there was some discussion of this film in the “oscar bait” comments, but i believe it deserves a topic of its own. thanks to hbo ondemand i was able to watch this without having to endure the sneers of the terminally hip check-out kids at netflix (okay, vidiots, santa monica flashback). it is, as chris, commenter joshua, and every critic who reviewed it have noted, an extremely crappy movie. and from what i can tell, a very expensive piece of crap. so, is it worth talking about? perhaps if we’re bored we could try to tease out the bizarre narrative of female empowerment that runs through it–and which might be symptomatic of what has become of feminism in the american mainstream: through your crap shall we know ye.
anyone? chris?
Hum, well the movie was so horrible that I didn’t finish watching it, so there may be some nuances, feminist or otherwise, that I missed. In terms of empowerment, I suppose that the point is that Catwoman is not seeking to liberate women as a group; she is trying to liberate herself. The only person whose life is transformed is hers. This is liberation as personal experience. As such it is a classic example of a certain stunted liberal feminism. Furthermore, empowerment is heavily sexualized, so that it comes to mean liberation of sexual expression. The contrast, and the transformation, is from shy, mousy Halle Berry to the highly erotic, purring Catwoman, who all but seduces her victims before kicking them in the nuts. Again, this strikes me as emblematic of an impoverished “lipstick feminism†that has flourished in recent years. Presumably, Camille Paglia loved this movie. That said, it is perhaps not up to me to rank appropriate feminisms. The women on this blog should have a better take.
But my real gripe about this film is not its politics (which are so well concealed as to be irrelevant), but it sheer incompetence. I like action films. I like the choreography of violence and anarchy. The artistic fireball, the shattering of glass, doves scattering as Chow Yun Fat dives forward with a gun in each hand, all this I appreciate, regardless of its wider redeeming social value. But when I see a Catwomen, which apparently did not want for money, incapable of even putting together a good action sequence, or finding some mildly witty repartee, I despair. Competence is all I ask for at this point.
BTW, I watched ‘Batman Begins’ again on a plane yesterday. I was too harsh in my initial assessment. It works on its own terms, and pulls some fine performances from its leads. I enjoyed it. It was competent.
Oh, why do we always have to carry the fucking torch of feminism? It’s an ism people, everyone has the same access. And I am not watching Cat Woman.
Nikki, I’m not a big fan of standpoint theory, but some people are, and those people would already have castrated me (more).
Standpoint is the stupidest thing ever to hit theory. You go ahead and say what you like, Chris. ;)
How come that showed up as a smiley face? Arnab, disengage that.
:)