Movie Analysis: Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy

The particular film, upon which I chose to focus my analyses, is a very popular and incredibly funny cult-comedy classic, that most, if not all, of you have undoubtedly had the pleasure of seeing at one time or another.  This satirical film, released in 2004 and set in the 1970’s, is saturated with countless examples of the classically disproportionate media portrayals of gender-specific sexuality and double standards, the resultant discourse of which, has been the primary focus of our studies thus far. 

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, tells the story of semi-famous San Diego television news anchor Ron Burgundy, played by Will Ferrell, and his tumultuous journey from the top to rock bottom and back again.  In the beginning of the film, we are introduced to Ron and his news team, as they enjoy a wild party at Ron’s house. Right off the bat, their characters introduce themselves in short clips, familiarizing the audience with their individual personalities as well as group mentalities.  Their collective behavior indicates very cocky, ignorant, vein, and sexist attitudes shared amongst their tightly formed clique.  This becomes increasingly evident through their various interactions and discussions with any of the female characters in this film.  A central focus of the storyline pertains to introduction of attractive female news reporter, Veronica Corningstone, played by Christina Applegate, and her interactions with the otherwise exclusively male news reporters, specifically Ron Burgundy.  Initially Ron and his male coworkers are quite resentful about the unsettling and unfamiliar new female presence at work and they don’t hesitate express their distaste with the notion of a female reporter. Veronica endures frequent stereotypical gender based ridicule, tolerates constant objectification and aggressive sexual advances by her male co-workers, and is constantly bombarded with instances inherent of the unfair sexual double standards featured in the majority of mainstream films and television programs.  As the story progresses, the male characters’ insecurities or resentments evolve into a series of demoralizing sexual advances directed at Corningstone, who repeatedly thwarts their attempts, reinforcing her role as the virtuous sexual gate keeper.  Veronica finally relinquishes this power when, following persistent flirting and presumably insincere flattery by Ron Burgundy, she allows herself to be lured, under false pretenses, into what becomes a romantic date, at the conclusion of which, Ron is finally victorious in bedding her. Shortly thereafter, a gender driven power struggle begins to emerge between Ron and Veronica, turning them against one another and instigating a malicious series of demoralizing attempts to publicly humiliate one another; that is, until Veronica finally takes it too far.  Her devious actions ultimately get Ron fired from his beloved job, shunned and ostracized by his once adoring public, and disavowed by his close group of Channel 4 News team friends, eventually landing him broken and disheveled at rock bottom.

I have selected the following three scenes from the film for further analysis:

This first scene takes place approximately twenty-five minutes into the film.  Following their initial series of tantrums and sexist outbursts regarding the notion of a female news reporter, Ron and his male co-workers’ behavior progress into what becomes a sort of game or competition to see who can seduce Miss Corningstone.  Preceding the particular excerpt of interest, we bear witness as each of the supporting character proceeds to engage Veronica with clear intentions of trying to sleep with her.  After dismissing each suitor’s tacky pick-up lines and aggressive sexual implications, one after another, Ron steps up to give it a go himself.  This female objectification, as well as competition amongst men to see who can seduce her first, through a series of crude sexual advances, closely reflects elements of the Sex As Masculinity coding theme described in the literary works of Janna L. Kim and others, and by no means is it the only one (Kim, Sorsoli, Collins, Zybergold, Schooler, & Tolman, p.147).  In this instance, Ron is clearly the sexual initiator and his behavior shows that he is willing to go to great lengths to have intercourse.  He has Veronica called down to his office where, upon her entrance, she discovers him sitting topless in a chair, pretending to have just been concluding an intense set of 1000 bicep curls, thus indirectly demonstrating his strength and power to the female.  Components of both the Good Girl and Masculine Courting Strategies coding paradigms are also tied to the scene as well.  As a female, Veronica exemplifies the role of "sexual gate-keeper," thwarting each suitor's sexual advances, demonstrating qualities of sexual responsibility (Kim, Sorsoli, Collins, Zybergold, Schooler, & Tolman, p.148).  His ridiculous and unconvincing fabrication fails to impress her, even in the slightest.  Instead his efforts backfire on him, provoking an irate and emasculating verbal response from Veronica, clearly indicative of intense feelings of frustration with Ron for having paged her to his office and wasting her time with his pathetic attempt to seduce her.  Having been backed into a corner, Ron attempts to redeem himself and regain control of the situation.  He shifts the focus from himself back onto her by acting offended and hurt by her words, making her feel foolish, and even attempting to alleviate his feelings of embarrassment by transferring the guilt back over to her.  He insists that his intentions were not motivated by sexual desire, but rather constituted a friendly and professional attempt to get to know his new co-worker and help to familiarize her with the unfamiliar new city that she will be reporting on.  At this point the sexual nature of both characters interactions are markedly less evident.  That is until, at the conclusion of their conversation, the camera zooms out, revealing to Veronica and the audience that Ron has now developed an explicitly clear erection under his pants reiterating the idea that men are continually and hopelessly obsessed with sex.

