Why you need to watch the silent, black-and-white Snow White movie, Blancanieves.
- It somehow manages to be Bechdel-compliant without technically including a single line of dialogue.
- A short-haired, bullfighting Snow White.
- A lovely and unconventional romance.
- It’s an old-school fairytale that combines creepiness with a simple, emotional storyline.
- Beautiful, intricate 1920s Spanish costumes.
Dear self,
If stuff you read about a movie makes you think you might not like it, it’s probably a pretty good idea not to watch it just because it’s on Hulu for free. Especially if it’s a horror movie.
Because those can be messed in ways that do not include crazy amounts of blood everywhere. If you are sitting there wondering if there are people who genuinely like this movie without questioning its several layers of messed up, it is time to stop the movie and find something feel-good to watch so you face doesn’t freeze in a “the hell am I watching this for” position.
In fact, the problem isn’t their sex; the problem is their portrayal as sex objects. Objects aren’t convincing protagonists. Subjects act while objects are acted upon, so reducing a woman action hero to an object, even sporadically, diminishes her ability to believably carry a storyline.
Caroline Heldman in “The Hunger Games, Hollywood, and Fighting Fucktoys.”
Interesting blog post. I thought this explanation of why female super hero movies (the author uses the more general action, but two out of three of the examples are “super hero” types; female super heroes also get this treatment more often and more obviously than non “super hero” action hero ladies) made sense.
Kirkwall Was Totally Built On a Hellmouth 