Tag Archives: Wonder Woman

First Women at the Movies

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          Patty Jenkins is the First Woman to direct a superhero movie for a major studio. In May, 2017 her film Wonder Woman opened to the biggest weekend box office for a woman director in the history of cinema.

Diana Prince, Wonder Woman’s civilian identity, had a long road from Themyscira, where she is princess, to the big screen. First the film had difficulty finding a studio. Then the movie was predicted that it would fail. Because Catwoman and Elektra had flopped, studio executive assumed the same would be true of Wonder Woman. Did studio executives not consider quality when making decisions. Just look at the rankings for the movies: Rotten Tomatoes gave Catwoman only 9% and Elektra 10%, whereas Wonder Woman received a 95% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.

Forgive my snide aside here, but both Catwoman and Elektra were directed by men. Perhaps it takes a woman to appreciate the complexity of a woman superhero and produce a quality film about her. That, of course, is not be fair. Male directors succeeded with both Rogue One and The Hunger Games, successful films about strong warrior women. Perhaps the studio executives didn’t watch those films when they decided Wonder Woman could not succeed.

The large box office numbers are great, but the best part of the Wonder Woman is the reaction of young girls around the country. They are captivated by this character and emulating her costume as well as her strength and high morals.

Awards at Festival de Cannes

          In May, 2017, Sofia Coppola also won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. Her movie The Beguiled, based on a book by Thomas Cullinan, is the story of an injured Union soldier who is cared for in a boarding house of Confederate women during the Civil War. Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning star along with Colin Farrell.

Coppola is actually the second woman to win the award but it has been a half century since the First Woman won Best Director recognition. In 1961 Soviet director Yuliya Solntseva won the Best Director prize for her film about World War II, The Story of the Flaming Years.

The most prestigious award at the Cannes Festival is the Palme d’Or. In the seventy-year history of the Festival, the Palme d’Or has been presented under various names, but only once has it been awarded to a woman. In 1993 Jane Campion received the prize for her film The Piano, but she shared it with Chinese film director Chen Kaige and his film Farewell my Concubine.

Closing Credits

The most promising thing about these achievements by Coppola and Jenkins might be the fact that the characters they portrayed were created by men. Women’s stories written by men and interpreted by women. It seems to be a winning combination, a true reflection of the meaning of feminism.

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Wonder Woman Firsts

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This year the United Nations selected Wonder Woman as an honorary ambassador to promote gender equity. An uproar ensued, and the United Nations withdrew the ambassadorship because Wonder Woman was too sexy. Apparently strong women cannot also be sexy women.

Fortunately, the United Nations did not have the authority to compel the United States Postal Service to stop issuing a Wonder Woman stamp in October (with a preview at Comic-Con in July). In celebration of the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman—she first appeared in 1941—USPS printed four power poses, representing four ages of Wonder Woman.

In the first row she wields a hammer. Although this image carries an allusion to Thor, it is intended to represent the Modern Age and show Wonder Woman’s “power and determination.” The second row represents the Bronze Age, with bullets bouncing off Wonder Woman’s bracelet as she fights injustice. In the third row Wonder Woman has her golden lasso close at hand, the instrument with which she compels her enemies to tell the truth. (Where is she when we need her so today?) Representing the Silver Age, and demonstrating her strength and speed, she “prefers compassion to the use of brute force.” Finally, we see Wonder Woman of the Golden Age, just as William Moulton Marston created her. Yes, you read that correctly. She was created by a man. It was his wife who suggested that Marston create a woman superhero, but it was Marston’s belief in a woman’s strength and ability to determine her own path in life that led Marston to imbue Diana Prince with power and dignity.

Nor did the United Nations have the ability to diminish the honor bestowed by Entertainment Weekly earlier this year. The magazine evaluated 50 Superheroes along a number of dimensions and Wonder Woman came out on top. Granted, the ten criteria used to evaluate the superheroes included Cultural Impact and Modern Relevance, where Wonder Women received perfect scores. Her overall score of 90.3 (out of a potential 100) just beat out Spider-Man at 90.0 and Batman at 89.7.

The United Nations also could not stop the production of a movie about Wonder Woman—the first movie about a woman superhero. To put this in perspective: Batman has had nine movies made about him and Superman has headlined seven. And to put icing on the cake: A woman, Patty Jenkins, will direct. Jenkins has the distinction of being the first woman hired to do a Marvel movie. She was to direct the sequel to Thor but “creative differences” led to another director taking over. Jenkins credits the studio for hiring her, even if she did not complete the movie. The movie about Wonder Woman is scheduled for release in 2017.

 

For more Information on Wonder Woman: I highly recommend Jill Lepore’s book The Secret History of Wonder Woman