Film 80B UCSC Fall ‘01
Instructor: Gloria Monti
Teaching Assistant: Ali Ebrahimzadeh
11/26/01
Rob Reiner’s, When Harry Met Sally…(1989)
confronts the differences between the sexes and speaks about gender roles
and issues that were previously never talked about on the big screen. When
Harry Met Sally…is a significant eighties film because it was the first
to look into sex and friendship between the sexes. There are plenty of
reasons as to why this film was such a widespread success. Nora Ephron wrote
the screenplay and her dialogue represented the way people ideally would have
liked to be able to talk, but couldn’t. The screenplay fulfilled a void in
film in the late eighties – confronting oneself, the opposite sex, and how to
understand the differences in love and friendship. It was also the time when
STD’s and AIDS came into the mainstream so the themes of sex and intimacy
interested audiences in 1989. The film’s story was something both
sexes could relate to: Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg
Ryan) both wanted a friend of the opposite sex. However, they are confronted
with the problem: "Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting
in the way?" Harry: You
realize of course that we could never be friends. Sally
believes in friendship but Harry doesn’t - thus the persistent conflict in
gender relations. The film has a standard three-act structure. In act one,
Harry declares that men and women cannot be friends because sex gets in the
way. Next, in act two, Harry and Sally become friends. Lastly, in act three,
having slept together and tainting their friendship, the couple comes back
together as friends in love. While traditional romantic films rely on the
concept of love at first sight or instantaneous passion, When Harry Met
Sally... takes its time in exploring the tediously long and comical
process by which two people come together. Another theme of the film is that
each case of romance is different; this is signified by the use of short
"interview" sequences scattered through the film in which elderly
couples tell their own version of love. This adds optimism to the film and
also an authenticity to the predicament. This is a case of signifieds
constructing signifiers. The content versus the film’s look arranges the
story about Harry and Sally into a larger context - the stories are all
unique, but the end product of spending the rest of your life with someone
you love has universal appeal. Gender relationships and gender conflicts
in When Harry Met Sally… are the major signified themes. The
signifiers in the film suggest common stereotypes of the eighties and construct
the content of the film. The opening credits of the Manhattan cityscape,
jazzy soundtrack, and most importantly, the lush New York landscape promote
the representation to a yuppie audience. The setting is in urban
Eastern America in the 1970s-1980s period, in a time and place where young
urban professional women and men were struggling with gender roles, marital
issues, careers, and friendships. The storyline shows a great deal of
attention to composition, color, pacing, and detail. This is important
because the director uses several different slices of time and location. The film’s upper-class signifiers further
include that Harry and Sally graduated from the University of Chicago. Both
find New York City careers. She becomes a journalist, and he, a political
consultant. Looking at the early eighties image of Sally, one cannot help but
think of Melanie Griffith’s character in Working Girl. Both share the
blond knockout look with the heavy makeup, bright eyes, and curly volume
hair. The visual codes of Sally’s fashion wear showcase the times and also
her character development. The designer Armani felt hat, khakis and long
socks represent the late seventies to early eighties. Later, the briefcase
and jacket reveals the professional Yuppie stylized ideal of 1982. Next, the
contemporary and more casual look was part of the late eighties. Sally’s
soft-curl hair was modeled after the Farah Fawcett look from Charlie's Angels. There are also
distinctive gender relations between same sexes that are noteworthy. Harry
consoles about women in his best male friend while at a football game and
again, at a batting range. Sally consoles about men in her best friend while
eating a 5-star lunch and drinking champagne. There are also signified inaccuracies,
specifically in the sex life of Harry. He jumps woman to woman and it doesn’t
concern himself or more expectantly, Sally. The unrealistic part of the
film contents is the characteristically Hollywood lack of coverage about the
fact that AIDS and other STDs were a very real part of the sexual promiscuity
in the eighties. In a time
when AIDS was headline news, promiscuous sex should have been an issue. In one scene,
Sally, distressed at learning that her previous boyfriend is getting married,
calls Harry over and breaks down in Harry's arms. Harry underplays the moment
and is unmoved by the fragility of Sally, even as she is completely
hysterical. This satisfies the stereotypical level-minded man versus the
unstable woman. He is a shoulder to lean on out of necessity, not by choice.
They make out, kiss, and embrace. The frame cuts to the post-sex moment where
sex has changed everything. The scene between Harry and Sally after they
sleep together is awkward and difficult. The mise-en-scene captures the
moment after sex, framing the couple in bed. Zoomed in, the camera frames
Sally’s cheek-to-cheek grin, rosy and satisfied complexion, and overall
ecstasy as she lies next to a naked Harry in bed. Has sex proved they belong
together? The camera pans from her happiness to his anxiety and fear –
exposed in the contrasting horrified expression on the face of Harry. Harry
is dismayed because he has been put into a position where he might be forced
or at least expected to let go of his independence. Sally is beaming with joy
because the distant friendship without sex has blossomed into a close
relationship with sex, or has it? In the next cut, Harry wakes up in the
morning and uses the excuse of work as a means of a quick escape while Sally
is left alone in bed. This scene marks the contrast between two individuals
quarreling about sex versus the meaning of sex. In other words, Sally wants
intimacy and Harry wants independence. The film has a powerful message about
the role of sex, how it can be toyed with and essentially minimized, as Harry
has done most of his life, or it can become the crossroad that either helps
to hold a relationship together or tear it apart. When Harry Met Sally…
established the benchmark for romantic date films and inspired countless
copycats. Prior to this film, dozens of years had passed since the adult
romantic comedy was in style (primarily because of poor scripts and a lack of
chemistry between leads), and it’s all because When Harry Met Sally…
created the trend. Due in large part to the success of the movie, the film
industry was forever changed and romantic comedies became high profile (such
as 1990’s Pretty Woman). The popularity crossed over to other forms of
media such as books: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, which
was a hugely popular book published in 1992. The most famous line of dialogue
(not counting Sally's fake orgasm), "Men and women can't be friends
because the sex part always gets in the way," became a regular topic of
talk show discussions, magazine articles, and daily conversations during the
late eighties. The film has since then become the cultural reference point
for romantic comedies and conflicts between the sexes. |
Wilson Tai, Copyright ã 2001