Bend It Like Beckham Review
The title of the movie that was instructed to me to write is bind It Like Beckman,’I a genial ethnic sports comedy directed by Grinder Chad. “Bend It Like Beckman” is a British film co-funded with Germany. It was released in the UK in 2002 and in the United States in March 2003. It turned out to be one of the surprise hits of 2002, making over Ell million at the UK box office, while also proving popular with American and European audiences. Beckman is David Beckman, star of the Manchester United soccer am (and the husband of one of the Spice Girls).
The observation “nobody bends it like Beckman,” from which the title derives, apparently refers to his ability to curve the ball past the opposing goalkeeper. The story centers around eighteen-year-old Jess, a hardworking Indian girl who loves British soccer star David Beckman and Jules, an English girl who befriends Jess after she observes her running circles around a group of strapping young men playing soccer in the park. Jess comes from a very strict Indian family where gender roles are clearly defined. Women are expected to learn to cook and are for their husbands, who are, of course, expected to be the sole breadwinners.
This might be fine for Jess’ older sister Pinky, however Jess has a dramatically different vision of her own future, and it doesn’t entail settling down and cooking the perfect chapatti. More than anything, she wants to join her idol on the football pitch, but her parents will never accept a football player for a daughter. Jess sees herself as a female version of her hero, David Beckman, competing in soccer rather than cooking for an acceptable Indian man as tradition dictates. So Jess is forced to hide her passion from her loved nest, even her sister Pinky, who is about to be married to her long-term boyfriend Teeth.
Jess is then secretly joins Jules’ competitive women’s soccer team which is the Winslow Harriers and is forced to lead a double life in order to not disappoint her parents and still play the sport for which she lives and breathes. Sneaking out to practice and traveling with the team to tournaments puts a strain on her home life. She has to lie to justify her absence from home. To complicate matters, she finds herself falling for her soccer coach. Jess is the main character in the film. She tries to be a good girl for her other and father but can’t help sneaking Off to play football.
While Jess has to lie and sneak around a lot, her rebellious streak is not aimed to hurt her parents. Jess’ dream is to play football professionally, at the beginning of the movie it was just a dream, but when she was invited on a proper team and started to see herself as a proper player, her dream started to become her goal. Jess has always been very strong and determined in the movie, except over time she becomes more determined, and even stronger. We see Jess talking to Beckman at the beginning of the movie, and as she grows and tauter, she finds out she can have trust in other people.
She finds Jules and Joe who she feels she can confide in and talk freely to. Jess also gains more confidence as she progresses through the movie, at fritterers would never dream of confronting her parents like she did at the end of the firm. Joe, Jules, Tony and her whole football team support her in her goals and she gathers up more and more courage and self-esteem. A great example of her self- esteem gain is when Jess at first does not want to show her scar to the world, she hides it away and will not go onto the field in her shorts because everyone will see it.
Joe talks to Jess and they bond over their injuries, this makes Jess feel more comfortable with herself and realize that she may not be the only one and when she is on the field, no one will care. By the end of the movie, Jess is able to stand up for herself, share her Opinion and feel confident about herself. Bend it like Beckman is and overall a good firm and an excellent movie for everyone to watch although it is lacking in plot and dialogue. It has a warm feel good message of girl power and breaking traditional barriers but it is predictable in its storyline.
One thing that was a great asset to the film was the colorful Punjabi culture and ceremonies. Some may say ‘it’s just a movie’ but I know from personal experience that millions of youth face difficulties in choosing cultures when living amongst two different ones. From this movie, the moral values that I’ve learn is firstly, respect. Jess was never disrespectful to her parents. On the other hand, it was her parents who were being disrespectful to her. They didn’t look at her for who she was, instead they only saw who they wanted her to be. The second moral value that learned from this movie is caring.
Jesses parents made mistake in their attempts to parent their children, but they also had real strength. The strength was their basic and strong love for Jess. The problem was that they didn’t look at who Jess had become. They saw her as they wanted her to be. This caused Jess to deceive them but didn’t do her any real damage because, before it was too late, they saw what was important to their daughter and changed their position. Had they not done this, Jess would have had to choose between her relationship with her parents and her dream to be a football player. That would have really damage their relationship.
