Shrieking weak-willed women
are a Hollywood cliché of ancient tradition. But with the bold introduction of
the domineering Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, summer blockbusters
may finally be listening to their critics and presenting characters that both
sexes can be inspired by.
Depictions of supporting
female characters have noticeably changed in popcorn flicks since Kate Capshaw
screamed her way through Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Over the thirty years
since the blonde love interest bemoaned chipping a nail in the aftermath of another
daring escape, whilst being wooed by Harrison Ford’s irresistible charms in the
process, scripts have slowly improved by diverging from ridiculous feminine
stereotypes.
This revolution in celluloid
gender roles has reached a recent landmark wave with Charlize Theron’s
performance as Furiosa in the relaunched Mad Max series. As a former
supermodel, the South African actress could have so easily been a piece of eye
candy casting. However, George Miller’s movie toughens her to the point of
being an equal brawler with the eponymous dystopian drifter. Not only that, but
as an obvious amputee, her character could quite easily qualify for a disabled
sticker to go on her machinegun-toting tanker. Yet she is always shown to be
strong, determined and –most outrageously – not interested in her male
counterpart sexually whatsoever.
Ignore such hackneyed
codswallop as Theron making herself ‘ugly’ for the role. In truth, whatever
preparation the Oscar-winner did prior to shooting in order to get in better
physical shape, the end goal was to heighten the sense of reality, not denying
her any genuine gender qualities. Much is the same for Emily Blunt in last
year’s Edge of Tomorrow.
Within Furiosa’s DNA lies a
strong hint of Alien’s Ellen Ripley, who alongside Sarah Connor from the
Terminator series, were the forerunners of women’s liberation on screen. All of
these femme fighters have exhibited their ability to fight superior enemies (a
fair few muscle-crunching men numbered among them) and generally shirked the
inhibiting strictures of a conventional love interest. Younger fans may
recognise this phenomenon as the ‘Katniss Everdeen effect’.
Audiences as diverse as
casual female viewers and die-hard nerds have called for more of such spirited
characters. Joss Whedon, a key member of the latter fraternity, gave the baying
crowd another heroine in the form of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Although she had
her fair share of doomed romances, the fierce teenage schoolgirl personified
the trend for ‘girl power’ sweeping nineties pop culture.
More recently, this decade is
seeing a return to the original women action stars with rebooted franchises
arriving at our cinema screens where Ripley and Connor are synonymous. Prometheus
once again sees the alien critters being bested by a female lead whilst the
otherwise disappointing Terminator Genisys pits Emilia Clarke (AKA Daenerys
Targaryen) against a killer cyborg.
A sterner test of women in
mega-budget productions will be the new Star Wars instalment. While George Lucas
kept his actresses constrained in medieval narratives as helpless princesses, the released
trailers indicate that J.J. Abrams may be brewing a more significant part for
the fairer sex in the galaxy far far away.
Either way, Hollywood now has
its fair share of sheroes, so much so that the feeble and victimised damsel in
distress may be a thing of the past. Let’s hope so.