her teachers into dating.