Whenever i hear the words Pretty Woman i can’t help thinking of the old song “Pretty Woman”. This movie gives an all new meaning to these words. Now it isn’t “just” the title of a song, from when our parents were born. The film has made me understand these words as being something as American as can be. So, from now on, whenever i hear the song, i will think of the film and maybe say to myself: “My god, that’s just typical for those Americans”.
The film and it’s characters gives me an excellent picture (maybe a little exaggarated) of today’s America. The film isn’t a new story. It is a rewrite of the famous adventure about Cinderella. It has been used agian in this film, where the poor princes (Vivian), whom was doomed to live a life in poverty, is rescued by the beautiful and handsome prince (Edward). By this i don’t mean to say that the film is nothing but a 1990 version of Cinderella, but it’s very close.
The characters in Pretty Woman pretty much resembles those in Cinderella. Vivian Ward, the poor hooker, who until now, have lived a life as a prostitute on Hollywood Boulevard, where she earned just enough money to pay her bills if it wasn’t for her roommate Kit. Kit is also a prostitute. She usually buys dope for the rent money, which leaves Vivian to work extra. To draw parralels to Cinderella, Vivian would (offcourse) be Cinderella, and Kit would be the exploiting stepsister.
They have lived like this for a long time, and continues living like that, until one day, when Vivian is picked up byu mr. Edward Levis, a businessman from New York, trying to find his way back to Beverly Hills. Edward Lewis is very rich man, who has earned his money by buying companies, and then selling them again in small parts. In doing this he is assisted by his lawyer mr. Philip Stuckey, whom more than anything wants to takeover other companies, if nothing else, just to hurt other people.
Mr. Lewis has just got divorced from his wife, and now he lives in a flat on Manhatten. If we once again tries to compare Pretty Woman to Cinderella, Edward Lewis resembles the Prince, who first neglects Cinderella, but later comes to fetch her. Philip Stuckey is hard to place in the story of Cinderella, but i think of him as something like the Prince’s servant. The next important character is mr. Morse, who owns the company that Edward is currently trying to take over.
He is an old man, who rapidly fights back, just to save his workers. His company is saved in the end of the film, where Edward decides that he will rather be part of the firm, instead of taking it over, just to sell it again. I haven’t been able to place mr. Morse in Cinderella like all the others, but anything to make a film better.
In Cinderella you will also, like in all fairytales, find “The Good Fairy”. Pretty Woman also got one of these. It is the employees of the hotel, who helps Vivian buying clothes, teaching her manners etc. Pretty Woman is a film about love and live values, mixed up with a little bit of everything contributing to “The American Way Of Life”. The primary theme of the film is love the love between rich and poor, which is shown in the love between Vivian and Edward. The secondary themes are things such as: prositution, drug addiction, social classes in the U.
S. and finally how the rich people of the U. S. see themselves as superior to the remaining U. S. population.
Some of the typical American things in this film is: Prostitution (although this is also found in the rest of the world), Beverly Hills (90210) and the story about the love between “the rich prince, who comes to fecth his beloved, whom unfortunately is living as a prostitute in Hollywood. Another very American thing about this film is the enviroment, in which Edward lives his life. The U. S. business live is different from that in Europe. It moves much faster compared to the rest of the world.
It’s difficult to tell one’s opinion about this film. To speak for myself i can only say, that it’s a film, which i both love and hate. I love it because of the fabulous actors and the touching scenes with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. But I can’t help hating it because of it being that imitation of Cinderella that it is.
I see it as blasphemous to the old adventure to make such an imitation. I’m sure the Grim brothers, or who ever wrote it, aren’t happy either. It’s funny how you, in every single TV serie, can’t avoid to see how good america is. How well the children are living, all brought up in nice rich families with no problems. It’s just, that it’s perhaps only about 5% of the U.
S. citizens that live a life like in the TV series. The rest live’s like the rest of us Europeans, or below the limit of poverty. It’s typical for the U. S. to try to make themselves look like such a glamourus country, with no problems at all.
To me America is nothing buta big fake, the uncle, to whom everoby look up only to the his live from the outside, not noticing all the inside problem she might have.ren MeinertCategory: English
