SELF-ACTUALIZATION IN ROBERT LUKETIC’S

LEGALLY BLONDE : A HUMANISTIC

Research Paper

Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

by

TIA ANGGRAINI
A 320 050 019

SCHOOL OF TEACHING TRAINING AND EDUCATION

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Legally Blonde is movie directed by Robert Luketic, produced by

Marc E Platt, published by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios and starring by

Reese Whiterspoon. The year of producing the movie is in 2001. It is based on

the 2001 novel of the same name by Amanda Brown and the writers of screen

play are Karen Mc Cullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ legally-blonde). The duration of the movie is

one hour 36 minutes. The country of the movie is USA and use English as

language. This movie is a comedy romantic movie because the story of the

movie uses comedy genre. Some actors and actresses that support this movie

are Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Matthews Davis, Victor

Garber, Jennifer Coolidge, Holland Taylor and many more. The production

targets teenagers (girls more than boys) who are content to watch a motion

picture with a few laughs and happy ending. Like many comedies, Legally

Blonde wants the plot to be more than a frame work upon which to hang the

jokes, but it fails to provide enough substance for that to be case

(http://www.reelviews.net/movies/1/legally-blonde.html).

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The director of Legally Blonde movie, Rober Luketic, was born in

Sidney, New South Wales, Australia in 1973. He was graduated from

Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in Melbourne, Australia. Luketic jumps

to filmography as director and writer. Films are directed by Robert Luketic

such as Titsiana Booberni (1997), Legally Blonde (2001), Win a Date With

Tad Hamilton (2004), Mosnter -In Law (2005), Women In Law (2006), Pilot

(2006), and the newest is 21 (2008). (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494).

The story of Legally Blonde movie tells about Elle Woods (Reese

Witherspoon) that has it all. She’s the president of her sorority, a Hawaiian

Tropic Girl, Miss June in her campus calendar and she is natural blonde. She

has a boyfriend, the cutest boy on campus named Warner (Mathew Davis) and

he wants nothing more the to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494). But there is paradigm that the Blonder

girl is not serious girl so the boy friend broke their loves. Elle proves she can

be serious girl and proves her talent and capacities as a lawyer in Harvard Law

School. But Law School is far from comfort. Elle must wage the battle of her

life, for her love, for herself and for all the blonder who suffer endless

indignities everyday. In the end of story, Elle can actualize her ability as a

lawyer by win the murderer case and she also get her new soul mate in the law

school.

This movie got various responses from the public. There are two

responses from audience, that is pro and contra. Some peoples are pro with
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this movie, while some other else are contra. The people who pro with this

movie or like this movie is, for Steve Loucks he realizes that Legally Blonde

has, totally capture the heart of many an audience member especially the

tween-to-teen set (http://steveonbroadway.blogspot.com/2007/05/legally-

blonde-sob-review.html). In other side, the people who doesn’t like this movie

is JE De Matteo. Personally he didn’t like this movie. He enjoyed the scenery,

but he felt he wasted his time. Here are some adjectives used by De Matteo to

draw this movie : dumb, painful, superficial (http://hugereviews.com/movies/

legally -blonde.html). Althought there are pro contra to this movie, the

response of the market is very good. This movie get a lot of income from it

first release at 13 July 2001. This movie can pierce the box office with the

total income in the amount of US $ 95.001.351 (http://www.rottentomatoes.

com..m/legally-blode/). The income is very big because this movie gets big

attention from market especially teen audience that become target of this

movie. From the movie industry word, this movie also get good response. This

movie was a Golden Globe Award nominee for Best Picture-Musical or

Comedy and Witherspoon’s performance also received a nomination for best

actress-musical or comedy (http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1804857429/

awards ).

The Legally Blonde movie is interesting to be researched because it has

same point interest. According to the researcher, the point interests of this

movie are in plot, cinematography and the acting of the actress. The plot of the
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movie flows from exposition until ending regularly so the audience can

understand the away of story well and the way of story does not broken off.

According to review by James Berardinelli, this movie combines three plot

staples: the triumph over adversity, the romantic comedy and the courtroom

comedy (http://www.reelviews.net/movies/1/legally-blonde.html) . The other

point interest is cinematography. The setting of the places is very good,

however, it is indoor or outdoor. The sound mix use DTS-stereo, so the sound

is very good (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494/). The last point interest is

the acting of actress especially Reese Wiherspoon. She has basically grown up

in front of camera, has previously shown a strong grasp of both comedy and

drama, and this is the most effective satirical performance

(http://steveonbroadway.blogspot.com/2007/05/legally-bloden-sob-review.

html). Besides, Reese Witherspoon’s funny, nuanced performance makes this

movie better than it would have been other wise

(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/legally-blode/).

