Edit for readability:
Lower ranking is better, as in “rank 1” would be the best movie rated by that group.
The top section shows movies highly ranked by women, but lower for men. The bottom section is the reverse.
Edit for readability:
Lower ranking is better, as in “rank 1” would be the best movie rated by that group.
The top section shows movies highly ranked by women, but lower for men. The bottom section is the reverse.
This is a solid observation and I think that the women’s rankings favor movies where the main focus is on overcoming conflicts within close relationships (family/romantic) and mostly lean towards a happy ending to the resolution that will lead to further positive interactions and the men’s ranking favor the main focus being on violent conflict against outside groups or opponents. The men’s movies will have some camaraderie and some shallow romance too, but the main focus is on the conflict itself.
Brokeback doesn’t stand out on the women’s list to me because it is focused on a relationship, which seems to have more impact than female leads even though the latter is certainly a factor. The Harry Potter series main conflict is family based (loss of Harry’s parents) and there are tons of interactions with friends of the family and the connections the family has.
I think it’s fair to say that the women’s list has a lot of focus on relationships, but I don’t think that difference in the nature of conflicts is quite as clear between the two lists.
Harry Potter has the loss of family as a part of his motivation, but the actual conflict in the series is with the external threat that he and his friends need to overcome, generally starting as a conflict between students and faculty and ending in a forceful struggle between our heroes and actual villains. That plus Wonder Woman and Hunger Games makes a fairly sizable portion of the list where the conflict is a more direct fight.
On the other side of the equation Rashomon is a murder investigation that’s about conflicting stories rather than a direct conflict between characters. Seven Samurai is far more focused on the tension between the samurai and the villagers than the fight with the bandits. Rocky isn’t about the conflict with his opponent, it’s about struggling to follow a dream, finding self worth, and living up to your potential with a romantic relationship in there for good measure. Casino isn’t about an external conflict, it’s more of a “rise and fall of” story, where the authorities aren’t really characters at all, just an inevitable consequence of the choices the main characters made, and the fallout from their relationships with each other crumbling. Lawrence of Arabia is set during a war but is about Lawrence and the relationship he forges with his Arab allies. The Great Escape has conflict that is all about avoiding violence, I don’t think there is even a single instance of the heroes solving a problem through violence. And that’s just the ones I know off the top of my head.
I’m not saying there’s nothing to the observation, just that I don’t think it’s clear cut at all.