Bad Teacher, 2011
Cultural stories are full of men developing. The genre known as the bildungsroman is the catch-all term used to discuss the development of boys becoming men. A more common term of "coming-of-age" film catches the idea in simple terms, but an analysis doesn't mean literal aging. As the boy develops, he struggles with the expectations of society, putting himself in conflict with the world around him. Themes genre include a loss of innocence and taking of responsibility. The evolution of the individual boy into the world of men (or his failure to develop) creates the dramatic arc for a story.
The concept of applying the bildungsroman to female protagonists is controversial. Feminist literary critics think applying the concepts of "making the man" to women's stories demeans them by not recognizing the difference of female experience. Author Annis Pratt argues that many stories about women prize "growing down" a surrender of autonomy and independence in order to fit in a larger structure. Because our stories have limited tools with which to discuss women's development as women, women's stories are placed in male genres.
Bhutto is a documentary tracing the life of Benazir Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan who was killed in 2007. As Prime Minister of a country of 180 million people, nuclear weapons, a near autonomous security service, and hard-line radicals, Benazir's rise to the office was nothing short of amazing. The film describes Benazir's youth briefly before talking about the death of her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was tried and killed by the government of General Zia, Pakistan's military leader in the 1970's. After her father's murder, Benazir pursues a career in politics, hoping to return democracy to Pakistan. Although the film spins off into tangents, Bhutto tries to tell the story of a political rise, the fall at the hands of enemies (and herself), and a return cut short by some of those same enemies.Political development stories are always complex. Films like Che follow the actions of a figure instead of showing ideological development. Documentaries often try to focus on the facts of a situation, but Bhutto attempts to make the story of politics about a child carrying on the legacy of the father. Zulfikar wanted a democratic Pakistan to encourage its entrance as an important player in the world, but General Zia's compromises with the most hardline Islamists plunged Pakistan into a swamp where it behind other nations, especially India. Benazir fought not only the Islamic traditionalists but a military culture to restore her family name and legacy.
The handing of a father's legacy to a daughter raises questions of gender and power. Pakistan (along with many Western nations) thinks of power as a masculine trait, and political power comes from "male" activities like competition and domination. Traditional female roles forbid women from taking power in public, so women who desire political power must break their prescribed role in favor of masculine displays of power. The abandoning of femininity to take power allows critics of female politicians to attack them by claiming the woman in charge acts "mannish." Struggles between the need to appear powerful and feminine at the same time creates a "double-bind" for women. Political cultures expect female politicians to wield power without losing their womanhood. When the status of "woman" means "submissive" or "less powerful," then women must deal with this double-bind to become powerful.
Bhutto implies that Benazir inherited leadership from her father. Benazir was Zulfikar's eldest daughter, but she needed to defend her political legacy from her brother Murtaza. The murder of Murtaza allowed Benazir to retain the spotlight, but the legacy of the dispute with her brother (and accusations that Benazir was complicit from Murtaza's daughter Fatima) are the commonly-cited pieces by other critics to show the balance of the film. Benazir's legacy as a feminist or democrat is suspect at best. William Dalrymple of The Guardian claims Benazir was more princess than populist, and the Islamists rebel against her not only because of her status as a woman in power but because she represented a monied-class that treated Pakistan like a feudal kingdom.
Like many executives, Benazir found the limitations of her office stifling. The widespread corruption and degredation were unsolvable, in part, because networks of military/intelligence people were unwilling to concede power. Government officials were involved in graft and corruption, but the political process became about score-settling after every election. Benazir's exile to Dubai occurred as a compromise between herself and the new government once she was forced out of office. The inability of the government to make change and a Prime Minister's struggle to do so would have made a good story, but it would be false. Bhutto could never become a story of naive outsider entering the system because Benazir always had access to power. Bhutto accurately present Benazir as an outsider because of her gender, but it's critical to remember that Benazir inherited better connections than most men in the country.
Obstacles related to gender, however, were not always trivial. Bhutto's goal is to spread the idea of Benazir as a symbol for women, and she struggled with the double-bind. Her arranged marriage allowed her to continue a political career where she would need to meet with men. Some in the military struggled against saluting a woman. Despite her struggles with gender, Benazir is credited by many with the preservation of her father's legacy. Bhutto shows Benazir as becoming her father by taking his place and dying for his cause.
Bad Teacher's main character Elizabeth (Camron Diaz) focuses on herself rather than any cause. In a rebellion against the Inspirational Education Film, Bad Teacher takes the Bad Santa model and places a woman at the center. Elizabeth wants a man to take care of her, so she decides to raise money for larger breasts to attract that man. At the same time, Elizabeth attempts to snag Scott Delacourt (Justin Timberlake), a handsome and wealthy new teacher. She thinks (and knows) her power comes from sexuality and manipulation, the tools of the weak. Elizabeth always flirts, tricks, and steals her way through life, thus subverting and avoiding confrontation with power. Aside from her physical attractiveness, Elizabeth has the same drinking, drugging, cursing, and lazing habits as her male counterparts in similar films.Where Bad Teacher struggles is character development. Most comedies starring a male lead take the three-act structure like this:
Act 1, The immature character is introduced to society
Act 2, The immature character begins to adapt and grow until a major setback
Act 3, The immature character must mature to overcome this setback.
Bad Teacher changes the structure by having Elizabeth pursue a man through immaturity. Unlike traditional comedies, however, there is no growth in Bad Teacher. Elizabeth's change from uncaring, superficial person never really comes. Elizabeth spends a scene with a nerdy kid with a crush and says to him, "You'll never get her, I was that hot girl. Hotter even." At the end of the second act, the nerdy kid professes his love for the crush and is soundly rejected. The nerdy kid flees the scene and Elizabeth, uncharacteristically, chases after him. Elizabeth delivers a kid about how his crush is the type of girl to go for flash and money. This all takes place in a few seconds, but this is supposed to be the growth point for Elizabeth where she gains new insight about how to behave in the world.
The problem with the insight is two-fold. First, it feels unearned and out-of-character. Elizabeth probably would have sided with the attractive girl (little changed to make her relate to the nerd) to warn her about men. One might say this insight was needed to attract Scott, but I think the manipulation in favor of the weak was forced rather than genuine. Second, Elizabeth reverts to her manipulative ways to escape the third-act crisis. Rather than using her insight into the victim's world to deal with problems honestly, Elizabeth uses threats, tricks, and luck to resolve the crisis, just like Act 1 Elizabeth.
Critics complain about the gender politics of the movie, but the real problem is the cheap character development. Nothing really forces Elizabeth to change or grow. Bad Teacher came out the same year as Bridesmaids, which did the gross-out comedy develop arc with women just fine. There are stories for women, and women can be funny in masculine-styles, but Bad Teacher's shallow character development fails in ways many male-centered comedies succeed without effort.
The "building of the woman" genre has few examples in film. Bad Teacher lacks the writing and overall story to demonstrate real development. Bhutto has the story of a powerful woman advancing, but the need to make her a symbol of power rather than talking about her actual power limits the ability to see the woman develop. We can forgive Bhutto for not developing fully because its star's life was cut short, but Bad Teacher's static character was the result of bad plotting.
Other Films:
Highlander, 1986
Ivan's Childhood, 1962
50/50, 2011
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