Deconstruction of social class in teaser trailers

Deconstruction of social class in teaser trailers

What is Social Class

Social class refers to the divisions in our society that are based on social and economic status. For example the three main divisions are working class, middle class and upper class and in film are all represented very stereotypically.  

Working Class Representation in our Genre

The best example of the working class in our genre is the character Ronnie Kray from the film Legend.

• He was born and raised in the East End of London and ran their criminal empire from this area.
• The area is a run down suburb of London city and it conventionally viewed as a working class area; therefore establishes the class of Ronnie.
• Through the diegetic dialogue of Ronnie, specifically his accent and slang, he his represented as a working class individual. He has a very strong cockney, East End London accent and uses phrases such as 'Brown Bread' which translates to Dead and 'Dog and Bone' which means telephone.
• These are all phrases unique to the working class and especially to the working class people of East End London.
• Additionally, he is shown in the film to live in a working class, mining house with the whole community being very close and united, possibly due to their working class roots and socio-economic conditions.
• However, he does subvert the working class stereotype because he is always seen in the film wearing a suit and tie and he owns lots of clubs and is rich.
• So he is subverting common representation as normally working class are represented as being poor financially and not having the money to spend on nice clothes, unlike Ronnie. 

Middle Class Representation in our Genre

In our genre, a good example of a middle class character is Jordan Belfort in the film The Wolf of Wall Street.

• Conventions of someone being middle class includes: White collar worker, affluent, well educated, dresses nicely and managerial.
• Jordan Belfort in the opening scenes of the film declares to the audience through non-diegetic dialogue he's "Middle Class boy from New York City" establishing his class to the audience.
• His class is also portrayed through his career ambitious of wanting to work on Wall street as the finical industry jobs such as stock broking, accounting and banking are all jobs associated with the middle class as being a white collar worker
• Moreover, he conforms to the stereotype of being well educated and affluent through his knowledge of the stock market illustrated through his progression to owning his own stock broking business, which in turn conveys his affluence.
• Continuing, throughout the film he is always almost scene wearing a suit or a form of smart dress which conforms to the common representations of the middle class.
• Although, an area where he does subvert is through his choice of house and area of living, he lives in the most expensive property in the world which isolated from any other houses, subverting the convention of living in a suburbia. 

 

Upper Class Representation in our Genre

The Riot Club is a prime example of how the upper class are represented in film. The upper class are common represented as being: snobby, well spoken, intellectual, land owners and living in high end properties.

• The films protagonists conform to them being upper class through them being filmed attending and studying at Oxford University, conforming to them being intellectual.
• In one scene, three of the protagonists are scene clay pigeon shooting in front of a large manor house that belongs to one of them. Therefore, they conform and are represented on the basis that they live in high end properties and are land owners.
• Towards the end of the dinning scene one of the main characters Alistair Ryle exclaims through diegetic dialogue "I hate poor people" and the rest of the boys rally behind him.
• This illustrates them as being snobby for discriminating against people based on their socio-economic status and for people not being on their status.