Step Brothers directed by Adam McKay in 2008
“Step Brothers” is an American comedy movie, which was directed by Adam McKay in 2008, and produced by Miller Jimmy with Apatow Judd. This film follows two stepbrothers, Dale and Brennan. These two grown men are made to live as brothers, and share a room, after the marriage of their guardians. On the one hand, Brennan lives with a single mother, Nancy, while on the other hand, Dale lives with Robert, a widowed father. After Nancy and Robert meet and decide to marry, Brennan and Dale are forced to move in with them and live together as brothers. With both of the two brothers having pride over one another, Dale tells Brennan to avoid touching his drum sets, which triggers Brennan to attempt it while Dale was away. After returning home, Dale finds Brennan sweating on the couch, but denies having touched the drum set. This argument turns out into a conflict, whereby Brennan and Dale fight vigorously until their parents separate them. As a way of punishing them, Robert issues a ban on watching television for one week, and they are required to get themselves stable jobs.
Brennan’s younger brother visits the family and begins ridiculing the two brothers for their behavior and the lack of stability. During a confrontation, Derek tells Dale to hit him by threatening him, a request that Dale takes by punching him in the face. Surprisingly, Derek’s wife, Alice, attempts to initiate a sexual relationship with Dale, whom she found attractive and courageous for hitting Derek. After this incident, the two brothers realize that they can be great partners since they share interests and beliefs. With numerous scenes, the film ends with the two brothers embracing each other, and forming a successful entertainment company, and helping their parents get together again.
Sociological Imagination
Using the sociological imagination, it is evident that numerous actions have been inspired by sociological perspectives of life. First, in the marriage between Robert and Nancy, the two parents moved together after falling in love. Using the sociological imagination, it is evident that these two got married to overcome the social status of being single. By being single, the two felt that they were socially incomplete, a move that triggered their eventual marriage after falling in love. Secondly, Nancy and Robert got married to escape the boredom involved in being single. Having left with their two sons separately, the two felt that the sons did not offer enough time and care to escape boredom (Evans and Jacob 10). For this reason, Nancy and Robert’s marriage was not inspired by marriage alone. Instead, the marriage was influenced by several sociological factors, like the need to fit in society and to avoid boredom associated with living alone.
Dale and Brennan’s behavior of living with their parent could be viewed as an act of care or negligence. However, in my perspective, the two men chose to live with their parents to avoid the responsibilities of managing a family. For this reason, they chose to live with their mother and father, respectively. Secondly, their parents could have played a massive role in influencing them to live together. After divorce with her husband, Nancy could have influenced Brennan to live with her. For instance, by providing all the necessities to him, and offering to pay all the bills, Nancy promoted Brennan’s behavior of negligence. On the other hand, when his wife died, Robert was lonely and required someone to stay with him, and while Dale tried to fill this gap, his father promoted his negligence. Generally, both Robert contributed to the behaviors exhibited by Brennan and Dale.
Conflict Theory
The Social Conflict Theory, as developed by Karl Max, explains the perpetual state of conflict in societies. According to this theory, the various groups of people in society compete for the available resources, which enables the domination of people among a specific group in society. The theory explains that the wealthy people in a society maintain their status quo by suppressing the poor; in essence, the privileged ensure they work hard to maintain their status. For this reason, conflict theory implies that people in social work in maintaining their interests and beliefs.
In the film, “Step Brothers,” numerous episodes of conflicts arise between the characters in the film. The first conflict in this film is initiated by Robert and Nancy, whereby the two characters promote their love interests and force their sons to move in with them, without considering the consequences of bringing two grown-up but immature adults together. Having lived with their sons since their separation with their spouses, Robert and Nancy should have considered better terms of their marriage. This first scene presents a conflict of interest, whereby both Robert and Nancy prioritize their interests over those of their sons. Even though this scene does not directly present a conflict, the scene shows an indirect conflict between the two brothers and their parents.
