Posted on 05/04/2008 6:57:45 PM PDT by DesScorp
IRON MAN, Batman, Big Angry Green Man — to judge from the new popcorn season it seems as if Hollywood has realized that the best way to deal with its female troubles is to not have any, women, that is.
Not that it hasn’t tried to make nice with the leading ladies, in films like “The Invasion” (with Nicole Kidman) and “The Brave One” (Jodie Foster). Yet, after those Warner Brothers titles fizzled, the online chatter was that the studio’s president for production, Jeff Robinov, had vowed it would no longer make movies with female leads. A studio representative denied he made the comments. And, frankly, it is hard to believe that anyone in a position of Hollywood power would be so stupid as to actually say what many in that town think: Women can’t direct. Women can’t open movies. Women are a niche.
Nobody likes to admit the worst, even when it’s right up there on the screen, particularly women in the industry who clutch at every pitiful short straw, insisting that there are, for instance, more female executives in Hollywood than ever before. As if it’s done the rest of us any good. All you have to do is look at the movies themselves — at the decorative blondes and brunettes smiling and simpering at the edge of the frame — to see just how irrelevant we have become. That’s as true for the dumbest and smartest of comedies as for the most critically revered dramas, from “No Country for Old Men” (but especially for women) to “There Will Be Blood” (but no women). Welcome to the new, post-female American cinema.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Few things satisfy like hearing feminists whine about how there are no female-centered movies, and then having to admit that male-driven films are what brings in the money. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones, etc... all are entertaining, and guys will fill the theater for them. But women don't go to see female-driven movies at nearly the same rate. Women just don't spend the kind of money on "their" movies that men do. So we've got feminists crying not only at the state of feminism in Hollywood, but at business realities. For a conservative, that's entertainment!
Year in and year out there are LOTS of female centered movies.
But then they would have to get off the sofa and they might miss Oprah... (sarcasm off)
There are lots of women run/driven shows out there.
Gee, maybe there should be legislation mandating sex quotas for movies. Of course, then we’d also have to pass laws forcing people to attend them...
In Hollywierd, women are only good for one thing.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
Big budget movies need international appeal. Hollywood is no longer making movies for just the U.S., but the entire world.
another female centered flick i just saw was aeon flux. pretty good.
maybe if hollyweird would $hitcan meryl streep and her ilk, they would make more money. (you would have to knock me out, strap me down, and super-glue my eyelids open to watch anything with meryl streep).
With no moral compass in sight, the women of Hollywood greet success with self-destruction.
These types want it all their way. Women make most household purchases, so the feminists are okay with commercials that belittle men (and somehow increase their appeal to women). But when it comes to a market that is male-driven, they want the opposite. They want the market to ignore its own constituency and its desires and cater to ... wait for it ... women!
As far as I can tell, the correct answer to any question in life is “whatever pleases the feminists”, whether that is consistent or not.
There are plenty of women-oriented movies, sappy romances called “chick flicks” that appeal to female audiences.
Action movies happen to be a male-oriented genre.
Instead of whining, the author should convince Hollywood’s highest paid actresses to form an indie company, and make chick flix.
Hollywood actress salaries, per film. November 2006:
Nicole Kidman $17 million
Julia Roberts $20 million
Reese Witherspoon, Renee Zellweger, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz $15 million
Halle Berry, Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie $14 million, $10 million and $10 million, respectively
Kirsten Dunst $10 million
Jennifer Aniston $8 million
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1801286.htm
I watched this zombie flick while I was (literally) strapped down (in an airplane seat). For a zombie flick, it was really lame, except for one scene where Nicole Kidman is trying to drive a car while zombies are piling on top.
Gaak, it sucked. I watched "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" three times. Hey, now that was a great flick, and all about an ass-kicking WOMAN!
>> Man - hol - a...this is a joke...riiight?
I noticed that too.
You just can’t make this stuff up, better than the NYT does it for real.
The Pinch and Man-hole comedy page.
Yeah the last time I checked we had a market economy.
I can’t wait for the federal Title IX regulations requiring that 50% of theatre ticket sales must be to “womyn-directed” “womyn-starred” movies from “womyn-owned” studios.
No female driven movies? If that’s the case, can someone please explain to me what you call the kind of movie my girl wants me to take her to then? It’s not the latest Rambo or Die Hard, that’s for sure... I always thought they were called “chick flicks.”
Now that's my kind of chick flick!
BTW, there are the old “Species” movies. ;-)
Ping for a “gentler” perspective.
;-)
>>>Women make most household purchases, so the feminists are okay with commercials that belittle men (and somehow increase their appeal to women).<<<
Well, they’ve lost a few customers (me and my friends) with their shenanigans, I won’t buy any product that commercializes totally ficticious clueless men. My husband is strong, intelligent and very capable and I resent products that attempt to denigrate him.
Actually, I thought the commercials were kinda cute when they first started coming out because that type of man is so alien in my world. I don’t know any clueless men. Now, I just get pissed.
