Lately, to avoid thinking too hard about certain things in my life that are not going as planned, I have been watching a lot of movies. I am a veteran movie-watcher of obssessive proportions; back in the video-store heyday I used to be a hated friend, because I’d already seen anything. And I’ll watch anything. I’ve seen Crossroads, dude. I’ve seen every horror movie ever, it often feels like, and I can quote you weird facts and figures. I’m fond of telling a story about how I once was very, umm, happy with some friends in undergrad, and at three in the morning found myself in someone’s livingroom watching The Quick and the Dead with twenty of the awesomest people I’d ever met, or so I thought at the time. Someone idly wondered, a propos of nothing, “Hey, what was the name of that kid in Jerry Maguire?” Murmured I, as though saying the sacred names of Gods, “Jonathan Lipnicki.” And damned if I wasn’t right.
Ahem. Not the story I meant to tell. Anyway, last night I was watching Moonstruck, which I’ve seen a hundred times and which I think I would really kind of hate on principle because of its weird gender attitudes if it weren’t for it starring one of my all-time favourite performers: Cher.
Oh, I know. I know. The plastic surgery! Bob Mackie! That horrifying Bono person! Bad house music! (You don’t Believe In Love!) Why why why?
I’ll tell you why. A lot of it has to do with PhDork telling you not to be sorry. When I was thirteen and the kind of child who spent Friday nights alone indoors because it was easier than going out to play and being teased about my pant size and my general aura of “not getting it,” I was so very sorry about all of it. I was so sorry I don’t even know that I thought of myself as a self, per se, but more as a bundle of disparate faults over which I had so very little control and which were only loosely tethered to each other by all my various apologies.
And then I rented Mermaids, and years before I met any of the Harpies or picked up a MacKinnon article or even knew what a feminist was, I knew Cher was not sorry. She was not normal, she was not what people expected, and she did not seem to care. Oh, I knew to distinguish her from the characters she played but like all the greats she could not deny the essential her-ness of her. And there is something refreshing about that. I grew to love women who have grown tired of making apologies for themselves. And my self-respect was not restored overnight – indeed, it’s still a work-in-progress – but I started looking, which is the thing that really counts. And that was because of the Cher-ness of Cher, and for that I am grateful.
Old and grumpy and more self-aware as a I am now, I am more suspicious of empowerfulment and the like creeping into the mouths of celebrities who could be termed “unapologetic.” But there’s a part of me that respects empowerfulness as a gateway drug. I was not a child of riot grrl culture – I always was so afraid of breaking rules for reasons of my own I’ll tell you some other time – and you know. So I still love all the Hollywood grand dames that came, gravelly and deep-voiced and altogether unafraid, to break up the monotony of what people think you ought to be with their invitations to decide for yourself, just once, oh just once. And I can love Cher even if she’s hopelessly commercial and even if I don’t even know if she adheres to a creed that isn’t herself. Because sometimes, we all need to do that. Feminists or not.
I fucking love Cher until the day I die. Especially as an actor. Moonstruck is amazing; I also love her in one of my favorite public defender movies, SUSPECT, If These Walls Could Talk, Silkwood, Mask, and even The Witches of Eastwick, problematic as that text may be. So many of her films explore real issues and she always plays someone strong and eccentric. I also have a soft spot for Chastity, and all Cher’s activism around gay rights and other things too. Also, I know we are not supposed to judge people based on who they have relationships and that I break that rule EVERY TIME but she has had relationships with Warren Beatty, Greg Allman, a very young Tom Cruise (remember when he used to date only older women until he started auditioning Scientology-approved starlets instead?) Richie Sambora, Eric Clapton, fucking GENE SIMMONS, AND ELVIS. Elvis. The woman has gotten around. I don’t know; I sort of respect it. I know that’s probably fucked up. Wikipedia also claims she got asked out by Marlon Brando.
They just don’t make them like this anymore. Can you name one young performer that you think will be as prolific, as political, as TALENTED, and as relevant as Cher? I can’t think of one. Yeah, she’s had plastic surgery. Just this once, I’ll forgive it.
You know, I haven’t seen Suspect yet. **runs off to Netflix**
But JD, thank you, I was worried I’d be judged for my undying love of this woman.
A future section on why Katharine Hepburn gets a similar place in my heart is forthcoming.
Aww I love Moonstruck. My mom and I used to watch it whenever it came on tv and laugh and laugh.
I totally LOVE Moonstruck. One of the best scripts ever. And I don’t even find Nicholas Cage attractive, but Cher made that believable for a couple hours.
Agree with you about Cher, too. She just IS. She doesn’t look the way society tells her to, she doesn’t act or dress the way they tell her to. She is just thoroughly herself, and she does it with dignity, which is the element missing from most of today’s unapologetic “celebrities.”
Suspect, in terms of movies, is not the best. I just like it because it features a heroic female public defender. And it’s got that gritty, urban 70s/80s crime movie aesthetic I just love.
I have always shied away froom Moonstruck because of my deep, abiding, and admittedly irrational hatred of Nic Cage. *shudder* Should I risk it, or just watch Mask again?
Oh my God, Mermaids and Rachel Flax! Forget anything else she’s ever done, that is the one reason I will always love Cher (and Winona Ryder). I am ashamed to say the only other thing I’ve seen Cher in was an episode of Will & Grace.
@PhDork: No, watch it! I don’t like Nic Cage either, but it’s an ensemble cast, so you don’t have to look at him very often. And the script and the storyline are very funny and wise and romantic.
Nic Cage is my all time least favorite actor. I still love Moonstruck. He’s young and not quite as bewildering.
Sometimes, the people who “don’t get it” do get… that it’s dumb.
On that note, I “don’t get” Nicholas Cage.
I love Cher. I love everything about her, even the bad house music. I love Moonstruck (even Nicholas Cage doesn’t mess it up). I saw her live about 5 years ago. A lot of wigs, a lot of glitter, a video montage of her movie roles. It was so much fun. I’ve been trying to arrange a trip to Vegas to see her for about forever.
I also love Moonstruck. And I admit, I cannot stand Nicholas Cage now, but there were a few good films he was in a long, long time ago, of which Moonstruck is one of them. And can I just also recommend Valley Girl? I love love love that movie for lots of reasons, and somehow Cage is, dare I say it, kind of cute in the role. Please tell me I’m not alone in this??
Pilgrim Soul, I would love to talk to you more about the specific gender issues in Moonstruck. I run a blog and zine where we try to deconstruct Cher in these exact ways, as well as from other prisms feminist, cultural, ethnic, etc.
I love, love, loved this post – and think it captures something novel that Cher fans haven’t yet verbalized. I blogged about it here: http://cherscholar.typepad.com/i_found_some_blog/2009/05/cher-is-not-sorry.html
Cher Scholar