NYT: No women's roles in summer movies. "Post-Female Cinema."
- Thread starter Malcom
- Start date
I seem to remember reading that as well Mr Light.
and yes, studios do follow the money. As long as people pay to see shoot 'em ups and action hero type movies, where females are usually NOT in the lead, that is where the money is going to go.
Problem with the movies and female leads, is you usually get romantic comedies that all follow the same crappy formula: man and woman meet/fall in love; he has a "past"/screws up/ wrongs her/ etc., then he apologizes and they live happily ever after. Being a woman, I get tired of the "chick flicks." I actually prefer the action/ shoot em ups.
But a good movie is a good movie whether a female or male is in the lead. I don't go see movies based on only the gender in the movie....the script, the acting, the direction, etc all have to be good enough for me.
and yes, studios do follow the money. As long as people pay to see shoot 'em ups and action hero type movies, where females are usually NOT in the lead, that is where the money is going to go.
Problem with the movies and female leads, is you usually get romantic comedies that all follow the same crappy formula: man and woman meet/fall in love; he has a "past"/screws up/ wrongs her/ etc., then he apologizes and they live happily ever after. Being a woman, I get tired of the "chick flicks." I actually prefer the action/ shoot em ups.
But a good movie is a good movie whether a female or male is in the lead. I don't go see movies based on only the gender in the movie....the script, the acting, the direction, etc all have to be good enough for me.
Not to mention action movies where the biggest name is one of the biggest female names in the world that flops anyway... Scarlet Johanson in The Island... Jessica Biel in Stealth... Jessica Alba in The Eye / Good Luck Chuck / Awake... Nicole Kidman in Golden Compass...
It's a shame, I personally prefer the action babe to the action dude
It's a shame, I personally prefer the action babe to the action dude
I think it is extreme of the article to say women are "irrelevent". It would be more accurate to say there are not a lot of films with women in lead roles. However, there are a lot of supporting roles where the women are heroes themselves ("X-Men" or this summer's "Iron Man") and lead roles still exist in the action genre ("Doomsday" comes to mind) though I agree they're less prevelant.
What I find fascinating is that she uses comic book films of summer '08 to bolster her point, but ignores the fact that all those characters are based on comic books, which is still by and large male dominated character-wise. In terms of comic book flicks, this is not so much about Hollywood as it is about what sells in the comic book world translating into ticket sales. WB isn't going to say, fund a Batgirl flick when they can't even sell her title on a monthly basis. But Batman with like, six or seven titles under his name? Absolutely.
What I find fascinating is that she uses comic book films of summer '08 to bolster her point, but ignores the fact that all those characters are based on comic books, which is still by and large male dominated character-wise. In terms of comic book flicks, this is not so much about Hollywood as it is about what sells in the comic book world translating into ticket sales. WB isn't going to say, fund a Batgirl flick when they can't even sell her title on a monthly basis. But Batman with like, six or seven titles under his name? Absolutely.