Submarine
How far are the characters in submarine representative of British types of youth? Discuss with reference to the film, and examples from other British TV and film.
There are three main characters in the film Submarine who represent different types of British youth, some following more stereotypical conventions than others.
Oliver Tate - the main character
Throughout the film Oliver's character does not appear to conform to the stereotypical conventions of a British teenage male that we would often expect to see portrayed in the media. Oliver's character within the film could be considered as "unique". He displays unconventional traits and behaviours. Oliver is extremely inquisitive and gets himself involved in all sorts of awkward situations - whether it be with his parents, Jordana, people from school etc. Furthermore, Oliver often appears distanced to others in the film and does not "fit in" with the charatcers that surround him, his relationship with his parents is very unusual as he confronts his mother about her and his fathers sexual relationship, he freuqently gets bullied in school and he even finds it hard to relate to his girlfriend. Oliver's character can also appear to be quite sinister at times as he often speaks about his death and has to read aloud a suicide note that he has written after Jordana has broken up with him. Though Oliver's character could overall be considered nerdy, his personality suggests that it is more complex than that.However, although Oliver's character does not often portray a stereotypical young British male, at times his character does display the conventions that we would expect to see as an audience. Oliver wears dark, plain clothing, a stereotypical convention of a British teenage male. Oliver's bedroom is painted blue with posters hanging on the wall, a skeleton model placed in the room and is overall messy. Oliver bullies and gets bullied for the girl he loves - Jordana. He wants to lose his virginity and even arson is shown within the film. These are all expected behaviours and traits of a youth culture and therefore represents stereotypical conventions of his character well.
Jordana Bevan - Oliver's girlfriend
Jordana's character again does not always portray steretypical conventions of a young British female. She is very blunt and sarcastic, and does not express feeling or emotions in the way that teenage girls are often expected to. Furthermore she doesn't want a cliche relationship with Oliver and he tries harder to impress her than she does him, which is an unconventional feature of teenage relationships, as typically it is usually the female that is more "head over heels" than the male. Jordana is always seen wearing a large red coat, which could signify her bold and strong character as she seems very independant and unreliant on others throughout the film.
Chips - the school bully
I think that Chip's character is most representative of British youth than the other two within Submarine. He is a typical school bully who thinks that he is "cool" and "hard". He gives insults and sends notes around the classroom to embarrass other students (such as Oliver), he mocks other peoples problems and would do anything for popularity and status. Although Chips is a bully, he does not come across as violent or fierce, however more the "class clown" bully who gains popularity by stupidity.
If I had to compare the characters in Submarine to other charatcers in British TV and media I would most likely choose the characters from The Inbetweeners. This is because the characters in both Submarine and Inbetweeners have very abstract personalities and also Inbetweeners is a more realistic portrayal of youth than other TV programmes such as Skins and because these characters don't follow stereotypical conventions that have been created by the media I think that Inbetweeners is therefore a more similar portrayal. I think that Oliver is most like the main character Will, who wants to prove his intellegence but in doing so always ends up in awkward situations, whereas Chips would be more like one of the other charaters, such as Neil, as he is more laid back and enjoys life.
Overall I think that to some extent the characters within Submarine are representative of British youth, however I think that their is more complexitiy and perhaps even realism to the characters in Submarine then the stereotypical portrayal of British youth that the media often exposes audiences to.