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Analysis Of The Movie ' Father Of The Bride '

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Chelsey Tate
Mullens
4/11/16
FLM 352
Who Presents This Woman? Gender Roles in Father of the Bride “Who giveth/presents this woman?” is asked by the priest in Vincente Minelli’s 1950 film Father of the Bride and in Charles Shyer’s 1991 remake of the same name, respectively. Both films are extremely similar in content, as the remake borrows heavily on dialogue, temperament of characters, scene progression, and the overall essence of the theme of adoration between a father and his daughter, even though they are set 41 years apart. It would be foolish to say that post-war 1950s gender roles of the original film are the same of those of 90s remake, but regardless of the vast societal progressions and gradual increase of women’s rights from the 50s to the 90s (and now) there is still a subconscious stereotype of a “traditional” family that conforms to the ideas of gender roles that live within films of today. Both versions of Father of the Bride tell the same story of a loving, but overprotective father (Stanley Banks, played by Spencer Tracey in the original film and George Banks, played by Steve Martin in the remake) reluctant to cope with the fact that his daughter (Elizabeth Taylor as Kay and Kimberly Williams as Annie) is getting married and thus, growing up, or, leaving one man to go live with another. In addition to this life crisis, each father becomes increasingly and comically preoccupied with the diminishing contents of his wallet rather than the actual planning

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