My Favorite

I will first start off by saying my favorite movie would have to be Disturbia staring Shia LaBeouf.  This movie is about a high school kid who has a hard time facing the fact he witnessed and feels responsible for his father’s death.  In his final year of high school he suffers from depression and when his Spanish teacher firmly asks Kale (Shia LaBeouf) what his father would think about his attitude and lack of trying, Kale punches him in the face, blacking his eye. After going to court, Kale receives house arrest as punishment, this is when he meets a police officer who, is his Spanish teacher’s cousin but, he also plans to make Kale’s summer one of the toughest he has had.  

                While on house arrest Kale discovers his neighborhood is full of “reality” TV. He is mostly interested in one neighbor, who he thinks is a serial killer, after seeing a similar car which he drives, on a news broadcast about a missing girl. After enlisting a couple of friends, Kale finds himself fighting for the safety of his mother, girlfriend, friend, and even himself against this serial killer.

                What stereotypes are hidden in your selection, implicitly and explicitly?

            Some implicitly hidden stereotypes hidden in the movie Disturbia are, Kale being a depressed teenager due to his father’s death, a suspected serial killer living in his neighborhood, and Kale fighting for his freedom. The examples of implicit stereotypes can also act as explicit stereotypes because they are all about Kale working out problems he comes in contact with.

What forces (social, religious, cultural, economic) may have contributed to the emergence of this stereotype?

If I had to choose one of the examples that may have contributed to Kale’s reactions in the movie is the death of his father. He felt responsible because he was driving the car and he was the one who was trying to pass another driver. From an outside prospective, I could see how Kale feels this way just thinking about the “what if” that could have saved his father’s life.

Are those stereotypes a positive or negative entity?

                This stereotype would have to be negative because it has a great impact on Kale’s life. I 

would also have to point out that all of the stereotype’s I have mentioned would all be negative in nature

 because of the position Kale has put himself in. Although the outcome of the movie is a positive one Kale 

proves to himself that not all was lost with his father’s death.