Uniquely Feminine Action Scenes - Research Paper Example

Uniquely Feminine Action Scenes Thesis The last decade has given rise to many female action movies and manyof these are successful. This essay examines how female action films’ unique use of innate female characteristics through visual elements like Fighting Aesthetics, Point-of-View shots, mash up of emotional conflict with action sequences and narrative elements like the constant use of a male backbone, the use of children or emotional connection as a character objective, creation of familiar situations and build-up of modern female characterization, build up to a style of action film that is immensely feminine without compromising excitement. This essay traces these narrative and visual elements in Charlie’s Angels (2000), Hannah (2011), Barb Wire (1996), and Alien (1979), and Sucker Punch (2011). Message in the Female Form Up until very recently, female action films have successfully featured actresses that pretty much acted like men. The first two Alien films saw Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, muscular, strong, no soft side character who carry and use big guns and swords as if they were wielding substitute penises. She has no overt sexual characteristic but was able to fill roles that could just as simply be filled by men. In the scene in the beginning of the climax where she decided to fight the alien, she was shown putting on the big guns and bullets. It is reminiscent of the treatment common on action scenes with male characters like Rambo and Delta Force. The act of loading the self with guns and explosives while the body is all greasy and dirty is one of the highest form of abandon of vanity and submission to violence. Charlie’s Angels is the embodiment of a female fighter that does not compromise their femininity. This is a rebellion against the Weaver image from the Alien. Charlie’s Angels dressed their lead characters to display their curves, physical assets and face by streamlining their clothes to styles that look stylish but allows them to move around. In that scene where Natalie Cook (Cameron Diaz) was retouching her make up in the restroom during her first date with a guy whom she calls “the last decent man in Los Angeles”, she was wearing a tight fitting sleeveless hanging shirt and skinny jeans paired with a 3-inch pair of pumps. When she was attacked, she held her leg up to the throat of her opponent while the camera was positioned on the floor looking up. Her crotch was right on the center and it made her legs look even longer. Barb Wire and Sucker Punch follow the model of Charlie’s Angels. These movies emphasize the curves instead of the muscles. In Sucker Punch, one of the most popular fight scene is the Samurai Battle. Babydoll (Browning) was dressed as a female sailor with a hemline that barely covers her butt. In more than one occasion, she slid through the air. Her body was parallel to the floor and the camera was just several inches away from body, locked in one position. It created an illusion that her body was sliding through the camera which put the audience in the closest possible proximity with her breasts, abs, crotch and legs. There are those who criticize Snyder for this, calling it a failed interpretation of feminism (Mencimer 4). Her argument is that the critics on the feminist front are correct. There are still specified parameters wherein violence for women is allowed and these parameters are generally set according to what men are able to put up with. Gina Arnold’s (3) view is very different and subscribes to the idea that the evolving female character is an inspiration and is a positive influence on women. According to Arnold, if we look at the elated reception received by Charlie’s Angels in shopping centres all over America, we can rightly assume that the viewing public are overjoyed to see women attaining a physically superior position when it comes to men. Also according to Arnold, a number of these movies present a more elegant approach when it comes to violence. She also writes that, without the danger, ugliness, cruelty and base competitiveness that permeates the violence of the men’s world, one can view these fight scenes with complete equanimity. They feel free from the chains of gender and the baseness of fear. Arnold is quick to state that in a large number of fight scenes that are prevalent in movies that feature leading ladies, women are seldom seen as bloodied, maimed, viciously cruel or overly malicious. The fight scenes can be likened to a more extreme form of ballet. These women are the definition of grace. They are more than a match for anyone else but they can fight without even getting a hair out of place. As an example, Natalie Cook(Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (Drew Barrymore), Alex Munday, (Lucy Liu) in Charlie’s Angels all wore skimpy clothes, high heels and were always made up. They wore shorts and tank tops in the scene when Cook was moving to a new apartment, they wore two piece bathing suits in the beginning of the film, they wore shirts with plunging necklines when they are talking with Charlie, and the list goes on. Female Fighting Style After the masculine wave of Weaver in Alien, a more feminine fighting style has been invented. Diaz, Liu and Barrymore were thrown into a number of fight scenes that were very brutal and bloody and, although they were always victorious, they doesn’t come out unscathed but she always comes out pretty. Recently, the femininity of fighting styles are pushed even further. Evidence of this is the latest movie of Zack Snyder, Sucker Punch. Snyder has veered away from putting the artists in fighting clothes. In fact, he went the exact opposite direction. Baby Doll (Emily