MovieChat Forums > Saving Private Ryan (1998) Discussion > Why the gender gap?

Why the gender gap?

posted 8 years ago by hakon3241
14 replies | jump to latest

I was wondering why this movie has such a big "gender gap" when it comes to its ratings. I would understand why a movie like "the good, the bad, and the ugly" would get a much lower rating by women, but this, not so much.

Votes Average
Males 8.6
Females 8.1

Why is it that women respond so differently to this movie? Is it simply that women (in general) are more weak stomached and therefore can not handle the violence? To me personally, the violence was what made this so great, and I believe that a movie about such an event, would be obligated to show war in all its horrificness, instead of sugar-coating and trivializing it, and it became a classic for it, despite the fact that it did, in my opinion, handle the german soldiers in a pretty bad manner.

[–] mikeyg24 8 years ago

Maybe it's something to do with how we invariably relate to things differently right from childhood. As kids we used to play at war while the girls on the street played jump rope. That's not gender stereotyping it's merely what I observed growing up. Even now I don't know a single female that would play Call of Duty or something like that but every one of my male friends go nuts for it.

We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow.

[–] hakon3241 8 years ago

It is interesting what you say. However, although this movie has a lot of very violent moments, it is also made up of very human momemts, and part of the horrificness of the events that are happening, with people losing their legs etc. Is part of what makes it more human. I do not mean to sound sexist here, but it seems to me like, in a greater degree than men, that women do not want the truth. Instead they want their movies to be trivialized to a degree such that they will not have to face the reality of the events that their grandfathers went through.

[–] nakedgirl 8 years ago

howling cow
T-34 40
jagdpanther40

[–] solandermaner 8 years ago

I never checked the rating difference between genders before, but you're right about it being strange. Not so much because there *is* a gap, which I would expect from a combat oriented gritty, violent war movie like SPR.

What makes it striking is when you consider that the Gender gap is smaller for "Gladiator" and "Braveheart", while "Inglorious Basterds", "Band of Brothers" and "Fury" are all liked equally by both genders, and "Hacksaw Ridge"/"American Sniper" are in fact slightly higher rated by Women than Men. And then you factor in that this movie has 900,000 votes, a more than large enough sampling of opinion.

I really hope Women reply to this thread, as I am legitimately interested on why this movie (effectively about a son getting returned to his mother) has a clear higher appeal to Men while other similar movies are able to resonate with both Men and Women.

[–] morph85 8 years ago

Because women have a much higher sense of self survival and do not relate to war, brotherhood, loyalty or sacrifice for a cause. They might understand these on a cognitive level, but do not resonate with them.

Blame it on evolution. If you doubt this, look up how women easily switch sides in war, willingly sleeping with the enemy. Or in recent events, how they are the most vocal on letting refugees in Europe, with no sense of the risks.

It's similar to men watching soap operas, with pointless and idiotic drama. Women eat that *beep* up because their world revolves around that.

[–] solandermaner 8 years ago

but that doesn't explain why similar movies don't have this Gender gap (which I pointed out above in my post)

[–] morph85 8 years ago

Gladiator and Braveheart play to the female fantasy where a man tears down mountains in the name of love. Women don't resonate with sacrifice, but they do resonate with a man sacrificing himself for them, for love, and for revenge. That's their ultimate fantasy.

Inglorious Basterds has a badass Brad Pitt and a lot of humor.
Fury has a compassionate and badass Brad Pitt fighting the bad guys.
Hacksaw Ridge, haven't seen it, but it seems it's more about saving lives than war.
American Sniper, haven't seen it, but Bradley Cooper...
Band of Brothers, there are 175.000 male ratings, and only 17.000 female. And it's a full season, so the women that watched it really have to be in this sort of thing to go through so many hours. And not to mention, it's an intense, epic, almost flawless movie.

If a movie has a simple plot, bad guys vs good guys, some love and revenge theme, and a hot male star actor, women will tune in, eating it up. If it has more complicated characters, no good vs bad, but dualism, no love theme, and a star that's overwhelmed and cry like a little b_tch (Tom Hanks vs badass Gladiator, Brad Pitt etc), they won't relate.

I really hope Women reply to this thread, as I am legitimately interested on why this movie (effectively about a son getting returned to his mother) has a clear higher appeal to Men while other similar movies are able to resonate with both Men and Women.

Women don't see it as a son getting returned to his mother, they see it as a man being a boy, needing the mother's protection, which is very unappealing.

[–] galluslass 8 years ago

"mother, they see it as a man being a boy, needing the mother's protection, which is very unappealing."

Can only speak for myself and I love action and many war movies but I don't agree with your quote.

I watched the start of this and found it difficult to continue. Maybe as a mother of boys - I found the whole concept just too painful. Saying that, I found the tear jerking storyline of SPR a bit too contrived. I prefer slightly more ambiguous storylines.

[–] Sugarminx 8 years ago

Ok I'll bite.

You know you really ought to stop speaking for women.

Your views are insulting and foolish.

It sounds like you'd be more at home clubbing a woman over the head and dragging her back to your cave.

"Puss rules!"
"It's Pus"

[–] BettyX 8 years ago

As a person who has worked in war torn areas, the person that cleans up the aftermath, I'm curious as if you have ever served? Your version of mens brotherhood, loyalty, etc...sounds like a very romanticize version of war. This sounds like you are basing your knowledge off of an opinion not through experience.

[–] occasionalcritic 8 years ago

I can't even begin to start on the above incorrect assumptions and vilifications of my gender - I can assure you, women do not have weaker stomachs than men, it is their response that has been socially conditioned to be different than men. Remember we see far more blood then men, we bleed an ounce each month from adolescence, often with skin tissue and clots within this discharge.

My best bet as to why this movie received a lower rating among women is that for many people cinema is ideally an immersive entertainment form - you want to relate to the characters and imagine yourself in their position. There aren't any female characters in this film that are part of the story (private ryan's mother doesn't even have any dialogue), and there is a certain frat-like representation of masculinity in the film that as you can understand a lot of women don't enjoy.

A few characters reminded me of the guys who catcall or sexually harass me at work, and it's hard to enjoy a film unless at least some of the characters are really likeable. It's honestly just less interesting to watch a film with only men in the entire film simply because I feel like I relate less - imagine watching a film entirely with female characters and I imagine you would feel the same.

[–] hakon3241 8 years ago

I have watched several films with an all female cast, and a lot of the time I have liked it, if the story is good that is. It also seems to me like you have a skewed perception of what sexual harassment is, as do many other feminists.

I live in one of the most equal countries in the world, Norway, and trust me, social constructs are thrown right out of the window. You know what happens? Men become men and women become women. I therefore do not feel as if it is wrong to generalize a gender as there is in fact a VERY big difference between men and women. This is despite the fact that feminists are doing everything in their power to get women into STEM fields, when women simply are not interested in those subjects. Would it then be wrong to assume that women also react worse to blood and violence?

Let me repeat, social conditioning is almost non existent in Norway, and every time there is a spider close by, or someone is bleeding etc, a lot of women start screaming, because that is a natural reaction for women. It is not a vilification of "your" gender to say that there are in fact very large differences between men and women, some good, others bad, and in this case, it is bad.

[–] cheezbaalz 8 years ago

I don't know why, but none of my female friends like war movies.

[–] BettyX 8 years ago

I must be broken, SPR is one of my favorite movies. Top 5.

“I’m more humble than you can understand”-Donnie