Secondly, Brennan and Dale are themselves involved in numerous conflicts, whereby they are forced to indulge in these conflicts by their parents, who place them in one room. Between the two brothers, the first conflict arises out of curiosity, whereby Brennan wanted to feel the goodness in the drum set that Dale had denied him access to. In this scenario, the conflict between the two brothers was promoted by the presence of an unequal opportunity between the two brothers. On the one hand, Dale owned a drum set while on the other hand, Brennan felt the want to practice playing the drum. The two brothers then confronted each other, resulting in a serious vigorous fight. The conflict theory also shows the detrimental effects of conflicts, and in this film, the consequences of this confrontation were detrimental to the two brothers. Robert denied them access to television for one week, while also requiring them to get a stable job. The two brothers also conflict when their parents decide to get divorced. In this case, Brennan and Dale blame one another for causing the divorce. They think that their behavior has caused their parents to divorce. For this reason, they separate and live independently by acquiring stable jobs. From this conflict, it is evident that a conflict could result in beneficial results in some situations.
Social Class
In most cultures of the world, the social class demands that elder brothers should be successful before their younger brothers. However, this film displays a different scenario in which Derek, Brennan’s biological brother, is more successful and has a job compared to Brennan, who lives with his parents, and does not bother getting a job (Sony Pictures Entertainment 34:00 to 58:05). Brennan does not live to the expectations of his mother, and the society at large, because his brother is seen as more successful than him. Derek is an ill-mannered man, who treats both Brennan and Dale horribly. Despite his behavior, Robert and Nancy treat Derek as the better son compared to Dale and Brennan. This implies that the society in this film values the high-class, wealthy group, at the expense of the extremely poor people in the film. Robert views Derek as the son he never had, a confident and successful man, a son who represents the direct opposite of his son, Dale. For this reason, Robert approves Derek as compared to his son, Dale, and Brennan. Finally, the social class of the wealthy people is treated with humanity, despite the lack of morals among them. The understanding of social class is highly helpful in understanding this movie. By understanding that the society in the film values money and success over morals, I can understand the reason behind the hatred of Robert and Nancy towards the two brothers.
Gender
In this film, gender is displayed in numerous ways to present the message of the film. In the context of sexuality and marriage, women prefer men who are confident. Alice, Derek’s wife, tries to initiate a sexual relationship with Dale for hitting her husband. In this scene, men are judged and loved based on their confidence. Similarly, Robert describes Derek as the confident son he did not have. For this reason, the film brings the idea of men being confident beings who must embrace their societal challenges for them to be loved. In marriage, men have to take the responsibility of tending for their families. For instance, Derek is the breadwinner in his family and often abuses her wife. Because of his role as the breadwinner of the family, Derek feels can treat his wife as he wishes. Similarly, Brennan and Dale do not marry because they lack a stable job to tend for their families. In watching this film, understanding these two concepts in gender was crucial. For instance, I understood the reason for the two brother’s behavior of not getting married.
Social Location and Biases
Social locations are a reflection of numerous intersections in life; race, age, physical size, social class, religion, and sexual orientation. Being a Christian, I viewed the behavior of allowing two grown-up adults to accompany their parents into marriage as weird. In my Christian beliefs, it is unethical for Robert and Nancy to allow the two men to live in the same house with them (Adorno 33). Additionally, the behavior displayed by Dale and Brennan is conflicting with my self-beliefs. Finally, Derek’s behavior towards his brothers is unethical, considering he is younger than them. These beliefs made me have a bias towards the film, and in the end, the biasness affected my understanding and liking of the film.
Watching with Sociological Lens
By viewing the film using a sociological lens, the movie has greatly changed. First, I was able to understand the various sociological factors leading to the appearance of the movie as it appears. Initially, I watched the film with bias by viewing the various reactions and behaviors as unethical (Stepnisky 295). However, with the sociological lens, the film has completely changed for me, whereby I understand all the actions taken by the various characters in the film. The film became more fun to watch through the conflict theory, the role of gender, the social class, and my sociological imagination.