John Bender as a character has been presented as the typical bully or “top dog” in the film. Through the use of filmic codes and conventions we can see how this character has been constructed.
The first scene in the library clearly illustrates that Bender is the superior character. Brian Johnson is sitting in Benders seat, when Bender walks in we immediately see him walking over to where Brian is sitting and pointing at the other table, Brian quickly gathers up his gear and makes his way to the table. In this scene no words are said as Bender is obviously superior, whereas if it were to be the athlete (Andrew Clark) Bender might actually have said something as Andrew would of stood his ground if Bender asked him to move. Brian is also presented as a nerd with his bag and his books in his hand. As both characters are stereotypes it is typical that the bully would make the nerd move as he is higher up in the social ranking.
Another scene that supports this idea is when they’re discussing names and Bender asks Claire what her name is.
“What’s yours?”
“Claire.”
“Claire” accentuating the ‘C’
“Claire, it’s a family name.”
“It’s a fat girls name.”
Bender has immediately picked up on her name and has used it to make her feel worse about herself. The camera in this scene has Claire positioned at eye-level whereas Bender is viewed from a low camera angle, this makes Bender be viewed as superior to Claire in this scene as the camera angle makes him look like he is judging her, this relates back to the scene as he is obviously the one judging Claire to make her feel worse about herself.
Character response
Bender as a character is physically and mentally weak, using filmic codes and conventions and characterisation we can view on how he has been constructed as a character.
A scene that best illustrates the fact that Bender is physically weak as a character is when Andrew stands up for Claire when Bender is intimidating her by commenting on her sex life making. Andrew says to him “leave Claire alone”, to which he replies “you gonna make me?” After this Bender goes to throw the first punch when Andrew grabs his arm and forces him onto the ground on top of him, this can be viewed as Andrew being a stronger character as he challenges Benders spot for most powerful by physically beating him. Whilst Bender is on the ground he says “I don’t want to get into this with you man”, to which Andrew replies “why not?”, Bender replies “cos I’ll kill you.” He then brings out a pocketknife, the knife represents the fact that he is not physically strong and needs a weapon to protect when he is in a fight, portraying him as a weak character.