The films ‘Stepford Wives’ and ‘Get Out.'

The Stepford Wives and Get Out: A Comparison

The Stepford Wives is a science fiction comedy film directed by Frank Oz that is a revival of a 1975 film of the same title. The film is based on Ira Levin's novel Stepford Wives, also known as Stepford Wives. The plot revolves around Joanna Eberhart, a popular reality television director played by Nicole Kidman. Joanna is fired following her most recent film, a reality show called "I Can Do Better," in which couples are given the option of choosing either each other or prostitutes. Following this incident, she has a mental breakdown and relocates with her family to the Connecticut suburb of Stepford. She becomes friends with Bobbie, a recovering alcoholic who is a writer and Roger who is an ostentatious gay man. The three become friends and starts discovering secrets that later make them successful in their different endeavors as the Stepford wives finally dominating their men and making them pay for their crimes. Get Out, on the other hand, is a horror film directed by Jordan Peele and that premiered on 2017. The film illustrates the terrifying side of racism, and it is centered on the life of an African-American photographer Chris Washington and his White-American girlfriend, Rose. As Chris accompanies Rose to meet her parents, Chris is terrified at meeting the White parents, but Rose reassures him that all will be well. The captivating incidences of the film show the reality of a Black-African trapped in a white man's reality as he transitions to accepting that he does not belong there. Despite the different genre's, the two films illustrate the development of individuals from their previous as they are forced to face facts they were escaping to find elevation.

Analysis of the Two Films

Response towards 'The Stepford Wives' Movie

As the film begins, the director introduces Joanna Eberhart as a successful reality television show host, who has everything going in well, plus she has a loving husband Walter and two children; this is a clear picture of today's women and the goals of many women who are pursuing careers. Despite how time has altered culture, the role of women in the society is still challenged as a woman is either successful career-wise but lacks a stable family or vice-versa. However, Joanna is the model of the modern-day woman, but this does not last long. After hosting the show, 'I Can Do Better' Joanna is fired despite the success of the show. The show itself has a symbolic meaning to illustrate breaking of the cycle of being in unwanted marriages when the spouses believe that there is much more to life than settling for mediocre happiness.

What she would have considered as her greatest loss, turned out to be the adventure that would lead to her transition into the successful woman she often admired to become. In her new life, she meets two individuals who alter her perspective. In their adventures, Joanna and her pals discover that the men of Stepford have a domineering control over their 'shallow' wives. The Stepford wives are in real sense robots, and the director uses this to exemplify the idea that even in the modern society where women appear to have comfortable lives behind picket fences, they are nothing in the real sense but puppets while the wealthy husbands are the puppet master (Winterson). The three friends are used in the film to represent outcasts of what the society perceives women who have their minds to be like, which is unstable mentally and gender confused. As the story advances, the director uses these three misfits who stand their ground firmly as renegades who in fact bring freedom to the oppressed women in the community of Stepford.

Response towards 'Get Out' Movie

The film begins with an African-American who gets kidnapped at night while talking over the phone in a suburb. Suddenly we are ushered to Chris Washington who is taking a trip to meet his girlfriend's parents. Rose, the girlfriend, assures that despite the fact the family is white, and they are living in a white neighborhood, all is going to be. The unsettlement overwhelming Chris is a sign of the fact that despite the time we are living in, blacks still welcome the idea that they are not so much welcomed in the white community. Regardless of his career status, Chris still finds himself feeling inferior and helpless in this circumstance. Later on as Rose and Chris are out for a walk, Dean auctions a picture of Chris and this along with the ominous look that Chris received from the black workers symbolizes the idea of ownership. The blacks in this movie are considered to be properties and Rose is a charming girl portrayed as the bait (Anderson). The blacks in this film are portrayed as helpless. For example, Logan has an 'epileptic seizure' and screams at Chris to get out. Chris finally after struggling to escape and find the truth of what is happening finds his escape.

The Contrast in the Two Films

Despite the fact that the central theme in the two movies is emancipation, the two films differ in genre and the perspective they possess towards liberation. In Get Out, the movie illustrates a black person still trapped in a backward society that perceives blacks as items to own and experiment on; whereas, in Stepford Wives, it is the women who are caught in the backward society. The women in this film are viewed as tools for the pleasure of the men, and that is why they have remote controls that can control what they so as well as their body parts. The other difference is how the two movies end. Stepford Wives end with women finally freeing themselves from men and punishing them for their crimes as the three misfits find success in life which is a positive note. On the other hand Get Out ends not with the freedom of the blacks but the realization of the fact that his fear was proven to be real and that blacks still live in a society where they are inferiors to the whites.

Conclusion

The two films successfully bring out the monstrosities that take place in the community, and these are race and gender inferiority. The theme of emancipation has been appropriately used in building up the plots of the movies as the directors aimed at communicating the same message but for different audiences. Both Stepford Wives and Get Out reflect realistic situations while empowering the society, especially the women on how they need to take charge of their lives.

Works Cited

Anderson, Victoria . “Get Out: why racism really is terrifying.” Independent UK, 26 Mar. 2017, Get Out: why racism really is terrifying. Accessed 7 July 2017.
Winterson, Jeanette. “Jeanette Winterson on what The Stepford Wives says about feminism today.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 July 2004, www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/19/gender.uk. Accessed 7 July 2017.