Have you noticed that in some of the best films of all time, women play small roles or are tomboys?
- Thread starter me and my dog
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I take it you've never watched anything by Hitchcock? He was well known for his frequent use of sexy blonde ladies, and he's often cited as one of the greatest directors of all time.
Coughcough Kill Bill, Silence of the Lambs, Fargo, Terminator, Funny Girl, The Birds, Carrie, Alien, Aliens Coughcough
No. Uma Thurman got just as much screen time as Ving Rhames, Bruce Willis and Tim Roth, and even more than Christopher Walken, Tarantino, Harvey Keitel and Eric Stoltz.me and my dog said:
And there was nothing tomboyish about the woman in Goodfellas. At all.
Ok so, off the top of my head some excellent films with strong female roles include:
The Descent - Pretty much all female cast. Did really well on the horror scene.
Antichrist - Only one man and woman which make up the whole cast, in equally important roles.
The Wizard of Oz - Critically acclaimed classical musical. Dorothy is thoroughly feminine, but it's not a romance film either. Notably, the main villain is also a woman.
Fargo - Brilliant film, Frances McDormand won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Burn After Reading - Coens and Frances McDormand again being amazing.
Million Dollar Baby.
V for Vendetta.
Sin City.
The Matrix.
The entire film noir genre, known for it's use of the Femme Fatale. Double Indemnity being a perfect example.
Any Alfred Hitchcock film.
Mullholland Drive.
King Kong.
Chungking Express.
2046.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Memoirs of a Geisha.
Speed.
Inception.
Fight Club.
Harry Potter series.
Scream.
American Beauty.
Kill Bill.
Taxi Driver.
Shaun of the Dead.
Precious.
Inglourious Basterds.
Amelie.
Spirited Away.
Princess Mononoke.
Requiem for a Dream.
Blood Diamond.
Little Miss Sunshine.
Pan's Labyrinth.
Let the Right One In.
I'll admit that Hollywood does have a bit of a bias against females, but you're just not looking hard enough. Also, the way you disregard feminine roles as 'romantic' but then disregard anything else for being 'tomboyish' is retarded.
You picked Oscar winners with small female roles. There are Oscar winners with excellent and dominant female roles (Fargo, for example).me and my dog said:
Besides, Oscars only count for so much, and then you're neglecting cinema from the rest of the world which is just plain ignorant. Not to mention all the indie stuff.
What's the problem with women being "tomboyish," as the OP so eloquently put it. And also, why is a woman considered "tomboyish" just because she has a get-shit-done attitude? The vibe I'm getting from me and my dog is that if a woman doesn't act like some bimbo from Sex and the City, she's "tomboyish" and therefor cinematically irrelevant. There's a reason 100% of men and 90% of women don't like Sex and the City or the women portayed therein, and it's the same reason most people wouldn't like a movie about one of the douches from Jeresy Shore.
Uh no I have not seen precious because I am of male gender![/quote]
So when I saw many of the movies you named I was in violation of being of the female gender? That doesn't make any sense.
You are arguing that there are no "great" movies with female leads or strong support characters. Then you eliminate any movies that have women as aggressors.
What sort of movies did you think there would be left? Doesn't a good movie transcend gender? As a man don't you like looking at women on the big screen? Precious is about the human condition much as "Pursuit of Happyness" was.
Oh, how about "Million Dollar Baby" then Me and My Dog?
So when I saw many of the movies you named I was in violation of being of the female gender? That doesn't make any sense.
You are arguing that there are no "great" movies with female leads or strong support characters. Then you eliminate any movies that have women as aggressors.
What sort of movies did you think there would be left? Doesn't a good movie transcend gender? As a man don't you like looking at women on the big screen? Precious is about the human condition much as "Pursuit of Happyness" was.
Good collection there, benbenthegamerman!benbenthegamerman said:
Oh, how about "Million Dollar Baby" then Me and My Dog?
Haha good call.octafish said:
Well i was refering to Eli. The film alludes to her actually being a boy - a couple of times she states 'I'm not a girl', though that is initially thought to be referring to her being a vampire, until later on there is a very brief shot of his/her scars where his genitalia used to be.
The film keeps her gender pretty ambiguous though, more than anything. I hear that for the American remake they are omitting it entirely. However, i suspect the American version is going to be rubbish.
The film keeps her gender pretty ambiguous though, more than anything. I hear that for the American remake they are omitting it entirely. However, i suspect the American version is going to be rubbish.
ok i'll take back the bit about america being shocking. i'd been drinking when i posted that, hence the terrible spelling mistakes as well. my grandad did tell me that the americans were responsible for more allied deaths in one of the battles he was part of, due to them shelling british trenches, but oh well.ecoho said:
as for women, i think they should be allowed to fight. they're not a distraction in a battle, because people are more preoccupied with trying not to get killed. i'm not into the whole feminism thing, but i don't see why women shouldn't be allowed.
Do you even know what I'm talking about? It's your attitude, that women can't do work, or that it is somehow wrong to do so, that is more damaging to the cause of female equality than any one movie not featuring a female character.me and my dog said:
You seek to entrap women in narrow gender stereotypes, calling them mannish if the seek to actually do anything. And I'm sorry, but that is far worse than simple misogyny. I'm done with arguing with you, there is no further point.
It's been said already but the majority of the movies you mention are Male dominated for a reason.
Women rarely played a large roll in The Mafia and you can't expect to see them in a film set in a Men's prison or in the front lines of any War Pre-Desert Storm.
However there's actually a fairly rich history of strong female leads in what most people would consider classics of American cinema.
Marie Antoinette, Gone With The Wind, Joan of Arc, The King and I, Bonnie and Clyde, The Color Purple, Thelma and Louise, Sense and Sensibility, Little Women, virtually any film adaptation of Romeo and Juliette.
Etc etc etc...
And the argument of gender rolls in films is another ball of wax entirely. All I will say on the subject at this time is that you frequently need to look at their motivations and not just their actions.
After all Beatrix Kiddo's actions weren't set into motion because she was hurt, but rather because someone hurt her child.
Women rarely played a large roll in The Mafia and you can't expect to see them in a film set in a Men's prison or in the front lines of any War Pre-Desert Storm.
However there's actually a fairly rich history of strong female leads in what most people would consider classics of American cinema.
Marie Antoinette, Gone With The Wind, Joan of Arc, The King and I, Bonnie and Clyde, The Color Purple, Thelma and Louise, Sense and Sensibility, Little Women, virtually any film adaptation of Romeo and Juliette.
Etc etc etc...
And the argument of gender rolls in films is another ball of wax entirely. All I will say on the subject at this time is that you frequently need to look at their motivations and not just their actions.
After all Beatrix Kiddo's actions weren't set into motion because she was hurt, but rather because someone hurt her child.
some other movies that seem to get over looked, partly because they don't have a specific genre, are the ones where a character typically female plays a major role but is only seen a few minutes if at all.
movies like: the four brothers and the sons of Katie elder. which when you watch both are pretty similar
an actual genre that could be argued is westerns, women typically play supporting roles but depending how you look at them that could change: Open range, where Kevin Costner's character is forced to decide to keep running from his past or get over it and stay
movies like: the four brothers and the sons of Katie elder. which when you watch both are pretty similar
an actual genre that could be argued is westerns, women typically play supporting roles but depending how you look at them that could change: Open range, where Kevin Costner's character is forced to decide to keep running from his past or get over it and stay
