By Kim Callahan
Film Analysis paper
Bend it like Beckham is a great movie of self strength and the power of family. It show�s one girls struggle to do the thing she loves, play football (a.k.a. soccer in America) and still respect her family and their culture. The girl goes through many trials with her parents and her team all the time trying to please both sides of the playing field.
Bend it like Beckham was realized in the UK and in the US in 2002 and in Germany as Kick it like Beckham in 2002 as well. It was directed by Gurinder Chadha, and rated PG-13. It was made in the UK and in Germany and has been recorded in English, German, and Punjabai (the Indian language that is spoken throughout the movie). It is rated as a comedy/ drama for its gag�s on soccer and homosexuality.
Bend it like Beckham won many awards in 2002 and 2003, including the Audience Award from Dinard British Film Festival, East Lansing Film Festival, Bordeaux International Festival of Women in Cinema and Lacarno International Film Festival. Bend it like Beckham also won other awards such as, the Golden Wave and the special Jury Award from the Bordeaux International Festival of Women in Cinema in 2002, the British Comedy Award in 2002, the Espy Award for Best sports movie in 2003, the Guild Film Award � silver from the Guild of German Art House Cinemas in 2003, the ALFS Award from the London Critics Circle film Awards in 2003, the Special Jury Award from the Marrakech International Film Festival in 2002, Most Enjoyable Film (Theatre Owners) award from the Norwegian International Film Festival in 2002, the Prix UIP from Sydney Film Festival in 2002, as well as placing second in the People�s Choice award in Toronto International Film Festival in 2002 and the Film Discovery Jury Award from the U.S. Comedy Art�s Festival in 2003. Along with all of these awards were many nominations, too many to list here.
The girl of the story is named Jesminder �Jess� Bhamra played by Parminder K. Nagra. Jess is an Indian girl living in Britain with her Indian family, and is around the age of 17 or 18. You�re not really told how old she is. In the beginning of the story, she is day dreaming of herself playing professional football with Beckham when she is interrupted by her mother and told to help her sister find a dress for her wedding. Most of the story takes place with her sister�s wedding.
The beginning of the story is interesting because it begins to develop, not only the characters, but the culture of the Indian people inside Britain. The young ones have respect for their elders, and that�s apparent right away, from the moment they run into a friend and his mother and greet her by bowing and saying something in Panjabai. Another aspect that is shown right away is the dresses that Jess� sister is looking at for her wedding. It�s not a �normal� wedding dress as we see in America, but it�s a colorful Sari, with coin work and bright bold colors.
Another aspect of their culture that is developed throughout the story is marriage. Most of the Indian people have arranged marriages, but in the case of Pinky, Jess� sister and Jess herself, they are not arranged. Pinky is marring for love, and Jess is supposed to find someone to marry as well. Only the catch is, is that Jess is supposed to find a nice Indian boy to marry, no black, white, or especially Muslim. This turns out to be a problem with Jess because she falls for her coach of her football team, who is white, and Irish. But that relationship doesn�t form very far in the movie.
Another example of this is in one scene, when Jess� parents find out that she wants to play on a team, her mother says no, and uses her niece as an example. Her niece had married a white boy with blue hair. Now she is divorced and is a fashion designer. She says that her mother can�t step foot inside their temple, and that she will not have her family shamed. So marriages outside of their culture are out of the question for them because of the way they were raised.
One thing that I think needs to be brought up is the fact that Jess is a second generation immigrant. Her parents moved to Britain from Nairobi, and I think that plays a big part in the story. Since her parents are first generation immigrants, the changes made are harder for them to accept since they still have their beliefs and were also born in another place, that wasn�t like the Britain culture.
I wanted to also take a look at the sound in the movie. It showed a theme of being silent except for the voices talking when something big was happening. No other sounds at all. Also it seemed when Jess was doing something wrong, but still having a good time, it played happy �American� music or English music, and when she was doing something fun with her parents knowing, it played happy �Indian� music, music from her own culture. A lot of the other music that was played fit into the scene, for example, when it showed Jess at her first practice on the team, it played �She�s a lady�, with all of the girls practicing. It expressed that they were all women and ladies even though they were playing football. It was interesting to see.
Over all I thought it was very interesting to see how her culture was portrayed in the British culture, which is a little different then our own here in America. I also found the sound and the music that was used to really tell the story to us. It showed what the director wanted us to know.