Critical Viewing: La Mission

By: Aubrey Schoen, Emma Stewart, Goldie Robins, Amanda Murcia

An Analysis and Criticism of the Portrayal of Mass Media in the 2010 movie La Mission

Thesis

The movie La Mission undergoes the journey of a homosexual boy living in the unaccepting Latino community in San Francisco, and an even less accepting father. The film address two main stereotypes: being gay in an unaccepting local society and interracial relationships. The film follows the progress the son and father must make together to accept their personal adversities.

Step 1: Detection

Identification

The subject of this analysis is the 2010 movie, La Mission. This movie is available for streaming online, DVD, and Blu-ray.

Step 2: Description

Detailed Description

Benjamin Bratt plays Che Rivera, a former alcoholic and ex-convict living in the Mission district of San Francisco. Che Rivera, a widower,  is attempting to get his life back on track while living with his son, Jes Rivera. Jes Rivera, played by Jeremy Ray Valdez, is a high school senior who was hiding homosexuality from his close friends and family.

Che and Jes are both are struggling with personal matters. Jes is having difficulty accepting his own sexuality with the pressures of the Latino community surrounding him. Jes gets ridiculed in school and is evicted from his own home by his father. To augment matters, a local neighborhood gang shoots Jes. Whereas, Che results to his alcoholic ways when he became embarrassed of his son’s homosexuality. Che relies on his neighbor’s aid, Lena, who helps Che realize his mistakes of using violence to attempt solve his problems. Lena was there to lend a helping hand to the Rivera family throughout their hardships. In the end, Che comes to the realization that his relationship with his son is more important than the opinions of his community.

Creator/Creators Purpose

The film’s writer and director Peter Bratt, who grew up in The Mission District of San Francisco, had a lifelong dream of creating a film that took place there. It was Bratt’s own experiences that created the content for this very unique film.

Function/Purpose

Bratt’s purpose in creating the film seems to be to infuse pure entertainment with drama, but still took real life experiences to bring to light the underlying racial tension and homophobia in the Latino community. This will serve to educate the audience of these issues while still presenting an entertaining, gripping tale that captures the viewer’s attention.

Step 3: Deconstruction

Underlying Stereotypes

The underlying stereotype in La Mission are that latino men must be hypermasculine. If men are homosexual in these neighbors they are considered to not be a man and that they are weak.

Evidence for Linking Stereotypes

Hypermasculinity within the Latino community is addressed in the movie. Che results to physical abuse when he first discovers his son’s homosexuality. Jes is also victimized by his fellow peers, who also did not accept his sexual orientation. However, at the conclusion of the movie Che comes to terms with his son’s sexuality. Jes also come to terms with his own sexuality by starting a new life journey at UCLA.

In the latino community a man is supposed to be tough and strong. With his son being gay, Che feels that he is being punished for his past mistakes. Also, Jes becomes ridiculed because the kids and men in the neighborhood see him as less of a man. The stereotype is portrayed by Che kicking Jes out of his house, and is further proven when Jes gets shot by some kids his own age because they now see him as a “faggot” or less of a man.

Significant Omission

A stereotype that is often overlooked in this movie is the single dad raising his son after the death of his wife. Many hollywood movies portray this stereotype of a single father going through rough times raising his son/daughter after a tragic death. The stereotype is embodied in this movie because Che’s has raised Jes all on his own since the death of his wife. Since the death of his wife he had a downward spiral period, first with alcoholism, than going to jail. This is typical with stereotypes of families with the mother deceased. They are often shown as spiraling out of control and they deal with struggles that would be more easily handled with a women figure in their life.

Step 4: Diagnosis

Meaning and Possible Interpretations

Meaning and Possible Interpretations: There are many interpretations of the film La Mission.  To start, Bratt was attempting to recreate the Latino race through the film. Che represented the hard edged Latino man, that results to violence to solve his family issues. To add, Jes’ homoesexauily, that was not accepted by the community, represents the values of The Mission.  However, the conclusion of the film represents new beginnings. Che becomes accepting of his sons homsexlaulity and chooses to engage in a bi-racial relationship. Jes begins to create and accepts his own life at college at University of California Los Angeles.

Comparison With Rational Models

Comparison with Rational Models: In The Mission district, homosexuality and different races were not widely accepted. However, the collective society is generally more accepting. For instance, homosexuality is starting to become an everyday value. Also, diversity in race is also accepted within in the general society.

Potential Effects (Harm)

The effects of this moving portraying a stereotype of the latino culture is it generalizing a community of people that may not all have the same views. People seeing this movie may feel that all Latinos respond this way to homosexuality, and that all Latinos are not accepting of this. I see the biggest potential harm in this movie is how Latinos will be seen to view homosexuality. I think viewers need to remember when watching this movie that this is not how everyone in this category feels and that it is a movie so the portrayals may be exaggerated or overplayed.

