Older Adults in the Media

Grand Canyon University December 6, 2009 Older Adults in the Media Grumpy Old Men The story is about two retired older men named John Gustafson and Max Goldman. The two have been friends since they were children. They are constantly playing pranks on each other and giving each other a hard time. The audience finds out that the reason the two fight is because a long time ago John won the heart of the woman Max wanted. Their antics get even crazier when an adventurous single woman moves into the house across the street named Ariel.
The two men fawn over her, constantly watching her house from their windows. When Ariel stops by Johns house for a surprise bathroom break at 1:30am Max gets jealous thinking that John is in a sexual relationship with the younger women. Max then pursues Ariel, bringing her flowers and taking her ice fishing. But Ariel says he is just a friend. That is when she begins to pursue John and after a romantic day playing in the snow the two have sex. Well John is tickled pink and is having the most fun he’s had in a long time.
When Max finds out he lashes out at John. John figures that he won the first women they fought over and he breaks up with Ariel. Max chases her and the two spend time together but never anything romantic. Then John has a heart attack and Max finds him and calls for help. This is when Ariel comes back into John’s life. The movie skips ahead and we see John and Ariel getting married and the movie ends with the two of them driving away from the wedding. One of the stereotypes I first identified was the title Grumpy Old Men.

It implies that old men are grumpy and unhappy with life. The movie goes on to show us that these two men are cranky by them fighting with each other and complaining about things like the price of fishing worms. Another stereotype is that old people are lonely. In the movie we see John playing chess by himself and heating up a TV dinner every night after a whole day spent alone in his fishing shanty. The two men liked to talk about dying and what the best way to go would be.
This is a stereotype that goes along with older people liking to talk about their medical aliments. The two men complain about the different medical problems they have had and they try to outdo each other saying that their medical problem was way more painful than the other persons. The men also showed the noisy neighbor stereotype that older people get when they stood outside their houses watching Ariel move in and then talking about it with the rest of the town.
Another stereotype is that old people aren’t very good drivers like when John ran into the trash cans all the time or when Max was too distracted to see the UPS driver in front of him. Then after narrowly missing an accident Max says “watch where you’re going. ” One of the funniest characters in the movie was John’s dad. He embodied the classic old man pervert. When John would talk about Ariel he would tell John to “mount her. ” Lastly another stereotype shown was that old men are impotent. Like when John and Max were making fun of their other friend saying he “couldn’t rise to the occasion. I can’t say that I think that any of the stereotypes are true or untrue. Some of the characteristics describe some older adults I know and some don’t. That is the thing about stereotypes they don’t fit the whole group. I do hold my own stereotypes about older adults but I try to work on not letting them affect my judgment of the person. All of the stereotypes I identified in the movie I hold especially about the men being perverted and impotent and that they like to talk about their medical problems.
I’ve been to dinner with my Grandma and Grandpa before and all they can do is talk about this doctor’s appointment and that doctor’s appointment. So I’ve seen some of these stereotypes first hand. Yes my understanding of older adults has changed over the semester. I think that working with them and seeing that the stereotypes are not true has helped change my view. All old men are not perverted and the old women are not lonely. I’ve talked with many of the older adults at Banner and Glencroft and I’ve found them to be nice, helpful, and respectful.