Traditional Masculinity - Rome

After watching the 'Rome' clip, it is extremely obvious how the commonly stereotypical man is portrayed. It is set in the Roman times, 2000 years ago, which will give me the opportunity to compare the expectations of masculinity of then and nowadays. They act strong, overpowering of women and even aggressive. They fit in with the alpha male role, especially in this clip. It immediately reveals a congregation of men, 'Roman warriors', and they all have the same expression on their faces, angry and slightly worried. The audience can tell that a fight is about to begin, and with the second group of men storming towards the other gives the impression there will be a war, which there is. They all start to fight, stabbing people, slashing them with swords. They are all big built and portray this idea of a violent man. Also they are all shouting and yelling, a typical thing men would do. There is then a type of meeting, an all the men around are behaving as males typically would, shouting, torturing men who are quite clearly in the wrong, whilst they then listen to the 'emperor' Caesar towering above another man, who looks like the victim in the situation, as he forces him into humiliation. All the rest of the army begin to chant and shout excitably, so the fact that this chaos is taking place most definitely associates with the masculine stereotype.

   
This shot above is not extremely clear, however it is visible that it's of the fight between the armys. You can clearly see the weapons being used, the swords and sheilds, and you can also easily spot the type of protection they are wearing on their heads, which are helmets. They were popular protection methods in those days. It's also very obvious how many people are actually involved, which is alot. The shot is also extremely dark with hardly any colour at all, proving that the setting was deliberately created this way to create the eery effect. It may also tie in with the pathetic fallacy element, how the weather represents the mood of the scene.