I think this video by Anita Sarkeesian does a fantastic job of giving a compact, example-crammed discussion of how popular films reflect patriarchal focii. (Full transcript HERE)
As I watched it, I was also struck by the fact that these "most celebrated" films are also overwhelmingly focused on the stories of white, able-bodied, cisgender, straight people who tend to be middle class or above -- and how the few films that featured dis-enfranchised people nearly all rely on memes of the Magical Disadvantaged Person whose worth is directly related to the benefits they bring to the privileged (Magical Negro in Driving Miss Daisy, Magical Autistic Man in Rain Man, Magical Developmentally-Disabled Man in Forrest Gump, etc.), or boot-strapping underdogs whose triumph is inevitably measured according to kyriarchal standards (Slum Dog Millionaire).
This is one of those videos that I'm putting in my "Here -- watch this" tool bag for those annoying times when people insist that we are living in a post-sexist (or post-whatever) world.
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