Browning), Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) were put in Barbie Doll like clothes. Baby Doll was always on a female sailor’s clothes on all the fighting scenes but it was modified to make it sexier. The shirt was a hanging one and skirt’s length was just below the butt. It also had a slit. She was also wearing a mid-thigh high boots. Blondie’s fighting costume was a corset with an exaggerated low neckline. She had a half skirt which means it didn’t wrap her crotch area, just her butt. The lace sees through her skin. Sweet Pea completely showed her underwear. She also wore mid-thigh boots. Although the back of her skirt was long and her shirt has sleeves, her neckline plunges all the way down to the lower area of her breasts. There is also the predilection to choreograph the fight sequences to emphasize the sex points of women, abs, breasts, and legs. Cameras took an ant’s eye view which revealed much of their legs and hips and, depending on what they are wearing, the crotch area like in the Samurai fighting scene in Sucker Punch. Baby Doll gets thrown a lot and the camera is always positioned to show her underwear and the act of spreading her legs. Because of the high heels, the actor is forced to lean her hips first when she stands up, similar to the motions common to Latin Dances known for seduction and sexiness. The fighting choreography is like a dance, a ballet, there is a rhythm, a grace that requires the body to bend and flex and stretch to angels that make them look even more feminine. Arnold (4) goes on to argue that men are able to appreciate these movies in a completely different manner to women. She says that it is possible that watching women beating up people is enjoyable or men because it backs up their hidden beliefs that women are the true masters of society. She appears to be saying that there is a hidden and deeply buried masochism in the inner mind of most men. If the normal role of the contemporary male in society is to make women happy (as might be argued by Mencimer), then men might possibly really enjoy seeing women in more aggressive, dominant roles. A lot of the contemporary female action movies are being targeted at the adolescent, male teenagers – this may indicate that this veiled masochism starts at a young age. This idea is carried further by Marlo Edwards (7) and makes a pretty strong argument for the 1996 box office disaster, Barb Wire, starring Pamela Anderson. A number of female critics, at the time, dismissed the film as misogynistic. Edwards holds the view that the movie can be seen from a feminist perspective and also that the main character, Barb Wire, is in herself a feminist ideal. Edwards goes on to say that Barb Wire’s overall appearance and her character’s position lead to her being categorically dismissed because she is so powerful and active or because of her being portrayed as more of a dominatrix rather than as a sex kitten. He believes that an in depth look into the female action hero therefore need to take into account how desirability functions when it comes to the dominant power hierarchies within the various film contexts. Anderson portrays a dominatrix in the movie, complete with leather outfit. She manipulates men and displays her dominance over them by using her presence by walking in a way that will allow her to pop her breasts out. This is evident in the scene when she walks into a bar to meet her foe for the first time. She made everyone look at her by dressing up and walking sexy. She swayed and allowed men to feel she is comfortable being looked at. Action and Emotion in Editing Sucker Punch, having being written and directed by an animator, contained very little dialogue and was very strong on visuals. One of the noticeable styles used in editing is the mixing and intercutting of emotional plot points in the middle of their actions sequences. Sweet Pea’s realization that she was not meant to escape and that is the sacrificial lamb, for one, happened at the very moment when they were about to escape their prison. She had to pause and process the conflict and resolution that she just figured out. This was also used in the Charlie’s Angels. All three lead actors either received a phone call from their family member and romantic interest in the middle of their fight scenes. Natali Cook was in the middle of saving Bosly when her phone rings. On the other line was her date, Pete Komiski (Luke Wilson). Happy that he called her, she didn’t want to put the phone down even when she was in the middle of a fight with Vivian Woods (Kelly Lynch). When Lynch destroyed her phone, she went into a frenzy. Munday, on the other hand, had to struggle when she realized she had to tell her father the reality of her job. Her father dropped by for a visit when they were in the middle of an assignment which forced her to tell her father what she does. This trick gives the female action star more heart and constantly reminds the audience that despite their fighting prowess and their ability to do anything men can do when it comes to war or fights, they are still women who struggle to make themselves available for love. This effort to maintain the femininity of the female actions starts is complemented with the production design. Two things stand out. During the action scenes, efforts are exerted to keep their glamour by making them dress in clothes that are more appropriate to cocktails, barbecues and shopping days rather than action events. The other element is their location. In Charlie’s Angels, they were always situated in hotels, bars, beaches and galleries. This made the mood chic and light rather than angry and strong. There is also an effort to maintain the pretty face of women even during fighting. Although they are allowed to make