plus did I mention the steampunk visuals?
On Monday, Hanna, Minerva, and I went to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. It was, like, the first movie we’d seen in the theater in over a year, since most of the shows we’re tempted to see on the big screen these days come out in 3D and hello, migraine! So anyway, the movie theater itself was an experience. As was the wild, glorious, playing-fast-and-loose-with-history, as gay as a handbag full of rainbows, romp that was the film itself. I mean, really. Mr. Downey, Jr. and Mr. Law couldn’t have made the thing more flirty if they’d tried. So really, a good time was had by all.
With one exception: Where the fuck were the women?
See, there were three … let’s call them “female characters with potential” … in the film: Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), Mary Morstan Watson (Kelly Reilly), and a Roma woman, Simza Heron (Noomi Rapace). Regardless of what you think of the casting decisions made, I think we can all agree that all three of these characters are well-positioned to play substantive parts in the action as it unfolds. Even if your OTP is Holmes/Watson — and let’s face it, the film leaves you with little by way of alternatives! — Mary, particularly as played by Kelly Reilly, has enough grit to hold her own, whether you fancy a threesome or just a wife whose sexual interest lies elsewhere. Irene Adler, as a character, has more than enough scope to go toe-to-toe with Holmes, whether with him or against him. And the one original character, Simza, is gutsy and on her game whether it’s in the sewers below the Paris opera house or bedecked with rubies at a peace summit in Switzerland.
Mild spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
What all three of us noticed, though, was the fact that the script writers seemed to feel that the plot could only handle one woman with actual lines at a time. Irene Adler, to our collective disappointment, is dispatched within minutes — “reduced to a plot point,” another friend of ours put it sadly after seeing the show over the winter holiday. Sherlock oh-so-sadly delivers John to his wedding, hands him off to Mary, and then promptly retrieves him again en route to their planned honeymoon. Mary’s allowed to get in one or two self-possessed, kick-ass moments before Holmes jettisons her from the train (and the plot), and the reunited couple dash off in pursuit of Moriarty. At which point, Simza is allowed to enter into the narrative, where she stays for much of the film as the native guide for our heroes.
So it’s not that I protest that the central relationship in the story is two men ’cause we knew that going in, and anything else would have strained credulity. I don’t demand hetero romance, or even equal representation in the cast list … some stories are going to entail more men than women and vice versa. What’s striking is that the script writers clearly realized their female characters had better have gumption … but there was only so much ladygumption the script could sustain at once, apparently. It’s cool to have Strong Female CharactersTM … as long as you only have one at a time? Or as long as they’re split between the good and evil forces? Or in competition over our Manly Hero/es?
This, in turn, got us thinking about the exceptions to this rule in action/adventure and genre feature films. For example, Alice and Claire in Resident Evil: Extinction (2007).
Carlos totally sees where this relationship is going
Some other films we came up with included Silent Hill (basically an all-female cast), X-Men: First Class (Moira and Raven), the first Alien (Ripley and Lambert), and Sunshine (Cassie and Corazon).
This is where you + trivia night come in, Harpies, ’cause I want a list of films that don’t assume action/adventure stories can handle but a single substantive female role at a time. For simplicity’s sake, I’m calling for feature films only, not television series, since that gets into a whole tangle of rotating cast members etc.
Cast your vote and make your case in comments below!
I’d like to know, too, because I’m sitting next to my movie collection and can’t really think of any action flicks with more than one lady.
Sucker Punch? Does that count? How about Sin City, and the warrior women?
I have to wonder though… (and I do love some Watson & Holmes) … if Irene, Mary and Simza, or any combination of the three, got together, they may have figured it out with efficiency? Sish, boom, bang. Done.
Zombieland. Definitely.
What about Serenity? (based on the tv series
Firefly). I thought all the female characters were kickass, and in some ways more kickass than the guys, and there’s 4!
Does “Thelma and Louise” count? I know most people wouldn’t classify it as action/adventure but that’s because it has…y’know…WOMEN in it. If it were dude friends taking off across country in a Cadillac convertible and shooting people who deserved it and not giving a fuck and picking up a hot drifter for motel room sexytimes, it would totally be classified as action-adventure.
Other than that, I got nothing.
(Anna, one of my queer friends who loved Sherlock said it was “gayer than all 6 hours of Angels in America.”)
