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November 6, 2023,
Women need men, for many reasons.
It can be a mutual partnership.
In the family, help in raising children.
In business, making money, generating revenue.
In sports. For entertainment.
It is widely reported the number of women watching NFL games has greatly increased. Evidence of this is the myriads of female commentators of sports talk shows and commentating desks. They provide just as important analysis as the men.
One industry that has lagged behind but is starting to change is the movie industry which used to be filled with damsel in distress storylines.
The damsel in distress is a narrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has been kidnapped or placed in other peril. Kinship, love, lust or a combination of those motivate the male protagonist to initiate the narrative.
Critics have linked the helplessness of these women to societal views that women as a group need to be taken care of by men and treated nicely.
Like gentlemen.
Throughout the history of the trope, the role of the woman as the victim in need of a male savior has remained constant, but her attackers have changed to suit the tastes and collective fears of the period: monsters, mad scientists, Nazis, hippies, bikers, aliens, sex traffickers, drug dealers, corrupt policeman and more.
Well, there is good news.
Times have changed.
Now, on film, women are becoming empowered to save themselves.
Let’s look at a few on celluloid who did.
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Ted Tally, adapted from Thomas Harris‘s 1988 novel of the same name.
It stars Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee who is hunting a serial killer named “Buffalo Bill” (Ted Levine), who skins his female victims.
To catch him, she seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. The film also features performances from Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald, and Kasi Lemmons.
The Silence of the Lambs was released on February 14, 1991, and grossed $272.7 million worldwide on a $19 million budget, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing film of 1991 worldwide.
The Silence of the Lambs is regularly cited by critics, film directors, and audiences as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time.
The 1990’s was a transitional time period for women empowering themselves on film, drifting away from the handsome square jawed detective saving the day like Harrison Ford in Blade Runner, Tom Berenger in Someone To Watch Over Me and Donald Sutherland in Klute.
Here, Clarice is the hunter and savior of the damsel in distress, trapped in a well.
The Retreat is a 2021 Canadian slasher film, directed by Pat Mills.
The film stars Tommie-Amber Pirie and Sarah Allen as Renee and Valerie, a couple who book a weekend trip to a cabin in the woods, only to be abducted and tortured by a mysterious figure who livestreams gruesome killings of gay people on the Internet for profit.
The two women find themselves in a real pickle, out in the middle of nowhere, in this case, deep in the woods and it becomes clear the hosts who invited them up, have come to a very bad end and now, they are being watched.
Stalked.
It gets worse when the two ladies go for a walk and one of them gets brutally snared in a steel trap.
Then the male hunter makes his appearance.
The key here is that one of the heroines has to make up her mind that she will become the hunter and turn things around on the monsters (yes plural) who hunt for clicks.
For The Globe and Mail, Anne T. Donahue wrote that “much like the heroes of this story, The Retreat manages to defy expectations. And while some gory clichés still abound, it makes for a gruesome, gritty thriller that lets its leads shine.
Very well done.
Alone is a 2020 American psychological thriller film directed by John Hyams, from a screenplay by Mattias Olsson.
The film stars Jules Willcox as a young woman who desperately tries to escape a completely deranged and bloodthirsty psychopath (Marc Menchaca) in the wilderness.
Just the title alone sends chills down your spine.
A little deeper into the storyline.
Jessica (Jules Willcox), a recent widow, is moving. During her drive, she keeps encountering a mysterious man (Marc Menchaca) in several places: on the highway, at a gas station, a motel, a rest stop, then ultimately when she crashes her car, due to her tire being slashed. He drugs her, then takes her to his cabin where he locks her in the basement. The man is revealed to have a fetish for torturing women.
Jessica is in a very bad way.
There is no square jawed policeman or detective coming to save her.
She will have to save herself.
And she does.
She manages to out fox her kidnapper and then the two of them eventually have a showdown in the woods.
By the way, a man could have saved her but he gets murdered by her former captor, so no help there.
What we like about the showdown is that she does turn the tables on him, a married man and father, and let’s his wife know exactly what type of monster she is married to.
Then she gets down to business and gives him what he deserves.
The weakness in the old Hollywood damsel in distress films is that it teaches all of us, women in particular, is that you need a trained specialist to help you.
Usually square jawed, in a detective’s suit or a police uniform.
Like Russell Crowe in LA Confidential. Office Bud who loves to help women.
As life has evolved, nothing could be further from the truth.
In an increasingly dystopian planet, filled with real life bad actors around the corner, learn the skillsets to save yourself.
Female empowerment films where the hunted becomes the hunter are masterfully teaching us that.
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OPENING PHOTO Andrea-Piacquadio-pexels.com-photo-credit. Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damsel_in_distress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_(2020_thriller_film)
https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
