I saw Point Break the day it opened in theatres. I could not wait, it was Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in the same movie, it has to be good right? Well it is good action flick. Unfortunately, Keanu is better to look at then to listen to. He's just not the best actor in the world. I am the first to admit that. He worked it well in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but for serious movies there is just something about his acting that bugs me. Even so, I will still see pretty much any of his movies. He is fun to look at.
I own the movie so I have seen it a million times. But it's not until you watch it with a critical eye that you start to notice certain things about the movie. Since the beginning of this class was have talked about the male gaze. Well in Point Break it is all about the female gaze and I really did not realize that until we really starting talking about it in class. That would be one of the reasons I have watched it a million times. Keanu Reeves, Wow! Hunka, Hunka burnin' love. He does look good in this movie. His tight shirts, the wetsuits, and many scenes where he does not even wear a shirt. You can not help but just stare at him as well as the other male characters in the film. Patrick Swayze is another one that you can not take your eyes off of.
Like we discussed in class. There is obviously a lot of the female gaze going on. But there is also the male gaze. That male gaze would be on the only female character in the movie Tyler, Johnny Utah's love interest. The scene where she is changing in the parking lot out of her bikini with just a towel wrapped around her, I am sure that got the attention of many men. Then also at the end of the movie when Rosie releases Tyler in the desert, she is only wearing a little nightgown. There was another scene where I believe both the male and female gaze was happening. That was the scene when Tyler and Johnny are lying in
bed together and he is rubbing her arm. I still to this day really enjoy this movie and will watch it when it's on TV. Looking at Keanu and Patrick in this movie never gets old. Lori Petty the Tyler character sure changed gears when she starred with Pauly Shore in "In the Army Now." Quite a difference in leading men huh?
Here is a link to some pretty interesting trivia for this movie:
2 comments:
Your comments about Keanu cracked me up! I agree though- he is quite nice to look at so I'll forgive his acting to a certain extent. I also noticed some different things in the film that I think I may have overlooked if I had not known that the director was a female. Although the camera did focus a lot on Keanu's body, it did even more on his face, which stood out to me as being unusual.
Watching a film such as this through a critical eye seems to be a much better way of doing things- I feel like I could watch it several times and be able to take more from it each time, rather than just passively absorbing what is presented, which could get boring more quickly.
I totally felt like a peeping tom watching Point Break, and I think it has to do with the fact that I was aware of the male/female gaze. You're right on after watching a film critical is much different from watching for enjoyment.
Seema
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