@Mackey good point! I adore Firefly for obvious reasons, but had forgotten Serenity because the trauma of watching Wash die was just encouragement to erase it from memory!
@BeckySharper love the comment about Sherlock!
I just want to say that these movies have nothing to do with Holmes. At all. I have no prob with fanfic and H/W slash, but at least try to respect the canon, people.
Thelma & Louise count. I thought about posting that one, too, but feared the “But it’s a chick flick!” response. Duh! Not going to happen here.
@mm … hmm. I respect the feeling behind what you’re saying (I harbor the same about many book-to-movie ‘adaptations’) but I do want to stand up for those in my circle who are life-long fans of the original novels, the Brett adaptations, etc., and experience enjoyment of things like the Mary Russell novels, BBC Sherlock, the Downey and Law films, and M/M erotica as part of the continuum that is the world of Holmes. I have at least one friend who marks the beginning of her love affair with M/M relationships in her childhood passion for the Arthur Conan Doyle novels.
@MM: To be honest, the Conan Doyle canon has always left me underwhelmed. He left huge gaps when it came to telling Sherlock and Watson’s stories—in some ways they come across as pretty flat, with no back stories and relatively thin character development . Some aspects of their characters—big ones, like family and sexuality and childhood—go completely unexplored. Given that, I think it makes perfect sense that other novelists, scriptwriters, directors, etc. are keen to fill out those missing elements. Personally, I find Laurie King’s Sherlock Holmes or Jeremy Brett’s portrayal of Sherlock way more interesting and entertaining than the Conan Doyle stories that inspired them.
I agree, Thelma and Louise defininely count – it was action all the way through. (I fail to understand how can it not be anything else.)
Peering at my DVD collection as it’s next to my work desk: Kill Bill? Harry Potters? The Breakfast Club? St Elmo’s Fire? Coraline? Like Water for Chocolate? (Most of Tita’s family are pretty strong characters.) Hotel New Hampshire? The World According to Garp, if you’re counting MTF transsexuals?
(Oh, then I just noticed it was action/adventure we’re after – never mind about half the ones I suggested then!)
How about Aeon Flux? (not the cartoon series, but the movie that was made based on the cartoon series) You have Aeon, plus all the other kickass women as well. Sithandra, the Handler.. best of all, she’s a kickass assassin
In terms of counting “women” I reckon it’s a character who identifies as such..
(@Es, I too went through the DVD collection, unfortunately I have a lot of tv series with kickass women characters, not a lot of movie dvds)
“Hanna” has multiple badass women! A teenage assassin, a nasty CIA agent (played by Cate Blanchett!), a hilarious teenage friend, a fierce mother, a liberal mother, and a quiet-strength grandmother. I think they outnumber the men, actually, unless you count red shirts as characters.
@MM…are we reading two different Arthur Conan Doyles? Because even in canon Holmes and Watson are CLEARLY each other’s primary life relationship (it may not be sexual, but it is primary) and the movies have that spirit. As a friend of mine blurted years ago, “How can Mary not see that Sherlock needs John SO much more than she does?!”
Set It Off.
@Lurker: Oh yeah. I think I saw that on a long plane flight. It would qualify, since the OP never said they had to be good action-adventure movies.
See also: “Bad Girls.”
I just ran through a mental list of the superhero movies I’ve seen in the last decade or so. Here’s the ones that *didn’t* make the cut: Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Superman Returns, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America, Jonah Hex (ew-getitoffofme), Watchmen.
The ones that sort of almost make the cut: Spiderman 1-3 (if you consider Aunt May and Gwen Stacey substantive characters).
Movies that make the cut:
X-Men. Thor.
This is sad.
To be honest, the Conan Doyle canon has always left me underwhelmed.
Me too Becky, Didn’t Edgar Allen Poe start it anyway with The Purloined Letter and Murders in the Rue Morgue?
Oops I forgot the subject of the post. There were some strong women in the National Treasure movies, wasn’t Nicholas Cage’s mother a kickass archeologist?
D.E.B.S. It’s mostly female characters, kicking ass and taking names, there are 3 men who show up enough to have names, and only one is a fully developed character. I wasn’t going to put it up because I thought it was way too obscure, but I saw it played on HBO over the weekend, so it’s no longer obscure. Fantastically fun movie!