Commando Stereotypes

Commando

The film "Commando" both challenges and reinforces stereotypes. The male character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger is presented as an incredibly strong and powerful character as he storms through his mission in hope of saving his daughter. This part reinforces the stereotype of males being strong, powerful and capable of fighting for themselves. On the other hand, the female character that is played by Rae Dawn Chong (Cindy) challenges the stereotype of females being weak and vulnerable. Throughout the film, she proves capable of fending for herself. For example when she picks up the rocket launcher from the gun store and successfully uses it to wipe out the police van chasing them. Also, she is training to be a pilot which can be seen as uncommon for women, who are normally seen as being air stewardess'. Towards the end of the film, she manages to escape with Arnold (John Matrix) and his daughter by not panicking during the situation and flying off in a water plane that is the first time she had used one, showing she is capable of adapting for the better. It is commonly thought that the males would have superiority over females, however the performance of Rae Dawn Chong challenges this. The film shows quite a positive representation of a black female.

The mise en scene used to help reinforce the stereotype and represent the male character John Matrix as strong and powerful enable the audience to understand this. For example at the start of the film, he has no top on and he is chopping wood, showing off his muscles through the strength he possesses. Also, he lives in a secluded house which is very difficult to get to, which is shown when the army soldiers fly in by helicopter, outside the house are two body guards, which imply that John Matrix is a wanted man.

As well as this, the mise en scene used for the character Cindy enable us to understand that she is not the typical female, when attempting to fly her first plane on water she makes the audience laugh when stating "This isn't a plane, this is a canoe with wings!", which suggests that she is capable of making a joke out of a complicated situation and finding her way to resolve the issue as she still goes on to fly the plane. Although she does panic under certain situations such as being held at gun point, she fights through them and carries on which seems strange compared to the majority of female characters in films. Although Cindy does not stand up to John Matrix, she does stand up for herself against Sully, who follows her to her car.

The film was released in 1986, during this time, males were still seen as the dominant gender, therefore the female character showing some dominance in it's own form challenges the gender representations during this time and goes against attitudes towards males having dominance and superiority in a way.