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>Date: Tue, 2 Sep 1997 11:49:45 -0500
>From: MARINA YERESHENKO <my0203@BRONCHO.UCOK.EDU>
>Subject: Re: Mimic (! some spoilage)
[snip about Mimic]
>I wonder if anyone saw G.I.Jane. It's not a science fiction (I hope!),
>but it's a good movie. Of course, I like violent action movies in general,
>which a lot of people on the list don't. I just think that women have a
>right to be as agressive as men, if they want to, and can enjoy "blowing
>up a ship" just as much.
>However, there were some funny things about the movie:
>
>1. I don't think anyone else but Demi Moore would get away with this (nor
>with all the other things she's done, from the naked pregnant picture in
>Vanity Fair in 80's to the Striptease movie). If it was someone like
>Geena Davis, or simply a single woman actress, there would be a lot of
>screaming in the audience about man-hating and stuff like that. However, no
>one would mess with Bruce Willis's wife. It seems that if you got the right
>man, you can do whatever you want. Still, it's better than nothing.
Actually, I thought Demi Moore was strikingly miscast...I didn't think she
looked tough enough, even with the muscles, to be a plausible SEAL. I don't
think she looked mentally tough enough for the role, either -- I can't think
of many actresses that could pull it off, maybe Angela Basset, Sigourney
Weaver (although she's too old for the part), or that woman who played in the
Terminator movies. With the shaved head, she looked like she was ready to
star in the "Sinead O'Connor Story" -- not like a trained killer.
[snip about the antifeminist elements of the story -- no argument from me]
>3. I wonder if it's a common practice to perform military training in a
>foreign country, which is not at war with US, including killing some native
>soldiers just for the sake of training. Even if it's a country like
>Lybia. Jeez, and then we wonder why we get bombs in public facilities.
>Maybe that's also part of training for the other side's special service
>schools.
Speaking as a military man, I can say that precious little about "GI Jane"
was true to life. The US *does* do joint military exercises with friendly
countries (including such newly friendly countries as the Ukraine and Poland)
on a regular basis. The US military generally doesn't kill the people
they're training with, in fact, at least in Germany, they pay handsomely for
the crops damaged by manuvers.
> >4. The joke about the three hundred pound, superbutch female navy officer
>"looking like a Russian" was extremely funny. Back in the USSR, we called
>this "American Sense of Humor". Just kidding. :)
This is one of the lasting legacies of Cold War propaganda -- America taunted
Eastern Europe for having ugly women and a poor selection of consumer goods.
It annoys my Czechoslovakian wife no end to have people assume she comes from
a destitute, primitive country and that she must be tremendously impressed
with the achievements of American civilization...
> >Respectfully,
>
>Marina
By the way, Marina, have you seen any recent Russian SF in translation
available in this country? I have a little collection, but it seems like
people stopped publishing it after the early 80's.
Yours truly, Dan Krashin
P.S. The contents of this email are my opinion only and have nothing to do
with the US governments position on anything in particular.
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