facial expression that would depict pain and exertion of strength, they were always cleaner and more put together compared to the males. In Sucker Punch, the glossy grading created some sort of a halo around the characters that made them look like dolls moving in an anime movie during all action sequences. The contrast of the colors was very high which made the white whiter and red redder. It also emphasized their shapes even more. In Barb Wire, there was an obvious attempt to make the film gritty to contrast the usual image of the lead character known for playing a lifeguard on Baywatch. There was no effort, at all, to deemphasize her body. In contrast, the framing always put Anderson’s breasts in the middle of the scene to direct the eyes towards it. However, there seems to be an effort to make her look rough, sexy but rough. This is where the gritty finish comes from. The Standard Male Boss A lot of these movies highlight female rage – some show women avenging their abuse at the hands of men. Sucker Punch offers a bleak look at a society that has come to be defined by a cruel masculine authority and the effects that this has on the family, the economy and the nation as a whole. The brutally efficient way in which Baby Doll deals with the various villains has a pretty much universal appeal – we all want to see the underdog triumph and deal a blow to the villains. These fantasies are also fuelled by a very deep anxiety – a volatile mix of enthrallment, confusion, outright panic and denial – about feminine sexuality, especially where it concerns how vulnerable young women and girls are. In the movie “Hanna”, for example, the heroine has been raised by her father in virtual isolation and, as a result, follows up her first kiss with a complex sequence of martial arts moves – her boyfriend, unsuspecting, is taken down. Hanna’s father has over-honed her protective reflexes and these have, in turn, overridden her instinctual desires. Whether that is a result of the training or is part of her father’s plan to keep her safe and chaste is open for debate (Arnold 6). It is interesting to note how often the violence that these women commit is driven by a father figure or a male influence. “Charlie’s Angels” sees two male figures behind the team, Bosly and Charlie. “Sucker Punch” sees Scott Glenn exhorting his female soldiers into battle and. “Hanna” sees Eric Bana set his daughter out to meet the wicked witch. How to view these so called parental influences is open to interpretation – reassuring or simply creepy – the choice is always left to the audience but no one can argue that the strength behind or master of these strong women is always a man. Others feel that this is an unfair projection because women aren’t always supported by man. However, it does add to their humanity and femininity. Portraying them as an overly independent woman will make their character cold. Thus, they are given support by male. It is, however, important to note that the male characters do not present them as their boss. They are always an “elder” that pass their knowledge to the female. In Hannah, her father trained her to become as fierce of a fighter as he knows that people that might come after her will not really spare her life just because she is a female. Female Violence for the Sake of their Children There are action heroines that do make use of their femininity to the fullest – in the quest be a good mother. Ripley in Aliens and fought for her child and avenge the death of her husband. This makes female violence acceptable if it is for the sake of family. Tasker in 1998 (4) debated that heroines in movies take reference from the heroic maternal motif and thus a new stereotype is created – the woman who would put everything on the line for her family. He also said that female violence is interwoven with the archetype of female protection. In Sucker Punch, the lead characters were all single but they were given an equivalent to a child. Cornish, for example, had a sister that was left to her own accord when she was forced in the institution. Her desire to break free is part of her effort to save her sister from the evil stepparents all out to get everything her parents left her and her sister. In Charlie’s Angels, all of them were single but they were given romantic interests which often come in conflict with what they do. The resolution always pulls them towards that place that allows them to have both their career and the man that they love. If the relationship didn’t push through, it is always because it was the right guy. In other words, they were always told and made to believe that it is possible to do what they do while they also keep the man. If women are being really bad-ass for the benefit of their children, it is socially acceptable. At the same time, men fall under a different template – the protector role makes either sex more interesting because they become vulnerable but it is not the same thing for men. At the same time, one cannot generalize and say that all women are maternal – there is no one standard of womanhood – women choose a wide variety of identities. The Female We All Know There is an extended effort to create female actions stars that we all know. Even when these characters were given jobs or tasks that were fantastic and sexy such as being a private investigators and fighters, they were built with characteristics that allow the audience to relate to the characters. This gives the audient more reason to watch. The nature of the beast is to give the audience a form of entertainment and pleasure and the audience, whether they know it or not, wants to see a movie that is familiar to them or, at the very least, something they feel is believable. In Sucker Punch, the setting is fantastic