Custom «My Big Fat Greek Wedding» Essay Paper Sample

Intercultural Film analysis below will feature My Big Fat Greek Wedding that has been produced by the following people, Goetzman Gary, Hanks, Tom., & Wilson Rita. It is directed by Zwick Joel and written by Nia Vardalos. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a film that has been written by Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. It is about a young Greek woman who falls in love with non-Greek man and struggles to ensure that the man is accepted in by her family as she comes in term wither heritage and culture.

Toula Portokalos is aged thirty and she is a Greek unmarried girl. She works in her family restaurant and do dancing in Chicago. Her father wants her to be married by a nice Greek boy. However, Toula is in contrast with her fathers wish as she is looking for greater things in life. Nevertheless, her mother convinced Gus her father to let her go and do some computer lesson making it as his own opinion. Later, Toula met Ian who she has made fool of in the restaurant who was a high school English teacher. They fall in love with each other and start dating secretly without their Toula's parent notice.  After a while, her family found out and they were against it as they were against her marrying a non-Greek man. Otherwise, Toula's family should learn to accept   Ian as he also has to learn to accept Toula big family and Toula has to learn to accept herself. These all antagonism has been brought about by the sensitivity that the family has towards the culture,

Culture biasness in the film

Culture is a concept about the views, beliefs, opinion, norms values, behaviors, shared altitudes goals and practices of a certain community. According to the Greek community, it was unethical to marry outside the tribe. The family was willing their daughter to fallow their opinion in marriage and in schooling.

Gus Portokalos was so much in culture that he was bias to the changing cultural practices. As he was a fanatical Greek, it was hard for him to accept Ian and his family who were non-Greek. According to the film, he found Miller's family different as if they have come from other planet. He was bitter when he invited them in his home, as they were so reticence and reacted lowly to his grandiose party. According to him, he saw Miller's family to be low and distant and was sure that Toula her daughter will never be happy with them.

Cultural differences

The film is full of cultural differences between the two antagonistic families. First, their reaction towards their engagement news is funny and insightful. Miller invites Toula for a dinner to ensure that they get to know each other. Furthermore, Portokalos family prepares a carnival for Harriet and Rodney miller that made them that they were completely overwhelmed by the inflated bonhomie.

In the film, it is evident that Aunt Voulas shows her personal nature when he meet Millers getting him off guard. In this meeting, Millers family become withdrawn and nervous and they were at a great loss as they refuses to take the meat they were offered. However, the situation was saved when they agreed to take the wine freely. This to Portokalos family was a violation of code of conduct by the Millers family that made them be prejudiced even more.

Values awareness of different cultures

If Miller was sensitive to the cultural values that were being demonstrated by Voula, they would have realized that she was just being honest to them and demonstrating her trust to Millers. We see that if Harriet and Rodney had been aware of bridging their cultural values, they would be more inquisitive to Voulas disclosure that would have prone perhaps sharing of their interests and experiences without having compromised their core values.

Ian who shows a mature altitude that is flexible and mature portrays a good example of cultural awareness. The way he is able to reconcile in the society makes him to gain love and respect from the entire clan of the Portokalos though he was not a Greek.  He is capable of being accepted in the family as he accommodate other people's feelings and respect their values. He is capable of demonstrating cultural sensitivity and competence. This help him open communications between the two families and gains Toulas affection.

The film brings about rituals that were involved in the Greek wedding which were beautiful and spectacular. Toulas con fusion and confusion about her identity and Ian solves the pan Greek environment of her home through his calm acceptance of their family's values. She came to realize that no matter how much her father was freaky and her aunt interfering, they were still her family. He is eventually able to come with terms with Greek identity thus finding peace.

Minimizing cross-cultural divide

Gus demonstrated in the wedding banquet. In his speech, he demonstrates some Greek heritage in the different families. Through the speech that he offered, he explained the origin of both Millers name, which is seen to have originated from the Greek word melon that its meaning is apple, and the name Portokalos is from portokali that meant orange. This shows that despite of them being from different cultures, they have something in common that unite them. This minimize cross-cultural divide.

In fact, the names of both head of families come from the names of fruits. He put this simply that though orange and apple were different, they were both fruits. Therefore, through this he created an important bridge to unite with Miller family. This creates a good example of bridging cultural differences that creates intercultural competence.