Bend it like Beckham – Study Guide
Name: ____________________________
Answer the questions listed below as you watch the movie.
1.) What does Jess imagine her Mother saying if she played professional soccer? _______________________
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2.) How do the Indian youth treat their elders? __________________________________________________
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3.) What is the director trying to establish about both Jess and Jules characters? ________________________
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4.) How do the characters live and play in the same park, in the same neighborhood, and not have met each
other before? _____________________________________________________________________________
5.) What is “Heathrow”?_____________________________________________________________________
6.) Why does Jess’s father wear a turban? _______________________________________________________
7.) What do they mean when using the word “brilliant”? ___________________________________________
Count how many times they use the word brilliant. _______________________________________________
8.) What are the ‘Hounslow Harriers’? _________________________________________________________
9.) Why does Jess’s Mom freak out at the park? __________________________________________________
10.) Why does Jess’s Mom mention how dark her skin is getting? ____________________________________
11.) What do Jess’s parents want her to do? (NOT stop playing soccer.) _______________________________
12.) How do Jules and Jess solve the problem of ‘no soccer’? _______________________________________
13.) Why does Jess’s Mom want her to learn to cook? _____________________________________________
14.) What is a ‘Love-match’? _________________________________________________________________
15.) Why does Pinky cover for Jess? ___________________________________________________________
16.) What are two of the conflicts that Jess has regarding her coach?__________________________________
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17.) Is Juliet’s Mom wrong about Jess’s parents? (They are going to match her up?)______________________
18.) Why doesn’t Jules ‘shag’ Joe, the coach? ____________________________________________________
19.) Why is Pinky’s wedding called off? _________________________________________________________
20.) What does Jess swear by to prove she is telling the truth? ________________________________________
21.) Why does Joe think he can change Jess’s parents’ minds about soccer? _____________________________
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22.) What was the problem that Jess’s father encountered when trying to play cricket? ____________________
23.) How does Jess’s father find out she is in Germany? ____________________________________________
24.) Why does Jess leaver the soccer club? _______________________________________________________
25.) What is the biggest problem, according to Pinky, if Jess married a white guy? _______________________
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26.) What are Jess’s parents trying to protect her from, according to Jess? ______________________________
27.) Why does Jules’s Mom think Jess and Jules are fighting?________________________________________
28.) Who is George Michael? _________________________________________________________________
29.) What are Tony’s cultural conflicts? _________________________________________________________
30.) Who are “Posh and Becks”? _______________________________________________________________
31.) What does Jess ask her Mother to bring back from ‘Temple’? ____________________________________
32.) Why does Jess over-react during the soccer game? _____________________________________________
33.) What is the biggest problem after the semi-final game?__________________________________________
34.) What does Pinky mean about her fiancé’s parents “coming to eat dirt”? ____________________________
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35.) What is the conflict with the wedding happening on the 25th? _____________________________________
36.) What results are Jess’s Mother praying to Baba-ji about? ________________________________________
37.) Why does Jess’s father let her go play in the finals game? _______________________________________
38.) How many days are involved in an Indian wedding? ____________________________________________
39.) Why is the decision to play or not play soccer so difficult for Jess? ________________________________
40.) Why does Tony lie to Jess’s parents? ________________________________________________________