Headhunters Analysis

Headhunters was directed by Morten Tyldum and the screenplay was by Ulf Ryberg and Lars Gudmestad and it was based upon a novel written by Jo Nesbo. It was produced in 2011 by Marianne Gray and Asle Vatn with Yellow Bird and Friland Film. Starring Aksel Hennie (Roger Brown), Synnove Macody Lund (Diana Brown), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Clas Greve), Eivind Sander (Ove Kjikerud) and Julie R. Olgaard (Lotte), Headhunters is an incredibly gripping crime, thriller film which is brimming with intensity. The narrative follows Roger Brown, a successful headhunter but also an art thief and how the intersection of these two jobs changes everything for him and the people in his life.

What I believe to be the main focus within the narrative is the insecurities that Roger has regarding his confidence and wealth in order to obtain the love he has for his wife, Diana. The audience are immediately introduced to his insecurities at the beginning of the film in which Roger states that he is 168cm tall, conveying that he is obviously very concerned about his appearance and whether he is tall enough to meet the needs of Diana. As revealed nearer to the end of the film, one of Rogers greatest fears is Diana leaving him which is why he takes up the dangerous job of art theft. By doing this, he can earn great amounts of extra money to support his current high wage and he uses this money to buy Diana expenses such as earrings in order to ensure that he does not lose her, but what he does not understand is that he does not need to buy her unnecessary and expensive gifts to show that he loves her.

This film is extremely male-gazed, meaning the women in the film are objects of gaze to show the men as watchers and the women as watched. Throughout, there is a reinforcement of our dominant ideology- white, straight, middle-aged and middle-class males and this is reflected through all of these factors. Firstly, there is a discrimination of race because the majority, if not all of the cast is white which represents people of white skin to be superior beings who can undergo heists and be in relationships with the ‘perfect woman’. The characters within the film mirror our dominant ideology, they wear suits and have a large amount of wealth and class and this goes to show that the film-makers (who are most likely a part of the dominant ideology) have constructed the characters for them to relate to and to support their personalities and traits rather than go against them. Headhunters therefore represents people of a different ethnicity or race as not having an effective or powerful role within our society and they are not in the position to be portrayed as a stereotypical ‘business-man’ with very large amounts of money.

Another huge discrimination is women who are strongly objectified and are used for sex in the film for both the entertainment and pleasure of men and to solve problems. For example, they are often shown naked which defines women based on their beauty and body and it also illustrates that the director intended this film for a straight, male audience who will enjoy this sexualisation because it does not downgrade their gender. Women’s only ‘good’ use is demonstrated to be sex and this is shown through a scene towards the end of the film in which Diana has to have sexual intercourse with Clas in order to take out the bullets in his gun so he would be un-successful when he tries to kill Roger after he tracks him down. The fact she had to use sex in order to get this to happen portray women as not being as skilful or power as men and the only method they can use to manipulate a man is through pleasuring him which constructs a false idea to the audience.

Overall, I loved Headhunters because I felt intrigued the whole way through as I never knew what was going to happen next. As the film developed, the intensity also developed, meaning I was unsure of which characters to trust and I thought this was really effective as it left me at the edge of my seat throughout. The voice-overs gave the audience a deeper insight into the characters thoughts and the ‘big reveal’ at the end was very fascinating as it shows how well thought out the narrative was regarding the characters schemes and how they would all fall into place. However, I did not like the discrimination of race and gender and I feel there should have been stronger female and other ethnicity/race roles to reflect equality. Despite this, I would definitely recommend the film to friends and family and I give it 9.5 out of 10.