The Full Monty
"The Full Monty" is a british comedy that is set in the steel town of Sheffield right after a steelworker lay off. After seeing the success of a male stripper show, Gaz (Robert Carlyle) and his fellow steel worker crew decide to plan a show of their own. If this show goes well the steelworkers will finally be able to move away from their working class lives and Gaz will have a chance for custody of his son. Meanwhile, the crew is forced to practice in fears of being spotted and things get interesting when Gaz makes the unfavorable decision to go for the "full monty".
This film was a major success, in my opinion, because of the diversity of the cast. Director, Peter Cattaneo, created a cast full of working-class steelworkers, but each one had his or her unique problems. The book, The Art of Watching Films states that these characters who play roles closely resembling themselves in personal appearance and personality are called interpreters. One supporting actor in this film is an interpreter named "Dave" (Mark Addy). Dave is a heavy-set male stripper who is constantly questioning whether he should strip or not because of his weight issue. The director adds depth to the plot by having Dave in the movie and manipulating his acting between strip practice and his security job. At the end of the flick, Dave comes to the stripshow and has a generally positive attitude. I believe Dave stands as a motivational character and as a dynamic character.
Throughout "The Full Monty" there are numerous themes that are discussed through the diverse characters. Unhappiness is a central theme in this film through characters who are suffering from problems such as attaining rights as a father to Erectile Dysfunction. The way Cattaneo addressed these problems was brilliant. He interwove these problems into the screenplay, but refuses to give an explicit answer to his thoughts through the dialogue. Cattaneo also used irony to discuss these problems in a light tone, such as when the audience may think "Horse"(Paul Barber) is a term describing a man's large genitals, but indeed Horse suffers from Erectile Dysfunction.
The musical score for this film matches the scenes almost perfectly. In The Art of Watching Films, it states that: "music is often employed as a kind of emotional punctuation for the dialogue, expressing the feeling underlying what is said." One example of this, is the scene from the movie where "We are Family" is played right after the steelworkers have a sense of closure regarding the male stripping event. It's comedic that a song talking about family is used for a group of unrelated male strippers. Furthermore, I believe the composer used this song in the video to bring about even more emotion about how family-like this group was becoming.
Throughout "The Full Monty" there are numerous themes that are discussed through the diverse characters. Unhappiness is a central theme in this film through characters who are suffering from problems such as attaining rights as a father to Erectile Dysfunction. The way Cattaneo addressed these problems was brilliant. He interwove these problems into the screenplay, but refuses to give an explicit answer to his thoughts through the dialogue. Cattaneo also used irony to discuss these problems in a light tone, such as when the audience may think "Horse"(Paul Barber) is a term describing a man's large genitals, but indeed Horse suffers from Erectile Dysfunction.
The musical score for this film matches the scenes almost perfectly. In The Art of Watching Films, it states that: "music is often employed as a kind of emotional punctuation for the dialogue, expressing the feeling underlying what is said." One example of this, is the scene from the movie where "We are Family" is played right after the steelworkers have a sense of closure regarding the male stripping event. It's comedic that a song talking about family is used for a group of unrelated male strippers. Furthermore, I believe the composer used this song in the video to bring about even more emotion about how family-like this group was becoming.
Boggs, Joseph, & Petrie, Dennis. (2012). The Art of
watching films. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill College.
No comments:
Post a Comment