Analysis Of Violence In Her By Spike Jonze And Vertigo By Alfred Hitchcock

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In Her (2013), by Spike Jonze and Vertigo (1958) by Alfred Hitchcock, violence is aestheticized through the use of romance. Scottie and Theodore’s sadistic tendencies are masked by their obsession with love. Scotty and Theodore convey the characteristics of men who are hopelessly in love with the women they are with, but in reality they simply want to control them.
Vertigo and Her’s aestheticization of violence and the protagonists’ need for control are emphasized by the fact that both Scottie and Theodore cannot bear the burden of being the object of what Laura Mulvey describes as the ‘male-gaze.’ Mulvey suggests that the male-gaze sexually objectifies women and is a mechanism that allows men to be the object of control. Scotty and Theodore exemplify men who have lost the ability to emit the male-gaze and have been overpowered by women. Scotty has been overpowered by Judy’s lies and Theodore has been submerged by his lack of confidence. Violence plays a key role in escaping objectification; Scotty uses physical violence and psychological manipulation, and Theodore playfully sexualizes violence in order to regain the role as the dominant male. In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Laura Mulvey states, “the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification” (5). In psychoanalytic terms, male sexual objectification is related to the idea of castration. Scotty escapes castration by objectifying Madeleine and turning her into a fetish object. Scottie reaps control over Judy by forcing her to change her hair, clothes, and makeup in order to make her look like Madeleine. As Scottie realizes that Judy tricked him into believing that she was actually Madeleine, he tries to regain the role as oppressor through the use of violence. He resorts to forcing Judy up the church stairwell and man-handling her when they get to the top. In Vertigo, Scottie’s obsession over Madeleine and abusive, violent outbursts are disguised by his irresistible love for Madeline. Violence is underscored by the idea of passion and is made to be a romantic method to achieve control. The portrayal of violence in Vertigo is more irrational than the violence in Her. Theodore does convey the role as a sadist, but in a playful sense. Violence and sadism are conveyed in a joking manner, even though it is clear that Theodore relies on violence in order to make himself feel dominant. Theodore lives in an age in which technology has become very similar to humans and seem to be better at conveying human emotions than actual humans. Characters in this movie have developed closer relationships with technology than they have with humans. This lack of human-to-human connection has influenced Theodore to become immune to raw emotions and has caused him to use the opposite of passion (violence) in order to regain control over his love life. Most of the sexual scenes in Her are contaminated with violent lines.
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The scene in which Catherine chokes Theodore and says, “I’m going to fucking kill you,” emphasizes the fact that Catherine uses violence to show Theodore she loves him. However, it is apparent that Theodore thinks of this exchange as a way for Catherine to exert control over him. He tries to regain the role as a dominant male when he tells his date, “I don’t want to be a puppy. I want to be a dragon. I to rip you apart and destroy you.” Violence is represented in a playful way, but it is clear that Theodore is discontent with being submissive, so he tries to control his date by showing her that he too has the power to be violent. In the scene where Catherine is signing divorce papers, she infers that Theodore was always trying to make her perfect. Theodore was inherently trying to become the dominant male, but it resulted in him getting divorced. The sadistic qualities in this film are often not acknowledged because it seems as if Theodore’s violent games are harmless, but it actually represents his discontent with being submissive. Michael Chion discusses “empathetic music” in Audio Vision: Sound on Screen and claims that “music can directly express its participation in the feeling of the scene” (7). Empathetic music is emphasized through Vertigo and Her’s soundtrack; violence is subdued in these films through the use of romantic music. Violence is aestheticized in Vertigo through the use of

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