Task 6 textual analysis

'Mean girls' is directed by Mark S. Waters and is a teen movie mainly aimed at young teenage girls. It is produced by paramount pictures who are a large American institution therefore this movie would have been distributed to various parts of the US and UK. The scene from 'Mean Girls' which I am analysing is when Kady, Gretchen and Karen go to Regina’s house where Kady meets Regina’s mum for the first time and then the plastics rediscover their old burn book which is a book where they talk about other people in a bad way and write it in the book.
The scene starts with the four girls being driven by Regina in her car to her house. It is an expensive car for a 16 year old to have .You would expect a grown working person to be driving around in that type of car. Immediately you see that Regina comes from a rich family. A pan shot of the car is shown as it enters the gates of the house, this shot goes well with the style of the car and reinforced the fact that it is smooth and expensive. You can tell all about her and her families status just by looking at the car she has.
The next thing we see is a long shot of Regina’s house, which looks like a mansion from the outside. The long shot of the house is there to give the audience a good view of the size and see how big it is emphasising her rich background and that she gets things easy and doesn’t need to work hard to get what she wants. This represents the children of rich families and how they turn out spoilt due to them not working for things in life.
As they get our of the car there is a long shot of Kady showing the expression of shock on her face as she gazes at the house followed by her saying ‘Wow, your house is really nice’ This tells us that not many people are as lucky as Regina to have such a big house and that much money. Regina replies with ‘ I know, right?’ This shows that Regina knows she is lucky but is not appreciative of it as she doesn’t say thanks for the compliment.
The ‘plastics’ are all wearing mini skirts with high heels and are loaded with make-up on . This is how they dress and present themselves everyday even at school. The short skirts tell us that the girls like to show of their legs mainly to impress guys and get noticed by them. The same applies to them wearing make up, so they get the attention that the want from boys. This is a common image for girls to have in teen movies if they are the ‘popular’ ones. Their dress and how they look and appear to people depends on the way that guys like them to look. This is an accurate representation of teenagers as they aspire to be ‘popular’ girls that want to get the guys they want.
In the house is Regina’s little sister who is in front of the TV dancing to Kelis - Milkshake. The video for that song is inappropriate for a girl that young to watch. She is being corrupted at a young age as we see her imitating the dances she see’s on the TV. This is reflecting on how children are being exposed to too many things that they shouldn’t see on TV especially as they end up copying what they see therefore getting into older thinking at a young age which is resulting into what teenagers are like today, image obsessed, only interested in boys etc..
The mis-en-scene brings out a theme of pink which reflects on their girly image and typical girly teenager views and lifestyle but this is not necessarily every teenage girls favourite colour in which they would associate themselves in but in this case it is as the girls are all wearing something pink. The mis-en-scene is also bright and sunny , there is no dullness showing that Regina leads a happy life and is a happy person but this is contradicted when the girls all start to look in the mirror and complain about their bodies. This contradiction could show that even thought they seem happy on the outside to other people they have their insecurities as well and which is a relevant representation of any teenager these days.
One of the girls puts the radio on and they all agree on listening to a particular song. This emphasises that the ‘plastics’ are all the same and have the same tastes in music, clothes and in their thinking. None of them are different from each other and have no special qualities that makes them different. This is a accurate representation on girls who aspire to be ‘plastic’ or ‘popular’ because they wants to be like all the other girls that are like that so they all end up being the same.
The girls are showed to be bitchy and backstabbing towards other people as they have a burn book where they right bad stuff about everyone in their school. This makes them think that they are better than everyone else in their school and also makes them look stuck up and rude towards other people meaning they are probably not liked by other people as much as they think they are.
Regina’s mum is in the scene. She is represented as an unfit mother that doesn’t know how to bring up her children as Regina shows no respect for her mother and she is letting Kylie( Regina’s little sister) be exposed to Hip-Hop videos that influence her to dance inappropriately for her age. Her mum is also wearing pink as she tries to fit in with the ‘plastics’ representing the rich mothers of having a young brain and not being mature enough to raise children properly as they have their other priorities such as looking good and having fun else wear. We clearly see that Regina’s mother has these other priorities such as looking good as her boob job is mentioned by Gretchen as they were entering the house. This clearly tells us that she is materialistic and this is probably why Regina has turned out to be the person she is.
The primary audience for this movie are young female teenagers as they are likely to be interested in watching a teen movie as they are aspiring teenagers wanting to be ‘popular’. The secondary audience would be older female teenagers simply for entertaining purposes and to use as a form of escapism as older teenagers of around the age on 18 and over would not be as influenced by popularity ideologies that this film brings across but could relate to the insecurities that the ‘plastics ‘convey to us.
The main ideology that the film brings out to its audience is that all girls that are ‘popular’ are mean and stuck up and no matter how popular you are there is still a chance you will still be insecure about yourself as you saw when the ’plastics’ were looking at themselves in the mirror picking out something they didn’t like about their body. Also it doesn’t matter how rich you are, it doesn’t make you happy or necessarily a good person as Regina is rich and popular and she isn’t fully happy neither is she a good person.
The film consists of Todorov’s theory of narrative roles such as a protagonist who is this film is Kady played by Lindsay Lohan. She is also the hero of the film. Regina George is the villain. However roles change at the end when there is a resolution to the film. All of the characters end up happy and comfortable in the situations they are in.