Albeit not originally set in New York City, The God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza is the epitome of the wealthy class in NYC. The lower classes have to worry about feeding their children, sending their children to school, not losing their job, not losing their homes. The upper class on the other hand? Oh they sit around, eat pastries and drink rum in the afternoon; they socialize.

In The God of Carnage, both families have more money than they know what to do with. The Vallons (Veronique and Michel) own rare, irreplaceable, and expensive art books. They buy tulips for the house and Michel owns rum from years ago. The Reilles (Annette and Alain) come from the same community and Alain is a big-shot lawyer. Without anything better to do during the day, these two families congregate to discuss the actions of their two sons: Ferdinand Reille hitting Bruno Vallon in the face with a stick and therefore knocking his teeth out. Although originally social and professional, this “meeting of the minds” is anything but so; it’s chaos, it’s carnage! After throwing up, drinking, random calls from the mother, and random calls from Alain’s phone, entropy ensues. One might think that it would be “couple vs. couple,” but it was more like “every man for himself.” Is that not the way of the upper class? There’s a great example from Stone’s Wall Street, when Darien leaves Bud because she’s used to being a lone wolf, out only for money and pride, not love. Each character switches sides regularly, and not only that, but each seem extremely dedicated, if not addicted, to their job.

Alain, one might say, is a workaholic, meaning that he can never, separate his work life from his home life. The same can be said about Bud. In the beginning of the movie, his small, cramped room has an unmade bed and a desk full of papers, books, and a computer. Basically, the only difference between his room and his cubicle is that in the cubicle, there are other men. Alain, even when talking about his son’s “animalistic” behavior, he can’t put his phone down. He constantly picks up, caring more about the lawsuit and media than his own son and wife. This, I feel, is accurately portrayed of the upper class: addicted to work yet they fret over the little things and don’t see the big picture.

Under the façade of wealth, power, and civility, the upper class in The God of Carnage, are mean, nasty, self-centered people. Wall Street is extremely similar. I hope that in some work, either a book or movie, will show the upper class in a good light, much like Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Movies tend to make the social class structures even more rigid than they already are. Before I get started, I would like to defend myself and agree that there are examples against my argument: that there are movies that break class stereotypes and structures. Also, I will be talking in depth about the movies and their plot lines, so spoiler alert! Finally, I understand that I could’ve used examples like Wall Street and Taxi Driver, but I’m sure you’ve already thought about those examples. I want you to open your eyes and be able to connect other movies to topics like such. Now that that’s over with, let’s get started with some examples: Cameron’s Titanic, Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, and Scorsese’s Hugo.

Cameron’s Titanic: Yes, the beloved love story of a street rat and a million-dollar-necklace-wearing chick. It’s basically Lady and the Tramp with humans on a boat destined to sink. Regardless, the examples of rigid class structure in this movie are overt. Jack, the hobo (in the literal sense of the word), gets a worker’s ticket onto the ship with a lucky (or unlucky) hand in a card game. Rose on the other hand, elegantly has her fiancé buy the tickets in “first class.” Although they fall in love (which is there to make the dry movie interesting for lonely people looking for hope of love), there is still a stereotype of rich and poor: rich control the police on the ship; rich get on the lifeboats first; poor shovel coal; poor don’t end up with the girl. Maybe next time you watch this movie, instead of crying that Jack became a human popsicle, you’ll cry at the fact that class structures have been around longer than the length of that torturous movie.

Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream: This is a lesser-seen movie than the blockbuster hit Titanic. Taking place in Brooklyn near the dying Coney Island, this movie is about three close friends and the mother of one. All are in some way addicted to some type of drug and some type of “high.” The main characters, all from a lower socio-economic beginning, end up in a downward spiral due to the drugs. Is this movie trying to say that the poor get poorer while the rich, in this case drug lords, get richer? That might be a bit of a stretch, but Darren Aronofsky definitely gives the audience a lot to think about with Requiem for a Dream.

Scorsese’s Hugo: Ah yes back to good ol’ Scorsese. You might remember Hugo as the movie that won a bunch of awards. Well, they were won with reason. The plot of this movie is a bit saddening, even though it’s basically a child’s movie. Well, it’s more like a child’s movie on the surface with darker internal adult ideas: loss of parents, scavenging for food, running from the police, alcoholic uncles. Hugo, the main character, lives with his alcoholic uncle because both of his parents have died. He does his uncle’s job for him, which is maintaining the clocks in a train station. He’s basically homeless, and lives in the ceiling of this station. He steals food and parts to fix his father’s automaton. Hugo’s story is more than an adventure; it’s a narrative of the lower class being put down not only by the upper class, but by the middle, blue-collar working class too, which can be seen when the toyshop owner swats Hugo away like an unwanted cockroach.

These three examples of class structures in movies alone are not enough to prove a point, but it is enough to help people become aware of the real, closer to home issues. These class structures and stereotypes affect everyone. Why can a prince marry a peasant girl without being questioned? Why can’t the upper class and the lower class blur the definite lines that separate them?