INTRODUCTION: FILM ANALYSIS - Fighting With My Family (2019)

Introduction: Analysis of Film

FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (2019)

Using the Internet Movie Database (www.imbd.com) web-based resource:

1.      The overall user rating for this film is 7.3 out of 10 (based on 20,242 IMDb users)

2.      The film did very well at the box office in it’s opening weekend in the US. It took $138,780 (14 February 2019).

3.      Overall fans have responded well to the film - not all of them are wrestling fans yet they have still enjoyed watching Fighting With My Family for the well written storyline, the humour, the well-selected cast and the strong family bond element that runs throughout. The quote entitled ‘It made me laugh’ was the one that I most agreed with: “The film was hilarious and it made me laugh constantly, I'm not familiar with the true story so I can't talk about that but I went to the cinema to watch a film that would make me laugh and it did just that.”

4.      External reviewers (also known as critics) responded positively to the film. One quote from Film Threat was, “It’s a touching and funny tale about a family chasing their unconventional dreams in the world of sports entertainment. It has such a magnificent cast, and the story is interesting enough to entertain both wrestling fans and non-wrestling fans alike.” Another quote from The Film Stage sees Jordan Raup writing, “Fighting with My Family doesn’t pull too many unexpected punches, but as someone who has never watched a split-second of wrestling in their life, the fact that I was engaged with this underdog story is a testament to the success of Merchant’s first solo directing effort.”

5.      This film falls under the genres of biography, comedy, sport and drama.

6.      There are three taglines for the film Fighting With My Family and they are ‘Based on the Incredible True Story’, ‘Meet an Outsider who changed the Game’ and ‘A Comedy About a Family That Fights a Little Differently.’

7.      The film is directed by Stephen Merchant who also directed Hello Ladies: The Movie (2014) and Cemetery Junction (2010).

8.      Here are the main stars of the film and a list of what they are currently working on:

DWAYNE JOHNSON (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson)

 Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (post-production) 2019 - role of Luke Hobbs

Untitled Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Sequel (post-production) 2019

Jungle Cruise (post-production) 2020 - role of Frank

Red Notice (pre-production) 2010

Black Adam (pre-production) - role of Black Adam

NICK FROST (Ricky Knight)

 Horrible Histories: The Movie (post-production) 2019 - role of Arghus

Vert (Short) (post-production) - role of Jeff Arghus

Stardog and Turbocat (filming) 2019 - voice of Buddy

Pugwash (pre-production) - role of Captain Pugwash

LENA HEADEY (Julia Knight)

 The Flood (post production) 2019/II - role of Wendy

Gunpowder Milkshake (pre-production) 2020 - role of Scarlet

Crooks (pre-production)

FLORENCE PUGH (Saraya ’Paige’ Knight)

 Midsommar (post-production) 2019/I - role of Dani

Little Women (post-production) 2019 - role of Amy March

Black Widow (pre-production)

JACK LOWDEN (Zak Knight)

 Fonzo (post-production) - role of Crawford

Corvidae (pre-production) - role of Thomas

VINCE VAUGHN (Hutch)

Arkansas (post-production) - role of Frog

9.      A list of some of the other films that these actors have starred in including ones that I have and haven’t heard of.

DWAYNE JOHNSON

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Skyscraper, Rampage, The Faye of the Furious, San Andreas, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Baywatch, Central Intelligence, Moana (voice), Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Hercules, Snitch, The Scorpion King, The Mummy Returns, Race to Witch Mountain.

Dwayne Johnson has been in at least 44 films with popular titles. I prefer those that show his humour.

NICK FROST

Slaughterhouse Rulez, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Spaced, Paul, Attack the Block, The Adventures of Tin Tin, Ice Age: Continental Drift

Nick Frost has been in at least 23 films. I enjoy his humour.

LENA HEADEY

300, 300: Rise of the Empire, The Purge, Dredd, The Brothers Grimm,

Lena Headey has been in at least 38 films. This actress is new to me so I am unfamiliar with her work.

FLORENCE PUGH

Malevolent, Outlaw King, King Lear, The Commuter, Lady Macbeth, The Falling.

Florence Pugh has been in at least 10 films. This actress is new to me so I am unfamiliar with her work.

JACK LOWDEN

Dunkirk, Mary Queen of Scotts, England is Mine, Calibre, A United Kingdom.

Jack Lowden has been in at least 10 films and I recognised him from Dunkirk and in a TV Series entitled The Long Song.

VINCE VAUGHN

Hacksaw Ridge, Brawl in Cell Block 99, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Term Life, Unfinished Business, Deliveryman, The Internship, The Break-Up, Wedding Crashers.

Vince Vaughn has been in at least 42 films yet I have only heard of a few, my favourite being Hacksaw Ridge as I enjoy his delivery of humour.

