Thursday, February 10, 2011

STRONG WOMEN / ANGELINA JOLIE


I started to write about femme fatales, but after thinking about it, I've decided to write instead about something similar in cinema, the phenomenon of the "strong woman."



I can't stand movies about what feminists call "strong woman." The strong concept doesn't bother me, but the term is usually applied to women who don't deserve it. They appear strong only because the story surrounds them with weak and ineffectual men.  Surely a genuinely strong woman would seek out the company of strong men. A woman like that isn't relatively strong. She's strong because the word is meaningless if it doesn't apply to her. 

Boy, imagine lungs that could hold all that smoke (above) inside!


Genuine movie strong women are sometimes crazy and evil, like the hitchhiker (above) in "Detour"....


...or like Gogo Yubari in "Kill Bill" (above).


Come to think of it, Kill Bill was full of strong women (above).


One strong woman who wasn't crazy was Angelina Jolie in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." The film was horrible, but Jolie was great in it... as great as she could be, given the script. 



She played the super-efficient commander of a private air force where the pilots were all women. Their propeller-driven aircraft carrier took them on adventures all over the world, mostly hidden in the clouds. The women were fanatically devoted to their leader, calling to mind the crew of the Nautilus, who would do anything for Captain Nemo. It's wonderful to imagine a world where adventures like that would be possible.

The amazing thing is that the writer could come up with a great idea like this, then fail to give it a context that would make it interesting to an audience. I felt sorry for Joli. She did a good job in "Tomb Raider" too, but once more she was the only good thing in an otherwise unwatchable film. 



The last picture I saw which contained a genuine strong woman...as opposed to the phony feminist stereotype ...was "True Grit." Hailee Steinfeld was great as the single-minded kid who wouldn't be deterred from her mission. She instinctively sought out men she believed had noble qualities. Surely that's what real world strong women do. If you haven't seen it yet, give it a try. 


10 comments:

Joshua Marchant (Scrawnycartoons) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jorge Garrido said...

Tarantino says Uma Thurman would've been a big star in the 1930s during the heyday of Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Angelina Jolie might have been, too. I really love the Sky Captain movie, it's just a fascinating experiment to me. It had a lot of flaws, though.

Barbara Stanwyck is my favourite one of all time - but then again she's my favourite everything of all time. But she's exceptionally strong in Jeopardy (terrible movie), Double Indemnity, His Brother's Wife (terrible movie), 40 Guns, even The Lady Eve.

Marlene Dietrich is probably the best strong woman in cinema of all time. And what about Norma Shearer? Joan Crawford?

Jorge Garrido said...

Oh, and speaking of strong, intelligent women with authority, what about Frances McDormand in Fargo? That's my favourite modern character of all time!

Steven M. said...

In my point of view, strong women are okay as long as theres a reason for her to be in the film, but I mostly think strong women have become a major cliche among mainstream movies, particularly CG animated films. I drives me crazy when ever a strong woman is put in the film because the dircetor can only think of the blandest stereotypes.

mike fontanelli said...

Speaking of which, we just lost the Queen Bee last week: Tura Satana Dies

Anonymous said...

I finally get to go to the movies today. I haven't ventured out in a long while because of the expensive movie tickets, but I'll definitely think about watching True Grit thanks to your recommendation. One of my teachers told me not to see it, since he's a big fan of the Duke, and he really hates it when they try to remake any of Wayne's classic films.

C said...

Oh, for sure. It bugs me that making weak male characters is supposed to make the female character strong. It implies that women can only be cool if the men suck.

What I want most is interesting females. None of this "She's the love interest, so she doesn't need a personality!" biz. Superhero films are prone to this, except maybe Lois Lane.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Mike: Ah, Tura Satana from "Faster Pussycat; Kill, Kill!"

Mckay Boxberger said...

Oh my gosh, I loved True Grit, Jeff Bridges maybe no John Wayne but that never changes my opinion though!

Anonymous said...

You know what beats the Duke in the original True Grit AND Jeff Bridges in the remake? John Wayne's head on the body of a turkey. Just sayin'.