David, I think you are right. Movies _did_ get better lately, in terms of
appearance of some powerful female characters. That's why this drawback
is so annoying. Part of the reason I went to see the movie was because
that I knew that two of the space commandos were women. Of course, I did
not expect one thrown in for the sole purpose of decoration, and another
to be a mother obviously punished for leaving her poor little kid alone
and going to work. I am sure several years ago even this would have
looked very progressive. But not now.
I'll tell you something else, that you might consider funny. I did not
grow up in America, and you may not know that in Europe and most of third
world countries, _Star Wars_ (which is some kind of cult movie here) is
not at all popular. I remember trying to watch it on video when I was 15
years old (1989). I think me and my cousins lasted about 15 minutes, after
which we decided that this was the most boring science fiction movie we
had ever seen, and turned it off.
This Spring, me and my German friend Susanne decided to go and watch the
new "enhanced" version of the _Empire Strikes Back_ at the theater. First
of all, my friend fell asleep about 15 minutes to the end. Second, the
only thing that left really big impression on us was how sexist was the
film. Starting from the fact that Prinsess Leah always weared this long
dress which must be hard to walk in, let along fight, while the two guys
were bravely battling villains of all sort. When they got captured, no
one tried to tie her hands like the other two, obviously, not considering
her any threat. Every time operation of the ship became more difficult
that usual, she would get scared and give her pilot seat to the ape guy.
Finally, the way Harrison Ford's character treated her was totally
outrageous. Especially the scene where he forcibly kisses her. At first,
she is resisting, and then realizes that she actually "liked that". Of
course, it did not look exactly the same as rape, but it gave pretty much
the same message - that a woman never knows what she wants and using
physical force is exactly what she's waiting for.
Of course, this might be a culture difference, since I did not grow up
being told that _Star Wars_ was the best movie ever made. But I really
think that what seemed cool in seventies, sometimes does not look like
that at all anymore. Be that special effects or interpersonal relations.
This may also be the reason why I cannot watch old Star Trek, in spite of
the fact that everybody says it is better that New Generation.
This is the problem with _Event Horizon_, I think. Most of its ideas
are way past their expiration date.
Marina
On Thu, 28 Aug 1997, DAVID CHRISTENSON
wrote:
>
> What's odd is not that the women characters in Event Horizon are so rote
> , but that I've somehow come to *expect* more interesting women
> characters in my science fiction movies - Sigourney Weaver, Jody Foster,
> Mira Sorvino, etc etc. So maybe we really have come a long way from the
> John Agar/Doug McClure days, and it's the *exceptions* that I notice.
> Comments?
> --
"Femininity is code for femaleness plus whatever society
happens to be selling at the time."
Naomi Wolf
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:36 PDT