Through the Looking Glass: The Treatment of Age in Movies

Ok. Now I can think of a whole host of movies that treated age issues. The Cocoon, The Evening Sun, and Away from Her are a few small examples. Away from Her was a tragic movie that treated the issue of Alzheimer's disease and how difficult it is to deal with it when your spouse doesn't remember you anymore. Cocoon portrayed old people as having a second chance in life given to them by aliens. The Evening Sun, just released, gives the portrayal of an old man that escapes a nursing home.

Commercials sometimes show aging people in a negative light. See the Snickers commercial that came out recently that plays in the theaters before the shorts. I was absolutely mortified to see someone jump and topple over an old man in the commercial. Also shocked when Betty White that plays the elderly lady in the beginning turns into a young man while eating the snickers. This was another dig at age. This is how we have been conditioned; to look at older people in a comical way or incompetent way. Or gee, we eat something and can be young again. Where is the respect?

Doesn't the media realize that old people have seen so many things and have gone through so much of life that they deserve respect? Age needs to be valued and treasured, something to be learned from. After all, all of us age all the time. For every day that we are alive, the clock ticks away another day, and we age another day older, day after day after day. What's wrong with that? Isn't it a treasure and a gift to be alive anyway? Don't they realize there is beauty in age???

No one will dispute that sheer physical beauty probably blooms in the teens, twenties and thirties. The skin may be beautiful, teeth strong and perfect, body at its best. Movies about teens abide with popularity, tons of movie about the boy wanting to win over the popular girl. There is a new movie coming out called Out of My League, in which a geeky guy tries to win over a beautiful girl, described by his friend in the movie as a "hard ten". I think of the movie, "Ten", from 1979, in which Dudley Moore's character, George, falls for Bo Derek's character, Jenny, as being an example of someone falling for superficial beauty, only to see that beauty can sometimes run "skin deep". George (Dudley Moore) realizes that beauty isn't everything, and he leaves Jenny (Bo Derek) to go to his true love, Samantha, (Julie Andrews).

Many movies address the subject of the exploitation of young, beautiful women. One example that shows exploitation of young women, and their short lifetime as being on top and most glamorous, is the movie, Show Girls, starring Elizabeth Berkley and Gina Gershon. Elizabeth Berkley plays Nomi Malone, a drifter that ran away from her old life to come to Las Vegas, and become a top billing showgirl and eventually the star of the show, gained through more unscrupulous ways. Kyle MacLachlan plays the exploitative and manipulative entertainment director with connections that takes advantage of her. The degree of exploitation towards young women in the movie just made me want to cry. They also were most valued when at their youngest, and Gina Gershon's character even said at one point that she also gained stardom through less than desirable ways. So the message in the movies is that sometimes youth, particularly when addressing the subject of young, beautiful women, is not even respected, just exploited. This will be the subject for another Looking Glass article. Look for a posting soon.

But the beauty of maturity is often ignored or overlooked. There is beauty in maturity, and knowledge. The skin may not be perfect; the teeth may not be perfect, but the knowledge gained from living each day for a longer time is priceless. And there is beauty in a maturing face. Why does one need a face lift? What is wrong with leaving oneself alone? There is another movie that comes to mind, a movie from 1950, All About Eve, starring Betty Davis and Ann Baxter, of the young understudy, Eve, played by Ann Baxter, that studies the moves of a famous actress, Margo, played by Betty Davis, only to betray her and take over her role, leaving the actress discarded, again showing how overvalued youth and beauty are, as opposed to age, grace and experience.

In the movies, actresses are known to say that they aren't considered for many roles anymore, even past the age of 40. Yes, there are some working ladies in acting; the best, such as Glen Close, Sogourney Weaver, Meryl Streep, Barbara Hershey, Cathy Bates, and Helen Mirren, but for these few actresses that made it to the top of their field, for those actresses that weren't so famous, it is very difficult to find work, unless they are in character roles for short periods of time. The concept of aging is particularly difficult on women, who are enticed by advertising and the media to try to look 19 when they are 40 or 50. I also can think of an old movie from 1950 with Gloria Swanson called Sunset Boulevard, in which she plays an aging actress that is not appreciated by the studios anymore primarily because her young looks were fading. In my opinion, Gloria Swanson was glorious in the role, and glorious to look at too. Actually, I liked the subject matter, because it showed the cruelty of the acting field.


There is a whole TV series devoted to the art of plastic surgery, called Nip and Tuck. By the way, it is a good series, and the two starring plastic surgeons, Dylan Walsh playing Dr Sean McNamara, and Julian McMahon playing Dr. Christian Troy, are great. What's wrong with looking one's age? Look at fashion magazines. The reason I mentioned them, is they are part of the media, and another vehicle that sends off messages to the public. Do you ever even see someone listed over 60; magazines such as Vogue, have articles on "How to look fabulous at 20, 30, 40, 50, but then they have 50 plus. What's 50 plus? what happened to fabulous at 60, 70, 80? Look at the not so subtle message in that. The magazines don't even have a category for an age group past 50. Don't people in their 60's, 70's, 80's etc. like to dress fashionably and look good?? I guess one is supposed to improvise. The underlying message is that there are no further clothes for people that old; don't even try to pick out an outfit because they won't look good anyway. Unfortunately and very sadly, that's the message here.

It always gets me they have a famous model whose face and body has been tightly pulled by plastic surgery, and underneath, "Look fabulous at any age", or "look fabulous over 50". And the models representing over 50? They've been nipped and tucked to perfection, so they don't even accurately represent what someone really looks like at that age. I guess if the price is right....get a facelift, and then look fabulous over 50. That is the message conveyed in some of these magazines, and in the media, everywhere. So botox has made its discover in this age. Botox, mini lifts, mini forehead lifts, eye tucks, face lifts, tummy tucks, leg lifting and what not, arm tucking. And this list is a mile long. Plastic surgery is a huge industry. If you mutilate yourself, and cut and pull, gee, you might look beautiful, like a 20, 30 year old. So, again, let's look at this message. What is wrong with this message? The message really is, that if you lift your body and try to mimic 20 or 30 you'll look great. What about the people that don't have the money to do this? I guess they are chopped liver, baby, in the fashion, media and movie world. Also, in the real world, everyone wants to look like the model in the magazine, or actress or actor in the movie. So what happens when they don't? What happens to the way people are perceived? Why are looks so overemphasized????

So, the question I ask is "is there ever going to be a time when age is respected, looks are not emphasized and people aren't obsessed with plastic surgery?". Look to writers, media, news, movies, the entertainment industry, modeling industry, and magazines and newspapers. There are movies that depict aging in a better light. But just like with violence in movies, for the few movies that show aging in a flattering way, there are scores of movies that look at aging as something undesirable. I don't see things changing any time soon. But education helps. We need change. We absolutely do need to respect age and appreciate the beauty of aging.