Judgement/Evaluation

We found this movie entertaining in respect to it’s surprisingly non stereotypical aspects, such as a seemingly stereotypical Latino teeanger turning out to be a closet homosexual, mixing with it’s more expected stereotypical personas, namely Che with his hard, manly image. However, we felt that the plot was very drawn out, and there were some scenes that seemed irrelevant to the flow of the story. The issues and problems presented in the plot honestly could’ve be resolved in a shorter time frame, thus moving the plot quicker and keeping the viewer’s interest. There were times during the movie where we found ourselves bored. Also, we felt very unsatisfied with the ending, because there were loose ends that weren’t quite addressed, but rather vaguely left to the viewer’s interpretation.

Step 5: Design

Realistic reframing

We would have liked to see Che push aside his pride as a “tough” and “hard” Latino man and accept his son for who he was much sooner than he did. After seeing Jes in the hospital, it almost seemed like he would come around, but he didn’t and physically threatened Jes’s boyfriend from visiting him. Also, we would’ve wanted Che to not result back to alcohol in lieu of solving his problems with himself and his son towards the end, as that wound up as a downward spiral of sorts for Che and delayed his realization of his wrongdoings. And overall, we would want Che to deal with his problems in ways other than using violence; all it did was complicate the issues at hand.

Likelihood of Use

The film would likely not be as dramatic if these changes were made, and it would’ve made it much shorter than it was. These elements of Che’s character– being tough, struggling with alcoholism, using violence– were used as dramatic factors that were essentially driving the plot forward. So, the changes we wanted to see would not have been used.

Existing Reconstructions

The only movie we can recall that partially incorporates our reconstruction is the 2011 romantic dramedy Crazy, Stupid, Love. Although, it does not relate to the main plot but rather the character development of Jacob, a womanizer who often goes to the clubs and takes women home with him nearly every night. He does this throughout the movie until he meets Hannah, who helps him vocalize his problems and issues that he has bottled up inside himself for years since his mother’s death. He learns to open up to other people and confront his problems rather than internalizing them in an unhealthy manner, unlike Che, who turned to alcohol in an attempt to run away from his problems.

Step 6: Debriefing

Personal Impact

At the start of the film, we had no idea how the plot would play out given the are, The Mission district of San Francisco. However, the movie made us realize the role that stereotypes play in any society. La Mission made brought to front the homosexuality within the Latino community. We were able to personally connect with each of the characters in the film. We were able to connect with Jes through his coming of age journey into self-realization. For Che, every viewer could feel a personal connection through his alcoholism. Every person has a weakness and it makes it easier to relate to the characters of a film when the thero is overcoming an addiction. Therefore La Mission made us as viewers personally connect with the film, even though it was geared towards another race.

Personal Harm from Myth

Any “myth” can be harmful in society. This movie helped us to realize the damaging effects it causes. As viewed in the movie, not accepting differences (like homosexuality) results in a conflict of extreme measures.  It is important that members of society celebrate all types of diversity.

Step 7: Dissemination

Advocacy Action Plan

Stereotypes are always going to be present. It is hard to stop them once they have been created, and it is hard to make people stop believing them. But, what we can do is put a stop to hatred among stereotypes. I feel like in this movie it really shows how violent and hurtful people can be towards certain stereotypes. I feel if we make people more accepting of certain stereotypes then maybe even if we can’t stop people from believing in stereotypes, we can make the hate and violence towards certain groups be diminished.

Timetable of Specific Activities

Our group feels that in our personal time we will put effort into stopping everyday hatred towards homosexuals that we see. We will make people aware of how hurtful it can be to call those peoples names. Professionally, I feel like groups and organizations can make people aware of how homosexual, males especially, are not any less manly or are not considered to be a “women”. Genetically they are men and they will always genetically be men even if they love another man. Who you love should not change how manly or how feminine you are. I feel like educating the public is what needs to be done to make people more accepting of these groups. I do feel like efforts are being made, and I do feel like since this movie came out in 2009 that a lot has changed with peoples views on homosexuality. So I feel society is already moving in the right direction with accepting this way of life. Now all that needs to be done is reinforcement and teaching the public more and more on how these people are still like everyone else.

Work Cited

La Mission. Dir. Peter Bratt. Perf. Benjamin Bratt, Alex Hernandez, Christopher Borgzinner, Erika Alexander . Global Cinema, 2009. Film.

“La mission.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 31 July 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1200272/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2>.

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Johnson, Reed. “Peter and Benjamin Bratt Are on a Mission.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2010. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/10/entertainment/la-et-bratt10-2010apr10>.

 

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