Case Study- Agent Carter

Agent Carter 

Today, we worked on our first essay analyzing a video clip. This is what I had to say after I revised my work with the helpful tips of my teacher. 

In the film "Agent Carter", the group being represented is women. This is demonstrated by the overall theme of the power of women. The protagonist Peggy Carter is faced with sexism at her workplace and is treated like an inferior by her male coworkers consistently. In the end, she takes it upon herself to fight and track down a dangerous individual, "The Zodiac", showing that she is more capable than the men in her workplace. 

In the clip, various scenes showed Peggy Carter being mistreated by Agent Flynn. One was during a two-shot where Peggy and Agent Flynn have a conversation where he asks, "How are you doing, sweetie?" (Sweetie is used as a way to talk down to her), and she explains she is bored and wants to do more for the company.  The two-shot helps draw emphasis to their talking by isolating them in one scene and showing their emotional exchange to the audience. Agent Flynn tells her off for saving them, not in a war, and that she is doing enough to let them (the men) handle it. This leaves Peggy to feel overlooked and tells the audience that she is being left out. Possibly because she is a woman who works surrounded by men. 

Similarly, another scene where Peggy Carter is left out for being a woman, at the end of the day, when all the guys in the office go out to dinner. Agent Flynn calls her name, and she gets excited, thinking she will finally be included, but instead tells her to "polish up field reports on my desk, darling" (darling is used as a pet name to undermine her). Then the low-key lighting is used to highlight how she is left alone, which gives the audience a sense of sadness after seeing how the once light-filled room full of the chatter of men is dark, cold, and desolate. The scene is another example of them not including her and overall undermining her efforts. 

As Peggy Carter begins to grab the reports, she gets a call from a mysterious person who tells her the location of a wanted person, "The Zodiac". A close-up of her face is shown as she talks on the phone. Then an eyeline match cuts to a piece of paper where she writes down the coordinates they tell her, and then suggests the corporation send 3-5 agents. In that moment, she has a newfound resolve to track down the dangerous individual and prove herself to the people who underestimated her. The close-up helps highlight the determination she feels, and the eyeline match helps provide narrative information to the scene. 

In the next scene, Peggy is shown fighting men who seemed to look down on her, saying, "You're not from around here, are you?" She then easily beats up the men, and an over-the-shoulder shot reveals another man relaxing in his chair, reading a magazine. Even yawning, as he has not noticed the fight happening behind him, which shows how little they see Peggy as a threat and how strongly they assume she's defenseless. This was further enhanced with the over-the-shoulder shot by contrasting the two scenes to highlight the underestimation the men had of her. 

Stuart Hall's theory contributes to shaping the overall theme of feminine power by explaining how the media shapes what we think about groups of people. In Agent Carter, a representation of women as strong, capable, and underestimated by society is shown. Her struggles with sexism reflect real-world issues but also push against them. This representation of women as intelligent, brave, and leaders shows how the media shaped the perception of women to be shown as underdogs in this particular clip. 

In the end, the scene makes Peggy's strength impossible to ignore. Even though the men around her doubted what she was capable of, she proved herself by rising to the challenge of capturing the zodiac alone. By showing her taking control and succeeding on her own. The film highlights how powerful and capable women are when given the chance.  The moment leaves viewers with a message: underestimating women only makes the achievements stand out even more.