DOTD (1978) Image Analysis

This scene from DOTD (1979) shows a classic example of Stephen (Flyboy) attempting to act up to the expectations of the male hero, as the male hero we expect him to be, but he always falls short of the audiences expectations. Stephen is attempting to shoot zombies to save Peter, but in his attempts he nearly shoots Peter and misses the zombies. By decoding that such a large gun as a phallic symbol, the fact he cannot handle it connotes that he cannot handle being a powerful male hero. Roger has to step in to successfully shoot the zombies, despite being much shorter, this makes Steven seem even less like the male hero.