tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post7134914785366264697..comments2024-03-29T04:19:43.461-05:00Comments on F This Movie!: Women Who KillPatrick Bromleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00771837625286775607noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-56291354890142000792017-05-17T14:59:40.342-05:002017-05-17T14:59:40.342-05:00I would postulate that there is a contract we ente...I would postulate that there is a contract we enter into when we see a movie, one that doesn't just have to do with not sneaking one's own snacks into the theatre. <i>Jurassic World</i> breaks the contract with the death of Zara. Of course we know people are going to die in a <i>Jurassic Park</i> film, and there are, I think, three types of death that conform to the action movie covenant: the deserved death (Donald Gennaro and Dennis Nedry in <i>Jurassic Park</i>), the heroic death (Richard Schiff's character in the first sequel), and the death of the innocent bystander (the poor little doggy, again in <i>J to the P to the II</i>). <br /><br />Zara's potential-victim status falls into the third category, but she gets a demise deserving of someone in the first. If Vincent D'Onofrio had been the one who suffered this fate, everyone would be fine with it. Zara's only crime was not wanting to babysit the nephews of "Heels" Dearing. This is why it induces such a feeling of queasiness, in my opinion. And it really does. She doesn't just die; she's <i>punished</i>. Action movie justice states that Zara can be killed, but as a relative innocent it can't be too gruesome or prolonged. In <i>Jurassic Park the First</i>, we don't even see Sam Jackson's death, only the aftermath, and we're spared watching Bob Peck get torn to pieces by Velociraptors, leaving him at the moment of "Clever girl."<br /><br />Horror movies get to break the contract; fluffy entries in a beloved (?) action movie franchise... not so much, unless they want to be categorised as something else.<br /><br />Patrick and others talk on the podcast sometimes about how a lot of American movies nowadays shoehorn in a Chinese character, invariably giving this person bugger all to do, because there's a big market for US films in the People's Republic. Were I a paranoid individual. I might suggest that Zara's death was an attempt to get conservative American (and conservatives of other nationalities) bums on seats. Not only is this woman in the workplace, suggesting she has eschewed the idea of traditional two-and-a-half-children familial life in favour of having a career, but when she is put in charge of a couple of kids she immediately loses them. I can imagine a group of bros in "Make America Great Again" hats nudging each other and saying, "Bitch shoulda stayed at home."<br /><br />A great article by Alejandra. I would like to give a shout out to Ingrid Pitt as Elizabeth Báthory in <i>Countess Dracula</i>, one if not <i>the</i> best Hammer Horror movies, and Eihi Shiina as Asami Yamazaki in <i>Audition</i>. <br /><br />I'm not entirely sure I agree with the assertion that Annie Wilkes is evil. She's crazy, certainly, and a monster, but I don't know if I would describe her as evil.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03171919450410869053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-71077938467678971932017-05-17T04:34:43.031-05:002017-05-17T04:34:43.031-05:00"No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unle..."No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell." - Carl Jung. <br /><br />Love this article so much, Alejandra! For my whole life I've been fascinated by cute and cheruby, warm, LOVELY women with cold hearts of stone :) And actually I'm more afraid of the ones who commit the less obvious crimes. The kind of crimes people relate to, and they like to gloss over. <br /><br />My absolute favorite villain in film is Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She's an extremely complicated, and wholly realistic character IMO. She wanted to sacrifice herself to lead her students to righteousness and romantic martyrdom. The thing that really stands out in the movie is her impact on her student, Sandy, the other main character. Because even if Jean Brodie turns out to be only blind and ignorant, and even if those are relatable flaws, the impact they had on Sandy make her crimes unbearable, because Jean meant so much to Sandy. It's that thing where a woman who is particularly supposed to be a nurturing figure and disguises herself, easily, as a nurturing figure...would use your love for her to hurt you that's really...brutal. Meredith https://www.blogger.com/profile/11361935408436355904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-14806464480435843002017-05-16T21:36:25.191-05:002017-05-16T21:36:25.191-05:00Thanks!! I love Lynch and the women he centers his...Thanks!! I love Lynch and the women he centers his work around. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06481545631420133423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-4332453588560333272017-05-16T21:34:34.608-05:002017-05-16T21:34:34.608-05:00Hi! If I've understood correctly, I do see whe...Hi! If I've understood correctly, I do see where you're coming from and it makes sense for you to question why it's okay in horror but slightly objectionable in other genres. Still, I would argue that when you go into a horror movie you would expect death and violence because those are concepts that are experimented with through the genre. And I also would argue that excessive violence in horror still IS indeed criticized a lot of the time even by fans of the genre, especially when it's violence just for the sake of shock value. Either way I think you should maybe open your mind up a little towards this genre. It has such great potential to surprise you Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06481545631420133423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-75159526382816821312017-05-16T21:10:36.387-05:002017-05-16T21:10:36.387-05:00I think the punishment of of femme fatale characte...I think the punishment of of femme fatale characters is part of the Hays code with its "immoral characters must be punished" thing. Great article btw. My favourite female horror character may be Diane Selwyn from Mulholland drive. Such a fascinating character treated with so much respect by a great filmmaker.Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10647369645240563410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-81781951857248728082017-05-16T18:24:25.057-05:002017-05-16T18:24:25.057-05:00(This is a bit off-topic; ergo, feel free to ignor...(This is a bit off-topic; ergo, feel free to ignore it/me. Still, it does have to do with female characters and horror, albeit not ones who kill.)<br /><br />I'm not a horror fan. I hardly ever watch any flavor of the genre, and while I do love a few exceptions here and there (<i>Psycho</i>, <i>The Mist</i>, <i>It Follows</i>), and can cheer a solid gross-out kill such as the T-1000 stabbing that one guard through the eye) as much as the next moviegoer, I certainly don't seek out movies built <i>around</i> such moments, and it takes both ecstatic reviews and a truly original premise to get me to watch a "horror"-labeled flick. Nor do I fully understand the extent and passion for the genre's fandom often exhibited on this site, but hey, that's fine; I don't need to, and I try not to judge.<br /><br />That said, here's the question: I've seen a fair amount of visceral blowback to the death of the corporate assistant woman in <i>Jurassic World</i>. Several people, including our Mr. Bromley, have called it drawn-out, played for laughs, and mean-spirited in the sense that the character in no way deserved such a fate. All of which is inarguable, but what I don't get is: so what? Do the victims in Rob Zombie/slasher/"horror" movies always deserve their fates? Don't horror movies often encourage their audiences to enjoy inventive deaths of relative innocents, and aren't those moments often played for laughs? (Not to say that horror movies don't also both off the wicked for entertainment, and the innocent in ways we're not meant to enjoy, but I'm fairly certain I'm not making things up here.) Or is it posited that, as a family-friendly mainstream adventure movie (albeit one filled with endangered children, slaughtered security personnel, and other background casualties), is <i>Jurassic World</i> not "allowed" to dabble in a bit of slapstick slasher-style death here and there? Is that one scene so far tonally removed from the rest of the movie, and even if it is, does that make it objectionable in a way entire horror franchises and subgenres aren't?<br /><br />Thanks for reading. :)Gaithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07025861553487915665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-6328420098179100682017-05-16T17:21:19.182-05:002017-05-16T17:21:19.182-05:00That's exactly what I'm arguing, I think i...That's exactly what I'm arguing, I think it's about the choice to be whoever you want to be. which is why final girls are still important.If a woman chooses to be "good" and "pure" she's still just as valid as the women mentioned here. To me though, the villainous women represent the kinds of people women sometimes choose to be, which exposes facets of womanhood that aren't always represented Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06481545631420133423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-38681037157562270672017-05-16T17:05:00.317-05:002017-05-16T17:05:00.317-05:00Great article! Villainous women do tend to be more...Great article! Villainous women do tend to be more interesting characters, even if I don't always <i>like</i> them. <i>Ginger Snaps</i> is a good example, too, because Ginger is clearly a murderer, but at the same time, I'm like, yeah, I get you.<br />A very similar discussion to this comes up in film noir circles. Are femmes fatale feminist or misogynist? They are almost always punished says the latter, but the former argues this is agency. It depends on the movie of course, but a character who makes choices, even if they're not great is still a character who's three dimensional, and that, I think, is the point, rather than milquetoast "good" role models.Michael Piccolihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13292850856570418919noreply@blogger.com