Archetypes in High School Movies Essay

David Denby explains the typic high school movies in detail in his article c altogethered High- schoolhouse mysterious Notes in Teen Movies. According to Denby, there are triplet use archetypes in high school movies the popular misfire, the protagonist, and the outsider. For some reason these movies commonly take place around the time of prom, where miss popular expects to be crowned for her? popularity. Denby described the first character type, the popular girl, as ordinarily a tall slender blonde cheerleader that has two or three friends identical to her.Together these girls ruled the school, not necessarily because every(prenominal)one the liked them, precisely because everyone was afraid of them. Of course, this girl expects to be to be voted most popular by her class at prom. Of course, the popular girl has a boyfriend, who fits in the supporter archetype. He is head of the football team, a big time prankster, pipe down in class, hardly king of the halls and cafete ria. Sometimes, as one of his pranks or bets, he may ask an outsider to the prom for humiliation purposes.The outsider the jock asks to prom is the third character Denby explains in this sentence The kids who cannot be the comely ones, or make out with them, or avoid being insulted by them-these are the heroes of the teen movies, the third in the trio of character types. She is the girl with intellectual or artistic ability, always dropping her books, wearing noncurrent clothes, silent or stuttering in front of good-looking boys, and cannot hide her rely to be accepted. right away if the outsider was a male, the jock obviously wouldnt be asking him out to prom, so the storyline would have to be a bit different.Now, not every high-school movie has these two characters, that they are common and well-known in such movies. Also, not every jock in a movie is as arrogant as described they can be played as sweet and innocent, notwithstanding these characters are not nearly as familia r as the ones Denby describes. Now think about the writers and directors of these movies. Do you think they are interested in the because it sells factor, or do you think their high school status is involved? Denby talks about how Hollywood writers and producers more than likely fell in the outsiders category.Maybe this is why often the stories twist in high-school movies. The outsiders become the heroes, join the system, and better it. The system appears to be more like the real world, where appearance doesnt beat achievement. Movies like Shes all that, and Never Been Kissed fit Denbys American high-school movie character archetypes perfectly. On the other hand, movies that contradict Denbys archetypes include Clueless, Romy and Michelles High School Reunion, and Election. In Clueless, the rich blonde is actually a good mortal with good qualities.Romy and Michelles High School Reunion might take down be criticizing the teen-movie genre altogether. In Election, a middle-class ove rachieving girl plant all the time to be on top, but still feels excluded, which breaks every cliche in the book. Denby analyzed three specific archetype characters for high-school movies, but also found that there are some that break the mold. The commonly known archetypes writers and producers often use are the popular girl, the jock, and the outsider. They themselves probably rule interest making high-school movies because they were also stuc.