Total Film Magazine Analysis

Total Film is a UK-based film magazine which was launched in 1997 and is published every four weeks. The magazine entails cinema, Blu-ray, DVD, interview features, and so forth to which help viewers stay up to date with the latest news regarding films. Total film is a printed publication as well as an online edition. In addition to this, the film is also present online: Totalfilm.com website, they’re on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr as well as having their own iPhone app.

Lara Croft takes over the 80^th issue of Total Film magazine back in September 2003. This issue predominantly celebrated Tomb Raider 2’s release - as you can see, Lara’s medium shot image dominates the whole cover. Tomb Raider plays on Cultural Dominant Ideologies because woman are supposedly weak, opposed to men, but Tomb Raider entails Angelina Jolie, Lara Croft, to be a strong woman who is brilliant at martial arts, to defend hidden secrets of the films. She’s brunette and extremely attractive. Subsequently, the male gaze theory - studied by critic Laura Mulvey – is definitely used in this issue, which is where woman are aesthetically styled to please that of a male audience. In this case you can understand because Lara has sexual connotations with her showing her chest and cleavage through being dressed in her bra and a blazer. Not only that, the main selling line states “She’s stronger. She’s sharper. She’s sexier...” which textually supports that of the Male Gaze Theory.

In terms of the textual aspects of the magazine, everything is in lower-case form with a bold typeface, besides the main cover line and two subheadings that are in upper-case form (tomb raider 2, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Star Wars Features) which signify the publications most important and interesting factors.

The colouration of the magazine is prominently orange, blue and white with little hints of yellow. I think the orange refers to the action aspects of the publication; yellow and red amalgamate to make orange which suggests that the main feature, Tomb Raider, will be stimulating and energetic. In addition orange is the colour of adventure which definitely corresponds to the main cover line feature. In regards to blue which is the colour that suggests loyalty and trust, I think this refers to Angelina’s character, Lara Croft, because she defends the truth and secrets in the Tomb Raider films; she is probably the only character who is genuinely loyal and puts matters to justice. Blue is often the colour of peace as well, which is what Lara longs for. In terms of the white and yellow, I think these are to just differentiate against the orange and blue - the colours all go nicely together as well.