The opening shot of “Thirteen” depicts what can be argued as a typical teenage girls bedroom with posters of models, fashion and boys on her walls. As the scene develops it appears more shockingly that two girls Tracy and Evie, the protagonists, are inhaling hair- spray from a can; a form of substance abuse. They are both uninhibited which is emphasized through point of view shots (POV) of the girls facing each other, which appear unfocussed and unsteady. The banality of what is happening is enhanced with the prompt of Tracey to her friend “hit me, I can’t feel a thing.” The hard and fast way that they are living is confirmed in the shot that zooms and focuses on the girls’ piercings, suggesting that they are rebels and thrill seekers. They are inevitably finding fun in dangerous places and it can perhaps be important to ask why? Why do these young healthy American born girls seem to have lost their way in search for the American dream of a better life?
The film goes on to profess that the audience will see how the girls got to this stage through the use of written information saying “four months earlier”. The audience can now establish that the film is to be a journey running chronologically to that time in the bedroom. The film in this way can be seen as a satire, which aims to show the follies of something and hold it up for ridicule; possibly the system and society which allowed the girls to stoop so low in the first place.
The idyllic picture of family life is shown with Tracey walking a dog with her friend down a typically American tree lined road to meet her mum. However, it is apparent that there is underlying conflict as Tracy’s mum hides the cigarette she has smoked, evidently concealing it from her daughter. This shows perhaps that the mum cares about protecting her daughter’s well being and happiness, in that it will prevent her worrying about the reason why her mum might have started smoking again; which it can be agreed upon that many children do worry about their parents.
Untypically, the house they live in seems small and very much the domain of a family with not much money to spare. Money is made an issue within the film when it’s first discovered that Tracy’s mum and dad are separated and he has, again it seems, failed to pay child support money, as pointed out angrily by Tracy. This issue is again lightly brought up by her mum, who does hair dressing at home to earn some extra money, when talking about a “two dollar tip, they ate half of the lasagne!”. It is money which, when everything comes to a head, is blamed for its scarcity in their lives with Tracy screaming at her mum “It’s not like your broke ass has any money to give me anyway.” To which her mum replies “we’re not rich but we’re doing fine, you don’t have to steal”. This could show a breakdown of generational values in the idea of what is enough to be left content with.
Tracy is originally portrayed as a studious and intelligent girl when reading out her poem to her mum. However, implicit in her poem is suppressed anger and the burden of things she has been exposed to. The subject matter is met with the comment “it’s heavy stuff. It kind of scares me a little”. Perhaps, this is because she feels guilty for her daughter’s exposure to emotional harshness, such as coping with an alcoholic mum and witnessing her mum’s boyfriend cough aggressively after smoking pot; this would definitely have a traumatic effect on a child; which effectively is what a thirteen year old is.
Evie shows signs of being a victim of perversion as she seems very intoxicating and forward in her thinking, shown in her sneaking around with boys. Also, more disturbingly she tries to emotionally blackmail people to get what she wants. She tells Tracy’s mum that she was sexually abused “he put things in me” in order to get her to adopt her. She makes the audience uncomfortable when she proceeds in kissing her friends mum good night and telling her that she loves her after only knowing her for a short amount of time. Evie is like a leach clinging on to anyone who will love her, which is possibly why she sleeps around with boys, trying to get the emotional gratification she doesn’t get from her mum and dad who appear to have deserted her. Therefore, the film could show how the mistakes of the last generation are perpetuated onto the next.
Tracey’s destructive behaviour towards the end can be argued to be a culmination of the influence of modern American capitalist culture. When Tracy first goes out to meet Evie to go shopping, there are many shots of billboards and adverts depicting products and sexual imagery; this shows how capitalists use sex to sell products; the director Catherine Hardwicke feels sadly “that popular culture gives a confusing message to kids". The effects of this is the sexualisation of youth which is shown when Tracy and Evie overtly wear a thong. Ultimately, sex becomes part of the everyday and no longer holds sacred meaning as traditionally preached through religion. E.G Wait until marriage.
The girls’ unnatural way of living taking drugs, smoking, stealing and being promiscuous is contrasted with the characters that find more simple pleasures in life. Mario, although a previous drug user manages to seek joy in something small such as the way a chicken’s head doesn’t move when he moves its body. This could also show a generational difference in that though the two generations have similar problems, the younger generation with more technology, freedom, disposable income and media influence, sets the ground for unhappiness and dissatisfaction with their lives.
Ultimately, the film is not to scape goat teenagers it alternatively, intends to “spark dialogue between mothers and daughters”. It intends to make a connection between the generations by being frank about the issues that face teenagers. And hopefully through communication many young people can be helped to stay on the right track, and try to avoid entering a dystopic world of criminality and instead lead productive lives and strive for what can be called the “American Dream”. Therefore, in this light the American dream could be a social device which encourages an element of social cohesion in that it gives the American a collective purpose that gives meaning to their lives.
Bibliography
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/11/14/catherine_harwicke_thirteen_interview.shtml -quote from Catherine Hardwicke
http://movies.about.com/cs/thirteen/a/thirteenhardwic.htm
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