Traditional Family Roles in William Friedkin's The Guardian

The traditional roles of family is put to the test in William Friedkin s The Guardian when a young couple decide to hire a nanny to help raise their son while they continue their careers.

What dangers lie in wait when Mom has to work? is the question that resounds through this film. Traditionally, a woman has been expected to stay home, raise the children, and take care of the house. It was not acceptable for a mother to work outside the home. As times changed and more families felt economic pressures, two income households became a common occurrence. However, a woman not only became a breadwinner but she was also expected to maintain her traditional role as wife and mother. It was and still is considered unacceptable for a woman to admit she needs help maintaining the balance between career and home life. For some woman it is even a little embarrassing to admit they aren t superwoman and can t live up to the impossible and exhausting role society gives them to play. When Kate decides to go back to work in order to help out with the finances, she and Ned decide to hire a nanny to help raise their newborn son, Jake. The non-traditional role that Kate takes on as a working mother is further defined by the fact that she needs help raising her son and the film tries to send a warped message of the dangers that can happen when women loosen their grip on the role of motherhood.

Throughout the film, Kate is portrayed as self-centered and oblivious to the evil going on around her. Her character is just happy to be doing what she wants to do. Friedkin rarely shows her with her baby. There are only a few scenes where she is seen actually holding Jake. When she and Ned are trying to escape Camilla, it is Ned who is holding the baby and Kate who runs into the house leaving Ned and the baby to escape through the woods. Though Kate s intentions were good in trying to lure Camilla away from Ned and Jake and Kate did run Camilla down with their jeep, the scene is an attempt to show Kate as a bad mother by abandoning her role of protector to Ned and adopting the role of hero.

Ned is portrayed throughout the film as the logical hero. He is the classic father knows best who tries to make up for his failure to provide for his family by saving them. Throughout the movie, Ned is father, mother, detective, and savoir of the day. Even when he starts having sexual dreams about Camilla, he shakes off his impulses to be the better man. Ned s role as traditional father is also challenged throughout the film but not in the same harsh way as Kate s. The audience is made to feel sympathy for Ned because he is the hero. He not only has to be a provider but also has to take care of his son and shield his family from the evil he discovers. Ned is used to raise more animosity for the character of Kate. The audience is tempted to ask, Where is the mother in all of this?

Camilla is the ultimate monster in this film. Though the movie refers to her as the guardian she is really the guardian of herself. Instead of giving life to an infant she takes it. However, Camilla is shown as more of a mother figure in the film than Kate in the sense that she is the protector and the caregiver of the tree she worships. Like any mother she does what she has to maintain her family or, in this case, her legacy. However, Camilla is the evil mother feeding on the innocent to maintain her power. The ending of The Guardian follows the traditional good-triumphs-over-evil theme. Ned saves the day by cutting down the tree and Kate protects her baby from the evil Camilla. Traditional family roles are restored and everybody lives happily ever after.

This film is guilty, as are so many others, of playing down the changing roles of family and the acceptance of women in more dominant roles. I know this is just a movie. It is made for entertainment purposes and not to raise the social consciences of the public. But with the media and entertainment industry quickly becoming the chief means of communication and education in the world, filmmakers have a responsibility to start turning out films that are more accepting of modern roles no matter what that genre of film may be.