10.  Under ‘Fun Stuff’ (as taken from the IMDb website) several goofs took place during the filming such as:

In the opening scene where Zak and Saraya are fighting over what to watch on TV, it's on a modern flat-panel Hi-Definition TV. The scene was in 2000, when most HD television sets were in cabinets similar to old rear projection TVs, and flat-panel TVs that existed then were as expensive as a small car. An expense a family running a struggling wrestling promotion would hardly be able to afford.

Zak is seen as a young child holding a cardboard version of the WWE championship, in what appears to be 2000 from the clip he's watching. However the belt he creates is the belt introduced in 2005. You can see from the clip he's watching The Rock is holding a totally different belt (the Attitude Era World Title belt used between 1998 - 2002).

Paige is seen as a young girl holding a homemade cardboard version of the WWE Divas title, however this title wasn't introduced until 2008, by which time Paige was 16.

The movie appears to speed past anything about Paige's time in NXT, or fail to mention that she was then-current NXT Women's Champion when she won the Diva's Championship the Raw after WrestleMania in 2014.

The Diva's championship replaced the women's title in 2011. The film tries to pass off that the Diva's title was the main women's title when Paige grew up, though this was not the case.

Zak was originally the first person in the family to have try-outs with WWE.

During Paige's debut match on Raw, the movie depicts the crowd as being silent and not knowing who she was. In the real match Paige was met with loud cheers by the crowd as she was very well known to wrestling fans due to her time in NXT.

The film makes it seem as though Paige was brought up from basic training in NXT and made Divas Champion practically overnight. When in fact, Paige has been the NXT Women's Champion for quite some time and made her main roster debut while still holding the NXT Women's title. So to the many die hard wrestling fans in the building that night, she was not at all an unknown performer.

Paige never gave any heartfelt in-ring speech about winning for her family or outcasts. She exited the ring and headed towards the stage entrance giving no speech at all.

The movie makes out that Paige had moments of stage fright on the microphone. This never happened. Paige was the NXT champion and had been for several months when she made her RAW debut to loud cheering fans chanting her name, knowing exactly who she was. A.J. Lee knew who she was too, and did not say "Who are you?" She said "What are you doing here" to which Paige replied quick and confident on the microphone why she was there. Also during this event A.J. Lee was accompanied by Tamania Snuka, who is nowhere to be seen in the film. Paige also wore a purple two piece outfit, not her traditional black stockings or attire as shown in the film.

Everything in the movie regarding Paige's journey to the WWE takes place between 2010 and 2014, but the WWE logo shown is the modern straight lined logo that was introduced when the WWE Network went on the air in February 2014, but was not made the official logo of the company until after SummerSlam that same year. This whole time, they should've been showing the "scratch" logo that was the official logo from 2003 until then.

In the film, Paige is recruited to NXT in Orlando. But at the time Paige was actually signed, NXT didn't exist yet. WWE's developmental league was called FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling) and was based out of Tampa. NXT and the WWE performance center opened in Orlando well after Paige was first signed.

When Paige went to O2 for tryouts the staging states 'Smackdown Live' but Smackdown didn't turn into Smackdown Live until March 2009.

REPRESENTATION OF ETHNICITY IN BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (2002)

The representation of Asian (Sikh) families, especially the role of the women, is shown in the scene starting with Jesminder ‘Jess’ Bhamra (Parminder Nagra) an 18-year-old girl playing football as ‘one of the lads’ in the park with similar aged male friends.

She is wearing a white short sleeved football top with red stripe detail and matching shorts (an element of mise-en-scene) which reveals far too much flesh for her religious culture. Her mother, Mrs Bhamra (Shaheen Khan) accidently happens to notice the game and she is absolutely horrified at what she witnesses. Jess is being lifted by one of her friends who isn’t wearing a top and he is holding onto her leg. The males accept Jess for who she is, a mate or possibly as a younger sister figure and not as someone of a romantic nature.

Within their front room Mrs Bhamra gives Jess a huge ticking-off - displaying an angry expression, baring her teeth, frowning and she raises her right hand with gestures directed at Jess. She is wearing a traditional navy patterned sari, matching silk trousers and a white long silk scarf; she has a bindu (red spot) on her forehead and her black hair is scraped back and tied up neatly which are all elements of mise-en-scene. A framed picture of their Sikh God, Guru Nanak is positioned on the wall behind her displaying a similar pose; his is a kind positive gesture whereas hers is a livid negative one. Jess’s Mother reels off a whole list of bad points: he had his hand on her bare skin (apparently this is acceptable if she was a young girl); she was showing the world her scar - [Mr. Bhamra (Anupam Kher) joins the conversation and there are references to her sister getting engaged] - Mrs Bhamra is frustrated that she was married at her age and Jess doesn’t even want to learn how to cook dal. Jess says that she won’t be playing with the boys anymore and then says she’s joined a girl’s football team. The Mother is ranting about traditional expectations and Jess is calm talking about more modern things.