I bought the Alien quadrilogy series. All four theater releases but also all four with extended scenes - directors cut. It even made the prison planet one (3) more interesting, and that's saying a lot. lol
Mila Jovovich, in the Resident Evil’s are great too.
I thought Aeon Flux should have been titled Aeon Sux.
it was a super-hero flick for little girls, but it was decently made.
Directing?
:-)
I’m a woman. I like going to see chick movies like Sense and Sensibility and other historical films. But mostly I like the same movies that appeal to guys. “Master and Commander,” “Star Wars,” “Air Force One”—things where men are men and stuff blows up. I’m going to go see Ironman but I would pay to avoid some feminist movie about some woman self-actualizing, whatever that means.
“Gods and Generals.” “Gladiator.” “Maverick.” “Red October.” “Die Hard.” “Independence Day.” There has to be heroism or people don’t want to see it.
That’s why I LOVE “Lifetime” channel. It puts most of the really crappy programming into one easy-to-skip-by channel. Otherwise, we’d have to pick and choose channels until we get a good car chase, complete with a fruit stand.
And tv shows and commercials.
I guess she has a problem with not a Bareback Mountain movie grossing over 100mil for its opening. Stupid Manhola.
Sic Semper Britannia
That’s the problem (beauty) of FreeRepublic, so many great minds and I seldom beat them to the punch!
(in my best Maxwell Smart voice)
“Missed it by that much”
>>>having to admit that male-driven films are what brings in the money. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones, etc... all are entertaining, and guys will fill the theater for them.
Perhaps it would help if Hollywood could remember how they used to be able to make films written with plots beyond non-stop explosions and gore, with actors possessing a bit of masculinity instead of David Geffin’s leftover twinks, with actresses actually able to portray a role by acting rather then having their surgically created chest do their work, and directors who could craft a scene without the vertigo of MTV video-style cuts every 3/4s of a second.
Making films for the lowest common denominator has become nearly the entire industry. That men are so willing to settle for Hollywood’s mediocrity is no indictment of women.
Commercials like that are part of why so many men just aren’t bothering with getting married and having families any more. The climate is such that it just isn’t worth the risks for the few rewards.
This is part of why Anime has really taken off...
They just can’t fathom that guys want to see macho guys doing macho stuff.... and SO DO WOMEN!
Yeah, you don't see much of that nowadays.
Manhola Dargis Ping.
<<<Actually, I thought the commercials were kinda cute when they first started coming out because that type of man is so alien in my world. I don’t know any clueless men. Now, I just get pissed.<<<
My husband is a really smart guy too, but why can’t he figure out the washing machine? ;)
Manhola Dargis
Did you ever think these movies, Iron Man, Batman, Spiderman, etc appeal to GUYS instead of your pseudo man-like women?
Women want comfortable shoes and movies that make them cry. Why do you think the Resident Evil series of movies hasn't done as well?
It's because THIS appeals to us GUYS.
Related to Chick-fil-A? Is that an antonym?
Her parents were hoping for another boy, actually...
(We won’t tell you what her brother’s name is, though ;)
Niche at Night
This whiney female isn’t interested in that, she wants a huge budget blockbuster with a female lead.
She goes on and on about no women, but leaves out a currently released movie that has been out for 5 weeks, and is clearly female centered. It cost $37 Mil to produce and has grossed nearly $60 Mil in 5 weeks. Not blockbuster, but hardly a failure by any stretch.
And with the 2 primary characters being female, one being a female child.. its hard to argue that this film is not a femal led film.
“Nim’s Island.” Of course this would not meet the narative whining requirement she wants, so it will be ignored.
There are pleanty of women led movies out, year after year, no they aren’t all blockbusters, and no, the public generally doesn’t buy women playing the action star.. which I think is more of her gripe than anything.
My female friends and I went to see Iron Man, and we’re also excited to see Indiana Jones and Dark Knight (Christian Bale AND Heath Ledger. In the same movie. *sigh*) and the X-Files movie and Prince Caspian.... We aren’t the chick-flick type, but we base our movie preferences on three things: the number of explosions, the number of pretty guys, and if it’s based off something we grew up on. The thing isn’t so much that women don’t go to see ‘woman’ movies, but that women go to see ‘man’ movies and men don’t go to see ‘woman’ movies.
This article is absurd. It basically makes the case that there are no women driven movies in Hollywood except the five or six “chick flicks” that she names like “Sex in the City” and the multiple romantic comedies that she names but doesn’t consider woman-driven because [gasp!] they have a male co-star! But god forbid amongst all the estrogen there be an “Iron Man”.
Hey, that’s the deal in any socialist egalitarian system.
You not only have to force production of stuff that people don’t want, you have to force consumption of same.
On the other side, you have to force people to provide goods and services at compensation levels far below what those goods & services would be at market prices, creating not only higher demand, but lower supplies - ie, shortages.
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