No matter what, women will always have to prove themselves and stand up to prejudice comments and even harassment. In the 2001 comedy film “Legally Blonde” directed by Robert Luketics the main protagonist Elle Woods has to prove her ability to people and face discrimination by her peers. Elle woods is a sorority girl from Los Angeles who gets dumped by her boyfriend because she wasn’t smart enough to meet his standards, she then goes to Harvard to get him back and ends up proving everyone wrong.
There is more to Elle Woods than just the typical blond girl, as her character finds confidence and goes after her own dreams. Elle Woods is presented to us as an optimistic sorority girl, self-obsessed rich blond girl. After being dumped by her boyfriend she becomes emotional and makes a drastic decision to go to Harvard and chase her lover Warner. Elle tells her parents “going to Harvard is the only way I can get the love of my life back!”(Luketics) This statement lets us know how determined Elle is on getting back with Warner.
She then goes and talks with her guidance counselor about going to Harverd but her counselor asks her what her back ups are. Elle responds with “I don’t need back ups, I’m going to Harvard.”(Luketics) She then starts making her admissions video and doing all the things necessary to get into Harvard. This claim portrayed her conversation with her guidance counselor; “I once had to judge a tighty-whitey contest for Lambda Kappa Pi. Trust me, I can handle anything.”(Luketics) This shows us that Elle is determined to get into Harvard no matter what challenges she will face when getting into Harvard.
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Although Elle’s classmates discriminate against her she is still confident in herself in becoming a better person. This is first shown when Elle is talking with Warner about Callaham’s internship next year and he puts her down saying the following “Elle, come on, you’ll never get the grades… to qualify for one of those spots. You’re not smart enough, sweetie.”(Luketics) she was in total shock when Warner tells her that because they are both in the same school and classes. She then tells him “I’ll show you how valuable Elle Woods can be!”(Luketics) before she leaves and goes to a bookstore to buy herself a computer. After that incident Elle works hard to prove to everyone that she is a smart girl and not just a “dumb white girl” she also participates in class more.
Callahan’s firm is defending a murder trial in which Elle as a first intern gets picked to help. This shows how hard she has worked to become a better intern and doesn’t let people’s comments and judgements get to her. Not only is Elle confident in herself she is confident in other people too. She demonstrates this when she is defending Brooke Windham she is really confident she is innocent she states “I just don’t think Brooke could have done this. Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don’t shoot their husbands.”(Luketics)
Elle is confident that Brooke is innocent so she is helping to prove her innocence they go on to see Brooke and ask her more questions about the death of her husband but they need her alibi but she does not want to give them her alibi she prefers to to go to jail. They proceed to leave since she doesn’t want to give them an alibi, the next day Elle goes to visit Brooke in jail by herself she brings Brooke some goodies and then talks with her about her giving them an alibi but Brooke tells her that she can’t because it’s too embarrassing and it could ruin her. She then goes and tells Elle and she promises not to tell, Elle doesn’t tell the others because she says that she promised her. She then proceeded to tell them “Then we’re not very good lawyers” (Luketics)
This proves that Elle is really trustworthy and she is also confident in her client. She plans to prove her clients innocence without using the alibi that can ruin her career. She is not self-centered like people think. One of the main changes that Elle realizes is how intelligent/smart she is. Elle is always being judged by people in school because she is a blond rich white girl. Just because of her appearance they believe that she is dumb and that she doesn’t know anything about law school. She makes them eat their words when she proves everyone wrong by winning Brooke Windham inoccenses.
She proves that Enrique Salvatore is gay because of one incident where Enrique tells her “Don’t stomp your little last-season Prada shoes at me.”(Luketics) thats when she realizes that he is gay because “Gay men know designers. Straight men don’t.”(Luketics) She uses her fashion knowledge to discover that he was lying about him being Brooke’s lover. She also discovers who killed Mr. Windham. She uses her knowledge in hair care to discover that Miss.Chutney was lying and shot her father “I didn’t mean to shoot him. I thought it was you walking through the door!(Luketics).
She solved the case by herself as an intern. Elle Woods development went from being a stereotypical “blonde rich girl” to a Harvard law graduate (lawyer). The ending scene of Elle giving a speech as the top of her class (Valedictorian) to her fellow graduates shows how hard she worked for it and how she never gave up. She learned to be capable of many things and mostly too believe in herself.
Elle gives words of encouragement to her fellow graduates “you must always have faith in people… and most importantly…you must always have faith in yourself. Congratulations, Class of 2004. We did it!”(Luketics). She knows the struggles and challenges that she faced for her to become who she is now.
Worked Cited
Legally Blonde, Directed by Robert Luketics, Type A Films. 2001.