              The second scene takes place approximately 45 minutes into the film.  After only just recently having physically consummating his love with Veronica, we find Ron sitting with his news team and explaining to them the unrealistic nature of his and Veronica’s relationship, and extent to which she personifies his ideal wife.  The scene fades into Ron’s imaginary visualization of what a perfect long-term relationship between himself and Veronica. The scene opens by zooming out on a bookshelf crowded with Ron’s many Emmys and other trophies.  Right in the middle of this small shrine to himself is a picture of him, his provocatively dressed wife, and his perfectly posed family, potentially alluding to the notion that they serve as yet another award or achievement for his shelf. Veronica’s wardrobe consists of nothing more than a fairly revealing apron, as she emerges from the kitchen to welcome her husband home from a hard day’s work.  Everything about her infers the role of attractive, submissive and subservient housewife, whose extreme dedication to her husband is rivaled only her sexual attraction to him.  The events of this scene are great examples of the general orientations towards sexuality and the double standard detailed in the writings of L. Monique Ward.  Basing this imagination of everlasting and highly sexualized love on essentially nothing more than his current sexual infatuation with Veronica, as well the implication that he thinks of her as simply another trophy or prize, comprise themes of the Recreational Orientation towards sexuality in our culture.  Concurrently, his imaginary marriage to Veronica and the presence of his imaginary sons reflect parts of the Procreational Orientation.  Even more pervasive in this scene are the many implementations of the Double Standard, as detailed in Ward’s article.  Veronica, both attractive and provocatively dressed in this scene, is clearly the subject of objectification. Her behavior is about as passive as it gets, making it abundantly obvious that her primary concerns revolve around satisfying her male partner (Ward, p.600).  Essentially, everything about this scene is intended to frame her as submissive, sexual, devoted, and physically attractive, while making Ron out to be the patriarchal and distinguished bread winner, clearly inferring his dominance in the relationship.

              Finally, the third scene of interest for this analysis takes place just about an hour into the film, and features a disgruntled Ron, storming into the television studio only to find that Veronica, a woman, has just reported his news for him.  His anger and anxiety over her perceived betrayal and emasculating actions, are more than obvious as he proceeds to belittle and berate Veronica in a very aggressive manner, in front of all the many other staff members present.  This scene is loaded with several implications characteristic of Dominant/Submissive behaviors as proposed in the works of scholars Ivory, Gibson, and Ivory.  Ron dominates the dialogue first by simply yelling over people.  Then as he becomes further enraged this yelling escalates into threatening physical movements, extremely aggressive uses of language and vocal tones, and excessively sexist and demeaning insults directed at Miss Corningstone (Ivory, Gibson, Ivory, p.181).  Interestingly, Veronica doesn’t seem to exhibit any of the tradition submissive behaviors in response, but instead tends to respond with increasingly dominant behaviors and expression.  Her proper submissive role are, however, implied through Ron’s dialogue.  At first he laughs when she tells him she did the news.  Clearly he considers the notion that a female could have done that instead of him to be laughable and when he finds out its true, his outrage multiplies exponentially that she has the nerve to step outside stereotypical female roles and assume that position in his absence.

While this film is clearly full of gender based discrimination and sometimes crude jokes pertaining to women and their imposed roles in society, it is, after all, a comedy and the negative or derogatory messages of the characters in the film are not necessarily consistent with those of the actors or directors personal views of women.  It is intriguing how differently these messages might be interpretted were someone unfamiliar with this variety of comedy or satirical content matter or if it the individual interactions were viewed out of context by soomeone unfamiliar with the film or related genres.  Ultimately, its just one of many satirical works, that in a broader sense actually serves to ridicule these outdated conventions of thought and stereotypical attitudes portrayed by the actors.

References List:

Ivory, A., Gibson, R., & Ivory, J.  (2009).  Gendered relationships on television: portrayals of same-sex and heterosexual couples.  Mass Communication and Society, 12, 170-192.

Kim, J., Sorsoli, C. L., Collins, K., Zylbergold, Schooler, D., & Tolman, D.  (2007).  From sex to sexuality: exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television.  Journal of Sex Reasearch, 44, 145-157.

Ward, L. M.  (1995). Talking about sex: common themes about sexuality in the primetime programs children and adults watch.  Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 24, 595-615.