The camera is angled down on Jess to make her seem inferior and angled up at Mrs Bhamra to provide an air of power and superiority. The Mother tries to emphasise that Jess was allowed to play as a child and that should be enough. All the time she is not listening to Jess’s point of view as it goes against her religious beliefs and culture. She’s observed that Jess has caught the sun which is not an attractive feature for a future husband plus she can’t cook a round chapati. She points her finger and demands that she learns how to cook a full Punjabi dinner, both meat and vegetarian and to forget about the idea of playing football.

The Father seems quiet and submissive whilst the Mother appears to be the dominant parent by her tone of voice towards him plus she points her finger overriding what he says by commenting about other family members that have strayed from the ‘Sikh traditional path’ and she doesn’t want that shame on her family. When Mrs Bhamra leaves, he speaks calmly to Jess requesting that she must start to act like a woman which makes us believe that he agrees with his wife’s opinions, but he delivers them in a kinder, compassionate manner.

REPRESENTATION OF CLASS/STATUS IN DOWNTON ABBEY: Opening Scenes of Season 1 - Episode 1

In the series of Downton Abbey it gives the audience an insight into the lives of the aristocracy and its staff on the Downton Estate in Yorkshire. The first episode is set in 1912 as it announced the sinking of The Titanic. There is a strong representation of the hierarchy within the Crawley Family as well as within the members of the workforce. The Family are led by His Lordship Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and the staff are led by Mr Carson (Jim Carter) the Butler in charge of the wine cellar, the pantry and the dining room and the male members of staff report to him; the female staff are led by the Housekeeper Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan).

Near the beginning of the opening scene as the day starts Daisy Mason (Sophie McShera) the kitchen maid wakes two lady’s maids in an upper floor bedroom at 6am. Anna Smith (Joanne Froggatt) comments that, “For once in my life I’d like to sleep till I woke up natural” inferring that she was ruled by her position and she had no freedom regarding her option for getting up at a more reasonable hour. The room is bare and plain with just the necessities needed for the maids. The room is well lit by the early morning daylight through the sky lights that are without curtains and the window with unlined curtains lets the light through. Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) the cook in charge of the kitchen and its staff reminded poor Daisy of the whole list of jobs that she was expected to do.

Even though they are all servants to the same household they have different roles within their employment. The kitchen maid must be on duty before the lady’s maids as she must lay the servants hall breakfast, blacken the stove, light the bedroom fires, clean and lay the fires on the ground floor before the Family wakes up. Mrs Hughes expects Daisy to be finished and back down to the kitchens before anyone sees her as she is ‘unsightly’ to the Family as her job is regarded as inferior to the other members of staff. In the above screengrab Daisy is wearing a dull striped salmon-pink long dress with a long apron tied at the waist with her hair secured back in a simple bun as she is on her knees in the grate attending to the fire; Mrs Hughes has a long black dress on which makes her stand out from the rest of the females in an authoritative fashion and her hair is tied back in a neat bun at the base of her head. The lady’s maids have long grey dresses on, a long full-length white apron and a white hat positioned over their tidy hair bun.

The First Footman Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier) walks through the ground floor rooms observing that everywhere looks presentable for when the ‘family’ come down for their breakfast. He has neatly combed and parted dark hair and he is wearing a black jacket, waistcoat and trousers; a white studded shirt and standing collar with a bow tie which gives him a rank above the men below him such as William Mason (Thomas Howes) the Second Footman who lays the tablecloths and irons the morning newspapers to dry the ink which stops his Lordship from getting ink on his hands. This demonstrates the lengths that they had to go to for the upper classes indicating that it was unheard of for the gentry to soil their hands on such a mundane object as a newspaper. The camera focuses on this bizarre task in a close-up shot.

When Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) a daughter of Robert Crawley woke up in the morning, she summoned the staff downstairs by pulling a lever to ring a servant’s bell to communicate with them that she required their presence to bring her tea tray to her bedroom. Her bedroom has long heavy drapes at the tall windows, high quality wooden furniture, a four-poster bed, red and cream patterned wallpaper and a silver candlestick on her bedside table which represents wealth. Downstairs, the entire staff are seated at the long servant’s hall breakfast table in order of importance with Mr Carson at the head of the table and the least important members of staff furthest away from him.

