Lara proves she has brains and beauty by her knowledge. Before Lara comes into the boat, the men were already planning what they wanted to do not knowing that Lara had a proper plan. She speaks with confidence and does not let what the men say change her mind. In earlier times, it was said that ‘a woman’s place is in the kitchen’. This does not apply to Lara. She knows that she is fully educated and has used what she has to discover more. Lara has:
- Geographical knowledge – She talks about a volcano and currents (the sea)
- Map reading skills
- Historical knowledge – She talks about the history of the Lunar Temple and the pyramids.
- Resourceful – She takes a little girl’s chewing gum and uses it to fix the high- tech equipment when it does not work.
- Bilingual – She is able to communicate with the Chinese family when she asks to use their television when she says “Good morning. May I borrow you television, it’s very important!”
Women are known to like fancy and shiny things. But the role reversal here is absolutely amusing. Whilst Lara’s vigilant and very focused on what she’s doing, the men are totally distracted by all that glitters. They see all the gold, silver and statues and they are disturbed. One of the men says, “Look at this, oh my God! We’re going to be rich” Then they both begin to scream. It is usually women that show their emotions no matter what emotion it is (even somebody as strong [mentally strong] as Lara). Men are stereotypically strong and keep their cool. In this case Lara is the one who is keeping cool and just settles with a simple smile. It is great role reversal.
The plot of this film is very exciting and leaves you on the edge of your seat. Lara Croft ‘Tomb Raider’ is on a quest to find ‘The Orb’ which is the key to Pandora’s box. At first Lara tries to retrieve it from the Lunar temple which was built by Alexander the Great. The sea had swallowed the temple and while Lara was trying to get the Orb, it was stolen from her. This is where the great hunt begins. It is now Lara’s task to acquire the orb from the evil scientist who intends to corrupt the world by opening Pandora’s box.
The objective of this film is to show that women are strong, not only physically but also mentally. The makers of the film want to show us that women can be sensuous, intellectual and independent at the same time. They also want to show us that you don’t have to be a man to do certain tasks like using machinery and building things but in this case it’s being a hero.
Lara usually wears her hair up which gives her a tough and hard image, but I addition to this, she leaves the end out which gives her that touch of feminism. In a way, Lara leaving her hair in a ponytail gives the impression of a typical flirtatious woman who is always shaking her hair about and teasing the opposite sex.
Lara also shows us another hairstyle when she goes to visit her x – boyfriend ‘Terry’ who is currently in jail. She wears her hair in a side ponytail and plaits it at the end. This gives her a very sexy and feminine look and the factor that helps this image is the fact that she has very long and dark hair. This gives her a lovely mysterious aspect.
Lara does not dress masculine or feminine, but she dresses to fit the occasion. Take for example, when she goes to visit Terry, she wears something purely woman like. It is white which goes back on my point about women wearing white being angelic. I believe that this image fits in perfectly with her task, which is to get Terry to accompany her to China. This also represents the usual women who use her assets to get what she wants. Another example of Lara dressing to fit the occasion is when Lara and Terry go bike riding in order to find the ‘Shay Ling’. She wears a biker jacket, suns shades and combat boots- this gives us the impression that she is out on a mission and this in a way shows a sort of military image. Another part of the film that shows correlation between her dressing and the military image is when she is fighting with Chen Lo. She picks up a gun but does not use it as the weapon of destruction that is. Instead she uses it to carry out military stances, which shows she is very focused like a soldier.
Yet with all the appearances Lara shows us, she has one which you would not expect an ‘action’ woman like Lara to have. But at the end of the day Lara is a woman with many emotions and feelings and she shows us her sensitive side when her and Terry first arrive in China. As soon as Lara sees the old Chinese Lady, she does not waste a second. She immediately runs with joy and goes to hug her and has a constant smile on her face which shows that Lara really missed the woman and enjoyed being with her. It seemed like there was a type of mother & daughter connection going on between them and it truly brought out Lara’s Loving side. Along with this mother & daughter image, comes with the fact that Lara is very comfortable with family life. When she goes to borrow the Chinese family’s television, she does not seem nervous. Lara also asks to use a little girl’s chewing gum to fix her equipment and when she asks she says it with confidence. It is as if Lara already knows the family and has bonded with them. Yet this is no surprise ‘Women feel much more fulfilled when they are around children whether or not it’s their child’ ()
Lara has a very confident and bold personality. She is not afraid to say what she wants to say when she wants to say it. Lara speaks with a lot of confidence and does not let what people say influence her decisions. An example of this would be when some men from the MI6 come to visit the Croft mansion to discuss the orb. Lara is not very pleased by this. When the MI6 are offered tea, she buts in and says “Tea is for guests, the door is for intruders” She is then informed that the men are from MI6 but this still does no influence her decision to carry on speaking her mind. Lara goes on to say
“I can tell from their soft hands and pressed suits. They make decisions and leave the dirty work for others” Basically, what Lara is saying is that the men from MI6 do not know what a day of hard work is. This totally contradicts the traditional woman who is ‘seen and not heard’. A woman like Lara would have been severely needed back in the times when women never had say in anything. Yet these days it is not very difficult to find a woman who stands up for the rights of things.
Personally, I regard this film as being a great example of role reversal because it shows us that woman can be as ‘supposedly strong’ as men. There haven’t been many films or television programmes made that portray women as being heroines. The only television programme that I know has a heroine in it, is ‘She hulk’ the woman version to the hulk whose appearance is big and strong with muscles. It is a real big shame because nowadays, it is like women have to look masculine to be respected in their profession. This is also another reason why I admire this film. Lara does not look masculine at all. In fact, I did not see any muscles on her at all. Yet as virtuous as this film is, I do not believe that the message has got across the people of today. This sexism still goes on in our society today, even in our classrooms where you would have a teacher say something like “I need a couple of ‘strong boys’ to come and help me do something”. Honestly I do not see why women can’t be strong and feminine at the same time. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) ‘The cradle of life’ has supplied me with a different outlook on women in the world of action films. I would recommend it to anybody.