but the conflicts of the characters were all too familiar. They were in there against their will and they need to get out for their families. Family is a universal theme. The risk is not diluted but is rather intensified when the fighting is depicted in the same graphic way because the audience instinctively wants to be able to take pleasure in the revenge. Put another way, the graphic violence, although justified by the earlier assault, can be seen to be an excessive reaction. “Sucker Punch” managed to strike a sleazy balance because the rape fantasies are kept under PG-13. Gilpatric told Silverstein that there is a misconception about action heroines in general. We tend to think, as I did before my research, that action heroines are continuing to knock down walls when it comes to gender barriers and that they are very powerful and good role models, especially for younger women- the action heroines we get to see don’t really draw in any kind of female power (however one defines female power) but tend to act a lot like their male counterparts (Ford & Tonander 380). The Various Ways Female Strength and Independence are Presented These new confident, sexy and empowered female heroines can be viewed as the goal to strive for. There is a definite need for strong female role models and maybe this new wave of action film heroines might be the answer. When you look at the movies already discussed here as an example, you will find a group of women who have each been proactive and sorted things out for themselves; they fight men and win; they are usually successful at getting revenge but they do it in different ways. In Charlie’s Angels, they women live two lives: the life of a bounty hunter/private police/private investigators and the ordinary female life which involves dating and making their parents proud. Their professional life rarely intersects with their personal life but they do not hesitate in using their appeal and sexuality to beat their opponents. This is clearly seen when Sanders were tied to a chair and she raised and spread her legs to stop the men about to attack her. Cook, Barrymore, and Liu also wore corsets and micro mini-skirts with plunging necklines to divert the attention of a suspect so they can take a photo of their eye and duplicate it for the eye scan. In Hannah, on the other hand, Hannah (Saoirse Ronan) was raised to become a vicious fighter. She was trained not to feel love and kill everyone that comes close to her. This was demonstrated in the scene when she was kissed by a boy for the first time. She like it but her instincts was to kill the boy, so she did. In Alien, Ripley (Weaver) had to be forced into it when her child was put in danger. She had to fight for her son and even without any knowledge on war and fighting, she decided to take arms and fight just to fight for her child. She’s motherly and it is the only reason for her to fight. Conclusion You will find that the way that Ripley in Alien has been portrayed affected how women are portrayed in general in action movies. Ever since the release of the first movie in 1979, there have been a strong wave of strong female heroines – “Terminator 1’s” – Linda Hamilton; “China O’Brien’s, Lady Dragon’s” Cynthia Rothrock; “Resident Evil’s” Milla Jovovich; “Kill Bill’s Uma Thurman” are just a sampling of some of these. Unfortunately, Weaver’s talent is often eclipsed by her onscreen image. A number of websites take more notice of what she looks like than how she acts. It is not surprising for producers to use the beauty of women to in action movies. In Charlie’s Angels, there is the undeniable concentration to shoot from a lower angle, possibly to show that the women are superior to the scene and audience but, and this is more likely, to put emphasis on their breasts. There are a number of gratuitous shots of the women’s body and tight shots on their abs, legs, and lips. The fight scene has a high sexual element to it. They roll across the floor with open legs a number of times. In another shot, they are on their back struggling with their legs open. You could compare this shot to a rape scene. Even their exaggerated grunts, screams and moans are louder than any non-diagetic music in the scene. A similar combination of overt and covert sexuality and innuendo is featured in the film “Sucker Punch”. The female characters are all wearing skimpy clothes. It is clear that the audience is meant to focus on her body. Their clothes are so tight that their breasts are literally sticking out of it. According to Mulvey, the appeal of this kind of scene extends to both male and female audiences. When it comes to men, they take pleasure in looking and women take pleasure in identifying with a character and becoming this attractive woman that can fight. The result, however, is a unique fighting style that only women can use, one that mixes emotion, sex and toughness. References Arnold, Gina. Badass Girls on Film, Salon.com, 2001. Print. Clover, C. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992. Print DeWall, C., & Altermatt, T., & Thompson, H. Understanding the structure of stereotypes of women: Virtue and agency as dimensions distinguishing female subgroups. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 2005. Print Edwards, Marlo. The Blonde with the guns: Barb Wire and the Implausible Female Action Hero Journal of Popular Film and Television, 2004. Print. Ford, T., & Tonander, G. The role of differentiation between groups and social identity in stereotype formation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 1998. Print Mencimer, Stephanie. Violent Femmes, Washington Monthly, 2004. Print Tasker, Yvonne. Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema. London: Routledge, 1998. Print. Read More