Bend it Like Beckham themes and issues

Bend it like Beckham has 5 main themes and issues running throughout it, these are:

• Family
• Culture Clash
• Gender
• Friendship
• Growing up

The theme of family is explored in many ways through different characters, some ways are :

• Parent/child Relationships. Explored through jess and her parents and also jules and her parents. (joe and the references he makes to his father could also be useful).
• Sibiling relationship. Explored through Pinky and Jess.

The theme of family is an important theme as the film is based mainly upon to familys. Conflict is an issue running throughout the theme of family. We see much conflict with the two girls and there parents. Mainly between the girls and their mothers. In both familys the mothers want their girls to be more feminie and not play football, the dads are more understanding although jess' is not at first. The issues of conflict in both family's is resolved in the end as they accept their children want to play football and they let them.

The theme of culture clash is probably the main theme throughout the theme which brings lots of issues with it. Many of the other themes and issues throughout the film are because of this film.

The theme of Culture clash brings conflict throughout Jess' family. Her mother believes that she 'shouldn't show of her bare legs in front of all those men'. She is not supposed to play football because of her culture. Her family show a strong sense of culture.

Gender is relevant throughout the film as the two main protaganists are girls, and the film is widely based on football which is seen to be a Men's sport. The sterotype of a main protaganist of a girl is very different to the two girls in this film. Although the sterotype is shown through the character Pinky. The Characters of the girls rebel against the sterotypes of a typical girl.

The film’s title obviously refers to the skill used by David Beckham when taking free kicks. However, it could also be seen as a metaphor for the fact that Jess has to bend and adapt traditional rules and values in order to get what she wants. Issues about gender, particularly about what girls should or should not do, run through the film. Both Jess and Jules have mothers who disapprove of them participating in what they see as a man’s game.