The story of Legally Blonde movie is suitable with Maslow’s self-

actualization. Self-actualization is one of the Hierarchy of Needs in

Humanistic psychology. Humans are created in the world with many kinds of

need those are need to survive. These needs are various kinds and arranged

from lower needs to highest needs. The lower needs should be fulfilled before

the highe st needs if someone wants satisfy his life. The kinds of need

according to Maslow are physiological needs, needs for safety, needs for love
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and belonginess, self-esteem needs and self-actualization needs. Human

should show their abilities, capabilities and talents to get self-actualization as

the highest needs.

Maslow’s self-actualization is born to create one’s talent and

capacities. It involves of human’s potential, accept one and other in their

society as unique individual and using a problem centered approach to

situation (Maslow in Huffman and Vernoy, 1987:493). Someone is called he

has talent and capacities in his life by using his capability. Maslow says that

the specific form that the self-actualizing takes varies greatly from person to

person. It is at this level, that individual differences are greatest (Maslow in

Hall, 1985:206). Self -actualization is one of fundamental needs in humanistic

psychological theory. Humanistic psychology views human as active creature

with freedom. They are able to choose and develop life style (Hjelle and

Zielger, 1992:440).

Considering the explanation and the fact above, the researcher is

interested in analyzing the needs for self-actualization of Elle as the main

character with the title “Self-actualization in Robert Luketic’s Legally

Blonde : A Humanistic Psychological Approach”.

B. Literature Review

There is a researcher who has studie d on Robert Luketic’s Legally

Blonde “Gender Equality in Robert Luketic’s Legally Blonde : Feminist

Approach”. She was Zanita, the student of Muhammadiyah University of

Surakarta. Her research focused on gender equality by using feminist

approach.

From the previous researcher above, the writer intends to complete the

previous Research and to enrich the similar research. In this research, the

researcher is going to apply this research in different approach. The researcher

takes the humanistic psychological approach to reveal needs for self-

actualization of Elle Woods as one of main character in this movie.

C. Problem Statement

Based on the background of the research, the researcher proposes a

problem statement. The problem of this research is “How is self-actualization

of Elle Woods reflected in Robert Luketic’s Legally Blonde?”

D. Limitation of the Study

The researcher limits her analysis for understanding people’s struggle

to actualize her ability reflected in Legally Blonde movie directed by Robert

Luketic. The researcher investigated Elle Woods as the major character by

using an approach of Humanistic Psychology.

E. Objective of the Study

According to problem statement above, the objectives of the research

are as follows:

1. to analyze the movie in terms of its structural elements, and

2. to analyze the movie based on humanistic psychological approach

F. Benefit of the Study

The result of this research is expected to give some benefits as follows:

1. Theoretical Benefit

This research will give some contributions to the body knowledge,

particularly the application of feminism approach in literary study

2. Practical Benefit

a. For the researcher her self

The result of this study will improve the researcher’s knowledge of

people’s struggle to actualize her ability as reflected in the Legally

Blonde movie.

b. For the other researcher

This study can be used as reference for the other researcher who

interested research Legally Blonde movie using other approach

G. Research Method

1. Type of the Research

This research uses descriptive qualitative method. Descriptive

qualitative method is a research which employs the method of collecting,

describing, classifying and analyzing the data and then drawing

conclusion.
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2. Object of the Study

The object of the study is Legally Blonde movie. This movie is

directed by Robert Luketic and written by Karen Mc Cullah Lutz and

Kirsten Smith. Published by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios.

3. Type of the Data and Source of the Data

The type of the data is the text, image and scene of movie entitled

Legally Blonde directed by Robert Luketic. The writer divides the data

source into two categories, they are primary data source and secondary

data source.

a. Primary data source

The primary data source of the study is Legally Blonde movie

that is directed by Robert Luketic and written by Karen Mc Cullah

Lutz and Kirsten Smith. Published by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.

b. Secondary data source

The writer takes the secondary data source, including reference

and materials related to the study whether taken from internet. The

script of the movie is downloaded from internet and it is added by the

researcher to reach the completeness.

4. Method of the Data Collection

The method of data collection in this study is the library research.

It involves both primary and secondary data. The ways of collecting data

are as follows:
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a. Watching the movie several times and determining the character that

will be analyzed

b. Reading some related books to find out the theory, data and

information.

c. Making notes of important parts in both primary and secondary data.

d. Classifying the data into categories

e. Drawing conclusion to get last result.

5. Method of the Data Analysis

The method in analyzing the data is descriptive analysis, in which

the data collected, described and then analyzed. It concerns with the

relationship between the movie and the humanistic psychological approach

theory to show how self-actualization is reflected in the story.

H. Research Paper Organization

The researcher organizes the research paper into five chapter. Chapter I

is the introduction which consists of background of the study, previous study,

problem statement, limitation of study, objective of the study, benefit of the

study, theoretical approach, research method, technique of data analysis and

research paper organization. Chapter II is underlying theories that explains

humanistic psychological perspective and structural elements of the movie.

Chapter III is analysis of the movie, it includes the structural elements of

movie. Chapter IV is humanistic psychological analysis that deals w ith the

discussion. Chapter V draw s conclusion and suggestion.