When Crawley himself descends the staircase, he displays excellent deportment with a straight back and perfect posture. He is in a smart, high-quality dark brown three-piece suit with white shirt and brown tie. In the Dining Room he displays some air of snobbery as he converses with Carson regarding the morning’s headlines about the sinking of The Titanic, expecting the survivors to include the ‘ladies in first class.’ He then sounds a little more compassionate yet condescending by saying, “God help the poor devils below decks…on their way to a better life.” Carson stands near the wall between the sideboard and the window as if standing to attention awaiting instructions as His Lordship selects his breakfast then reads the newspaper; his back is straight and he positions his arms behind his back. He is also wearing a dark suit, but it would be of a lower-class material than his superiors.

At this time in history the upper classes were quite snooty concerning the class of people believing themselves to be of far more importance than the lower classes even to the concepts of them having more privileges to being saved on a sinking ship above the rights of those inferior to them. 

REPRESENTATION OF ABILITY/DISABILITY IN WONDER (2017): School Tour Scene

The scene is set in a science lab in the American Beecher Prep, which is a private school, as the newcomer Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) is being taken on a tour by three established students. All four young characters are wearing casual clothes and are not in school uniform which gives them all their own individual identity. This event happens just before Auggie attends full-time for the start of the fifth grade as previously he has been home-schooled by his mother. The 10-year-old lad suffers from Treacher Collins syndrome which is a genetic disorder that affects his eyes, ears, cheekbones and his chin. It is interesting to see, and to hear, his peers’ reaction to his appearance and their understanding of his condition, or rather lack of it, when they first meet him on this visit.

Initially, an obnoxious Julien (Bryce Gheisar) immediately perceives Auggie as being unable and incapable of basic things let alone any academic skills he may have due to his physical appearance and therefore makes the assumption that he is mentally impaired as well. He has judged him on his observations before learning anything about him and some of his comments are cruel and uncalled for. He refers to science as being difficult and implies that it is way too advanced for someone who hasn’t been in a real school before and then he tries to soften this direct approach by adding that he meant ‘no offence’.

The camera focuses on Auggie’s reaction to this naive boy’s remarks. His head is tilted forward which lowers his chin making him lower his gaze and this makes the audience feel empathy for this young boy who is having to deal with this similar aged lad’s ignorance. Auggie isn’t used to interacting with children as he has been protected from the unkindness in the ‘outside world’ by his parents. Jack (Noah Jupe) tries to stand up for Auggie and gets knocked down by Julien’s cutting remarks about them possibly both taking science and failing together. Julien starts the tour of the science lab by stating the different pieces of scientific equipment such as incubators, Bunsen burners and gross science posters then he picks up an eraser and makes a point of belittling Auggie making out that he wouldn’t know what one was. Julien remarks that he doesn’t know what Auggie knows as ‘he’ doesn’t speak thus passing the onus back onto the new lad.

Auggie has positioned himself on the periphery of the group and his body language is displaying someone who is uncomfortable in its surroundings. He has his body part-turned away from them allowing him to face the shelves so as not to give eye-contact; his head is bowed down and his shoulders are slumped forward to make himself seem smaller and less conspicuous. After Auggie asks Jack a question about what his name is, he has a question posed to him from Julien, which is unkind and straight to the point regarding his face. Both Jack and Charlotte (Elle McKinnon) are shocked by his insensitive query yet Julien continues to wonder whether Auggie was involved in a fire as well as being born ‘that way’. There are raised voices until the camera focuses on Auggie in a close-up head shot; it travels backwards to follow his movement forwards towards Julien whilst he’s improving Julien’s speech in a low, soft tone of voice; he tells him that he has pronounced ‘supposebly’ incorrectly and that it should be said as ‘supposedly’ in a non-mocking way. He even suggests, in an innocent and genuine manner showing no malice, that his Mum could possibly home school him too. Auggie demonstrates that he is intelligent and well educated as he indicates that the word is spelt with a ‘d’ and he mentions how many times that Julien has said the word inaccurately. Jack feels pride for Auggie indirectly putting Julien in his place; Charlotte is quietly impressed and Julien is left feeling humbled by this remark as he looks a little bewildered by making a swallowing action and puts on a brief false smile.

Binary opposites help to move the narrative of this scene along as in this School Tour scene we have an able-bodied young lad demonstrating his ignorance when he is addressing a similar aged disabled lad. His lack of understanding and inexperience ‘shoots him in the foot’ as his tactless approach results in him feeling the foolish one when it is revealed that the newcomer is in fact a very bright and clever young man. 

Jacob Tremblay who plays the role of Auggie went through the transformation of becoming the disfigured young main male protagonist for the film Wonder. They reduced the three-hour make-up application down to one and a half hours so as this 9-year-old boy could cope with the length of filming that this role dictated. As the film progresses the audience feel compassion and understanding towards this character and to other young disabled people that this role is symbolising. It highlights not only the major problems but the everyday complications and difficulties that less-abled people have to face on a daily basis that able-bodied people take for granted.