Double D's
Gotcha... I'm not gonna talk about THOSE.
Nope. I'm talking about the only 2 movies I've seen in the past couple of months. Domino and Dreamer. Hated Domino, loved Dreamer. Unlike most everyone who's also hated "Domino", I'm not even going to go there with the stupid green tint on EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN" FRAME! (GAHHH) Or the gratuituous sex scene in the desert. WTF? That scene added nothing to an already horrid movie. (Mind you, I'm never opposed to seeing Kierly Knightley rocking someone's sox but seriously, did they feel they had made Domino so butch that they NEEDED a sex scene [with a man] to "prove" she wasn't a dyke?) But. I digress.. KK can do that to some of us, ya know. (Seriously, whew!)
Back on topic...
Nope, I'm talking theme. That's right, theme. Wait... how can this be? After all, one of them is a rock'em sock'em action movie and the other? Well, geez, it's a kid movie! Not so my friends.... let me 'splain.
The stories perhaps unknowingly deal with the same theme. (Spine, if you will.) The only obvious similarity between the two? They're both based upon "true" stories. However, there's another similarity, one that most people don't even see; the theme, the spine, the throughline, whatever you want to call it. In my view, they're both movies about female empowerment. Richard Kelly uses the crutch of violence and sex in a crude attempt to show how "empowered" Domino Harvey was; solely because she was a female bounty hunter. Many people bought into this tired (and trite) line of reasoning, after all, if she's shooting it up with the fellas, she's got balls just like them don't she? What they fail to note is, by movies end, she's just another pawn in a game she doesn't control. How, pray tell, does this equal empowerment? It doesn't.
Dreamer, on the other hand while telling a much more conventional tale also told a tale about a female (a young one but still a female) who was willing to stand up for herself and work towards making her dreams a reality... no matter if she had to use her wiles (in the scene when they ask her if she has the entry fee and she claims "It's in the mail") or if she has to get help from a Prince. At the end, she got her dreams (her horse to win and her family rifts to being healing) to become reality. Very empowering, I'd say.
Wouldn't you?
posted by writergurl @ 11/22/2005 12:08:00 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Well first up, if they want to put Kiera in a lesbian scene...I'm okay with that. ;-)
Yes, I feel that slap across the head.
Secondly, damn that is disappointing, was at the cinema the other day and this was one of the trailers, and I had not heard of it, and damn, was looking forward to it, but no not because of Kiera.
She actually looked out of place even in the trailer, but Micky Rourke, looking like crap(loved him in Sin City) and Christopher Walken.....and I loved the story, but again, I think they put too much in the trailer.
Damn.
Sorry Dave, hate to ruin the anticipation for ya. BUT. At least I saved ya the $$$. You're buying a biz after all! ;)
I believe the purpose of Domino was purely commercial; its production has or had little to do with female empowerment. It's all about the $$$. Girl with guns sells. And, if she happens to be wearing skin-tight leather outfits or baring lots of skin while using the guns, all the better.
You've made me try to come up with some good female empowerment films. Working Girl? Sure, she ends up with the guy and there is the catfight subtext there. And she needs to appear to conform to the boys' club I-banking world norms in order to do it, but in the end she "wins" because she is unique. She is smart and feminine and maintains this throughout the film.
Fried Green Tomatoes? A winner for empowerment. But almost every man in that movie is a "bad guy" except for the dead brother, the slaves and the drunk guy.
Legally Blonde?. OK, so it's silly. The character is hyperbole, but she does not compromise herself and succeeds because she is smart and hard-working. What's great about this movie is that her epiphany occurs when she decides that the man, no man is worth her self-esteem.
My thoughts early on Thanksgiving morning.
Namaste.
~HDJ
HDJ: I'm more coming at this from a screenwriter's poiint of view in that in most serious discussions about movie making (which is what we are doing, if only in our heads) is that there is a thematic "spine" to all movies regardless of how that spine is surrounded. In terms that a doctor would most identify with, the spine of a movie is exactly lie the spine of a person, because everything about that movie emminates from that central theme. Regardless of wither or not the resulting movie is a commerical success. You can consider subplots of movies to perhaps be the musclature or even the skin of the movie but nothing happens without a central theme. Interestingly, theme usually isn't what the writers write to, it's what develops as the writer writes. You may begin with an idea of what story you wish to tell and after you are finished with the screenplay discover that your original romantic comedy (Working Girl) is in fact a rumination upon how you can color inside the lines as STILL be your own woman. Amazing, huh?
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