Hacker Cinema
Catwoman
2004 · Film · 104 min
Directed by Pitof
Liquidated after discovering a corporate conspiracy, mild-mannered graphic artist Patience Phillips washes up on an island, where she's resurrected and endowed with the prowess of a cat — and she's eager to use her new skills... as a vigilante. Before you can say "cat and mouse", handsome gumshoe Tom Lone is on her tail, fascinated by both of her personas.
4 negative1 neutralfrom 5 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
Sure, but for every Citizen Kane you also have hundreds of movies like Shark Exorcist, Plan 9, Catwoman, etc
> Star Wars is suddenly not about defeating totalitarianism and tyranny,
It's a massive universe and there's been six movies about this theme already. Why retread old themes instead of trying something new? By the way, I am NOT defending the new trilogy - it is absolutely awful, but it's not awful BECAUSE it's about feminism and animal rights (also, it isn't, it's still about totalitarianism and tyranny).
> Batman become a medic rather than do what Batmam does: beat up bad guys.
Again, there have been anywhere between 9-10 batman movies depending on how you count of him beating up bad guys. Why do you need more? Why not try something new and really interrogate the psychopathy of the character, and the realization he might go through which is that beating up bad guys isn't the best use of time for a billionaire.
> Catwoman must be with the times and complain about the attention paid to "rich white men"
Did you miss the part where her mother and her best friend were both essentially sex slaves that got choked to death by the italian mafia? If anyone has a case and a grudge against "rich white men", it's probably her.
Also, the whole movie, is about how rich corrupt people let the whole city down.
I haven't seen the new Bond movie, but if they actually had the balls to kill him, that's tremendous progress.
Why are you so resistant to any change?
Is this the same John Rogers that helped write the story for the newest 'Catwoman' and 'Transformers' movies?
I'm not so sure he's in the best position to qualify as a literary critic.
In defense of big-budget productions, look at the Marvel franchise. Those movies, which are all sequels of each other, do very well. They are massive CGI exercises but they are well written and executed. They are movies for movie fans, full of jokes and themes you have to work at understanding. Millennials may tweet hatred, but they show up at the theaters.
On the other side are horrific CGI messes like the latest Fantastic Four. Everyone knows will flop because they see the overly focused-grouped "reboot" coming. Fans tolerate new political or religious themes (Batman) but you cannot rewrite an established backstory (Catwoman) or belittle a character's cartoon origins (Ninga Turtles). The Marvel franchise does well because respects its fans.
OK, to go off on a tangent...here's the best example I can think of that illustrates the imbalance of gender neutral roles that men take for granted and that women basically have never had: the only time I can think of, in American entertainment history, that a woman achieved the authority and an unforgettable identity that had nothing to do with "...because she's a woman" is: Ripley in Alien and Aliens (never saw 3 and 4, and probably never will).
In fact, she was so good at being "just" Ripley that it wasn't until I saw Sigourney Weaver in other movies did I realize, "Huh, Sigourney Weaver is a woman and she is hot"...She is the only female character I can think of in which her gender has no real bearing to how she acts, what she says, or how she is presented on screen.
I challenge anyone to think of any other woman character who follows Ripley's mold:
1. Does not overtly seek a romantic relationship
2. Sexual tension is not a compelling foil or conflict for the character
3. Is not thrown into an action role purely for the spectacle of a woman kicking ass
4. Is not shouted down or treated differently specifically because she is a woman.
5. Is not shown in a gratuitously sexual light (she is in her underwear the same time everyone else is logically in their underwear).
6. Is unequivocally the hero of the movie. In fact, in both movies [spoiler alert for 20 year old movies], it's quite notable that she is literally the last human being standing, and she wins on her own terms.
No other contenders, that I can think of, meet this standard, especially in the action film role: Catwoman, Aeon Flux, Tomb Raider...nope. Clarice Starling...even if you want to argue that no sexual tension exists between her and Hannibal Lecter (even though he specifically refers to it), much of the non-gruesome psychological conflict her character faces is precisely because she is a woman in a (tall) man's world. Beatrice in Kill Bill...great role, but again, it only works because she is a woman and it is a spectacle, even if empowering (i.e. could you imagine Kill Bill being made with a man in the role?)
The only woman character who comes close to the unisex appeal of Ripley is Marge Gunderson in Fargo. Other than that, it's pretty slim pickings...whereas for males, there are too many to count.
Anyway, I sometimes wonder how much growing up with Alien/Aliens affected how I think about gender roles and imbalance. Those being among the first and the most interesting of the action movies I'd ever seen (then, and today), I kind of think that the idea of a woman action hero was completely normal to me. And yet, as far as I can see, no one like Ripley has since been written...