Wanted analysis

Media Representations

Females- To an extent they are being represented as the stronger sex, as Fox is shown to be an empowered female role model as she has control and power mostly through out the movie. However other females in the movie have more of a negative representation, for example Wesley’s girl friend who is represented as a slag/tart who has sex with his best friend occasionally.
Males- Most of the males are represented as strong except Wesley who is seen as a weak man who’s not in control of his life or who he is. This representation changes as the film progresses and he begins to learn how to kill and use a gun which then makes him a stronger person.


Media Languages and form

At the beginning Wesley is being represented as a nobody who has no sense of life. This is shown through his dead end job, girlfriend who cheats on him and also the fact he lives in a dump. Wesley is represented as someone who has no purpose in life; however it all changes around for him when he meets Fox. Fox is represented as the stronger sex in the beginning as she saves Wesley from being shot dead (however we later realise she was saving her self), this connotes she has more power which is emphasised by the fact she’s the one holding the gun. Later we see Fox again saving Wesley as she comes in a fast sports car to his rescue. The audience can male and female roles being reversed as it would usually be the man saving the woman. Fox is represented as the stronger sex again, which is seen when she’s driving into the police to push it off the road, there is then a close up on her face, her face expression is smiling fearless as she rams into the police car. This connotes she is scared of nothing not even the law, also that she live in the fast lane and care only about herself. While all this is going on Wesley is sitting in the passengers’ seat scared to death ad about to cry. At this point in the movie males are being represented as the weaker sex. However this does not follow on throughout the movie as Wesley begins to get stronger and take over, which is seen in the scene where there’s a medium shot of Wesley running into the bombed building with a gun in each hand, which connotes he is now in control of his life. This is also seen earlier when after he meets Fox he feels more enthusiastic towards life so decides to tell his obnoxious boss to “fuck herself”. Furthermore Fox is also seen as a sex object as when she come out of the bath she is naked and exposes her self to Wesley, which connotes she is promiscuous and also conforms to Mulvey’s “male-gaze” theory


Narrative

The narrative linear at time but then also non-linear, for example in the opening sequence we see a guy (Wesley’s dad) get shot in the head, then for about 3 seconds it rewinds back and shows how he got shot. The audience is introduced to a villain who is the guy who shot down his dad and the hero who is Fox, however this turns around as Wesley later finds out that the villain is in fact Fox and the fraternity, which he the has to fight for his life and take down. The main iconography in the film is the gun which represents the phallic symbol as it embodies male generative power and dominance. The fact that Fox is the one holding the gun in the beginning shows she is the one with power, which is later reversed when she throws the gun to Wesley in the end as she knows she will die, which connotes in the end the man will be the last one standing.


Genre

The genre is action/thriller. Being an action movie it conforms to fast car chases, explosions of bombs and cars, gun fights in the middle of public places ect… However it’s also a thriller as it has a mystery story behind it and suspense throughout.

Values and ideologies

There are different values and ideologies promoted throughout the movie , for example in the end Fox dies and Wesley survives, this connotes at the end of the day, even though Fox was represented as an empowered female role model, men are still and always will be the stronger sex. Also the values it promotes through Wesley, is that you have to change who you are to be accepted as someone in society, as he changed his attitude, clothing and kill people to become a man, which kind of glorifies the use of guns.