I may have posted a written review of Return To Silent Hill, but there were still other things that I wanted to expound upon that I did not feel were appropriate (or in the scope of) a simple movie review. So I decided to adapt my extended thoughts into a video critique. I was planning on doing after having seen the movie in theaters and writing the review, but things kept coming up, and I kept pushing it back until eventually it got to the point that the movie was already available on DVD and streaming.
I decided to split the critique up into 2 separate videos. The first video is already available on YouTube. It is specifically about the sexist and chauvinistic attitudes and biases that I felt underlined many of the creative decisions that went into butchering Silent Hill 2's stories. More specifically, I compared and contrasted how Christophe Gans chose to adapt the characters of Harry Mason (from the first game) and James, and how these adaptation decisions seem to reveal those underlying sexist attitudes and biases. I used this video to vent some long-standing frustrations that I had with the first Silent Hill movie, and its gender-swap of single father Harry into married mother Rose.
My initial video critique was a comparison between the adaptations of Harry Mason and James,
and how both chauvinistically reinforce outdated gender stereotypes.
Obviously, I don't have a problem with gender or race-swapping in adaptations of media. But, as I explain in the video, I felt that the character of Harry Mason presented a golden opportunity to present a competent single father character in a medium that is largely devoid of such examples. The gender-swap from male-to-female, in this particular case, and the reasons that director Christophe Gans cites for having made the casting decision, only serve to reinforce out-dated gender stereotypes, while also missing out on an opportunity to present a particular demographic that is under-represented in popular media.
The second video is about the other characters in the movie, with an emphasis on Mary -- considering that she is basically the only other character in the movie.
[More]
7058ea5e-4bea-42af-a841-4c62cc15a320|1|5.0
Tags:Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Return To Silent Hill, Konami, Christophe Gans, James Sunderland, Mary Shepherd-Sunderland, Angela Orosco, Laura, Maria, Eddie Dombrowski, Pyramid Head, Harry Mason, Rose Da Silva, Born From A Wish, gender equality