Guardians of the Galaxy 2014 Key facts and characters

 

Learner resource 2 – Film fact file - Film research task 

Introduction 

The following are prompts to help you explore the institutional and social, political, and historical context of the set films you are studying. 

Institutional context  Production Company  Distributor  Director  Cinematographer  Composer  Editor  Stars  Other notable personnel  Notable related films (director, franchise, institution etc.)  Production notes (how the film was made, use of digital technologies etc.)	Production Company – Marvel Studios  Distributor – Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture  Director – James Gunn  Cinematographer – Ben Davis  Composer – Tyler Bates  Editor – Fred Raskin  Stars – Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana.  Notable Personnel – Fred Raskin (Editor), Hughes Winbourne (Editor)  James Gunn is the main writer and director of the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel. He also directed Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which takes place after the Guardians movies in the timeline. The Guardians of the Galaxy movies set up the story with Thanos and Gamora and the Avengers and were also some of the first movies to explore the multi-verse.  CGI was used in almost every scene, from sets to the characters themselves. The characters such as Groot and Rocket Raccoon were made entirely on a computer. Sets such as being in the rocket in outer space were also completed on computers in post-production.
Audience expectation - What knowledge do spectators bring to the film?  Is the film an adaptation?  Part of a franchise?  A star vehicle?  Is the director well known? Does he/she have a particular style, or does he work with actors?	With the film being a part of the Marvel cinematic franchise the audience's expectations were already high, but their minds were blown through the roof after this masterpiece of cinema was released. The film contained almost full CGI from the sets to the characters themselves
Reviews  How was the film received?  What has been written about the film?	The film will have reviews on YouTube as it is popular, and people want to know the quality of the movie. The film is spoken about within the marvel fan community and is viewed as a ‘masterpiece’ compared to many of their other films.
Historical/Political context  When is it set?  Where is it set?  Does the film relate to real events? If so, find out more information.  Does it reflect the political mood of the time? If so, find out more information.  Does the film deal with social, cultural, political issues? If so, find out more information.	Guardians of the Galaxy is set in the early 2000’s and shows life that is vastly different to reality. They explored multiverse stories with space travel and extra-terrestrial life.  Similarly, to PRIDE, citizens are against powerful monarchy

The main focus on the traditional male superhero characters from 2005-2018, were the traditional idea that the men are strong, heroic, and the ability to outsmart lines problems and survive against all odds. 

        - At the time that GOTG V1 was being made there we're still traditional representations over heroes such as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, SpiderMan etc. 

        - Guardians of the galaxy can be viewed as a comedy as they have aspects of comedy such as Starlords personality.  

R.W Connell's (1987) theory on the 'Hegomomic masculinity'

            - Characters such as Starlord, Thanos, Drax and even Rocket all follow the traditional adventure hero trope of the heroic protagonist with which the spectator can identify.

Hegonomy is where people are forced to accept things are true

            - Men being in power and women are subservient

They say that justifies men's position in society, saying women are supposed to submit to men. In this sense, it is viewed that the men are the protectors. 

Anderson and Cavallaro (2002)

    We can suggest that it is important because main spectators view superhero films view the superhero as role models because of their traits or skills the characters possess.

Mulvey (1975) Miller & Summers (2007)

  Traditional analysis of film characters has revealed that women are shown primarily as sex objects

Vladimir Propp

    Main character types

Hero, princess, false hero, dispatcher, helper, villain, the donor.

Studies show even in 2020 show there are even twice as many male speaking characters as female characters in the average Hollywood film.

However biases extend beyond gender with films seldomly featuring racial mortifies in leading roles.

Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner) (1986)

        Individuals experience a collective identity based on their membership to a specific group, including race related groups.

        This theoretical artwork states that audiences rely on positive media depictions to support their group identity and associate unfavourable media depictions with negative judgements of non-group members.

Said (1981)

    The other (non white) - Eastern societies- binary opposition of good versus evil.

Alvarado (1985)

    Pitied, dangerous, humorous, exotic

Hall (1997)

    Negative stereotypes of ethnic minorities across the media- reinforce the characteristics of danger.

Ultimately the 'villains' are represented as un-human, not attractive and non-white.

Middle Eastern men cover their identity using headscarves and hijabs. 

The evil characters are dressed in black/dark colours and are inhuman and unattractive as we associate those things with evil.

In early days of cartoons, black people were represented as a dark purple colour.

Thanos is purple and evil looking, wearing metal armour or dark colours to show he is evil. Thanos is unattractive, which is a general representation for anti-heroes and villains. He is also inhuman as he is an alien from Titan.