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08-27-05, 11:50 AM
Re. The 40 Year Old Virgin, directed by Judd Apatow and starring Steve Carell
In this comedy about a nerdy but likeable guy who just can’t seem to get it on, the filmmakers use a bike to show the viewers how the titular character is out of the mainstream. The bike is a commuter with fenders, lights… and a stem and handlebars that create such a upright riding position that he’s almost leaning back! The point -- somebody who rides a bike for transportation is a geek who can’t get laid – but he’s a nice guy nevertheless. And just in case you might miss that point the production designer for this film commissioned a bike so extreme (mainly the stem and bars) that nobody could fail to see that the character’s a dork.
Later in the movie after he meets a woman he likes and starts to date, he moves a step or two in the cool direction. To show us how he’s changing, they get him a new bike – in this case a dual-suspension mountain bike without the extreme upright riding position – so he’s becoming more mainstream and less of a geek.
Then, as he solidifies his relationship, he gets a recumbent tandem. They show him riding with her and her kids – so he morphs from a nerd to a nice family guy. The filmmakers use the different bikes to show how he changes as a character.
I’m interested in how Hollywood uses characters’ bikes to tell us about the characters and how that has slowly changed in the last couple of decades. The choice of automobiles has always been a way that filmmakers have defined characters – you are what you drive. It’s much more common now, I believe, to show an American character using a bike for transportation than it was ten years ago. Although, in the case of this movie and some others the use of a bike is portrayed as eccentric or nerdy, it’s almost always presented as a positive trait – as opposed to driving an SUV.
Overall, while this film is interesting because of its use of cycling, it doesn’t compare to a competing film in the same sex-comedy genre: Wedding Crashers, which I consider a must-see.
In this comedy about a nerdy but likeable guy who just can’t seem to get it on, the filmmakers use a bike to show the viewers how the titular character is out of the mainstream. The bike is a commuter with fenders, lights… and a stem and handlebars that create such a upright riding position that he’s almost leaning back! The point -- somebody who rides a bike for transportation is a geek who can’t get laid – but he’s a nice guy nevertheless. And just in case you might miss that point the production designer for this film commissioned a bike so extreme (mainly the stem and bars) that nobody could fail to see that the character’s a dork.
Later in the movie after he meets a woman he likes and starts to date, he moves a step or two in the cool direction. To show us how he’s changing, they get him a new bike – in this case a dual-suspension mountain bike without the extreme upright riding position – so he’s becoming more mainstream and less of a geek.
Then, as he solidifies his relationship, he gets a recumbent tandem. They show him riding with her and her kids – so he morphs from a nerd to a nice family guy. The filmmakers use the different bikes to show how he changes as a character.
I’m interested in how Hollywood uses characters’ bikes to tell us about the characters and how that has slowly changed in the last couple of decades. The choice of automobiles has always been a way that filmmakers have defined characters – you are what you drive. It’s much more common now, I believe, to show an American character using a bike for transportation than it was ten years ago. Although, in the case of this movie and some others the use of a bike is portrayed as eccentric or nerdy, it’s almost always presented as a positive trait – as opposed to driving an SUV.
Overall, while this film is interesting because of its use of cycling, it doesn’t compare to a competing film in the same sex-comedy genre: Wedding Crashers, which I consider a must-see.