I have only seen two movies in the theater this year — PIXAR’s Brave in 3D and The Hunger Games.

Hmmm… Something similar here, it seems.

Actually, as I think back over my favorite movies of all time — The Matrix, La Femme Nikita, Blade Runner, Alien — there seems to be a common pattern of a violent female characters. =)

This is also true for other films that I liked more than I probably would have otherwise: Avatar, The Incredibles, Tomb Raider, Aeon Flux, Fifth Element, Underworld, Terminator, Alias, Kill Bill, Resident Evil, and the classic Tank Girl.

An exception to this pattern is Road Warrior, also in my top five list, but with few discernable females whatsoever… so perhaps it’s just a preoccupation with post-apocalyptic worlds.

Given these collaborative filtering parameters, are there any films you’d recommend?

27 responses to “Theatrical Themes”

  1. rass999 denis laframboise Avatar
    rass999 denis laframboise

    Maybe Saoirse Ronan in "Hanna" or Camille Keaton in "I spit on your grave"

    Reply
  2. biotron Avatar
    biotron

    a friend of mine performs on the Brave OST – i’ve yet to see it and admit to being slightly nervous about the stereotyping… although nothing can be worse than Mel Gibson, so on that basis it has to be worth a shot 🙂

    is that Mad Max 2 of which you speak?! tell me you haven’t seen Miike Takashi’s Audition?

    Reply
  3. Sunnyvaledave Avatar
    Sunnyvaledave

    the girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy. (swedish)
    not quite like the films you tend to watch. i hear they’re making an american version.
    netflix. great film trilogy.

    Reply
  4. McPHX Avatar
    McPHX

    Barbarella, Cherry 2000, The Hunger, to name a few.

    …and I’ll throw in Buckaroo Banzai, and Until the End of the World, for good measure but neither has few discernible females.

    Reply
  5. P^2 - Paul Avatar
    P^2 – Paul

    Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome certainly had a strong female…
    +1 for Hanna
    Buffy? (too fluffy for me)
    If you like Tank Girl and Cherry 2000, then maybe A Boy and His Dog. High on the Weirdness Quotient though.

    Reply
  6. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    My kid has watched both movies with her dad, I will watch both with her on DVD… Matrix is all times classics. "Run Lola Run" maybe? And "Gone with the wind"…I love Fifth element, "Avatar" and "the incredibles, Titanic" too…European would be a long list for me…Russian "Admiral" is one… do not like tragedies, really like happy end and comedies…what about comedies? Any? And "Wicker Park" has a beautiful and strong heroine, she did not kill anybody:) you would like the main idea of "Chocolate":) also looking at these two images, I see why my child wants archery classes…we both got signed up for couple in fall…for her sake:)

    Reply
  7. seatonsnet Avatar
    seatonsnet

    A film you might enjoy is "Trouble Every Day" by Claire Denis

    Reply
  8. obskura Avatar
    obskura

    maybe you should ask Joss Whedon to do a "Black Widow" movie… 😉 He’s done some shows with strong females before… Serenity/Firefly and Dollhouse would also tick the postapocalyptic box.
    +1 on Hanna, definitely worth watching

    Reply
  9. Spaceaholic.com Avatar
    Spaceaholic.com

    Sucker Punch

    Reply
  10. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    Oh, Serenity is great…

    Reply
  11. wayer Avatar
    wayer

    If you like movies with violent female leads, you should check out "Kick Ass".

    From Rotten Tomatoes: "The humour certainly pushes the boundaries, as much of it comes from dark places, but, believe it or not, it’s hard not to laugh when an 11-year-old girl massacres a room full of baddies to the tune of The Banana Splits Theme."

    Reply
  12. pawelre Avatar
    pawelre

    sci-fi animated movies "Heavy Metal" and "Heavy Metal 2000" 🙂

    Reply
  13. ukweli Avatar
    ukweli

    Definitely Ghost in the Shell.

    Reply
  14. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Some great suggestions y’all. I have only seen about half of the ones mentioned here.

    Oh, and speaking of archery ladies, it seems all the rage of late… =)

    P.S. The Brave credits end with:

    Dedicated in the memory of
    Steve Jobs
    Partner, mentor and friend

    Reply
  15. dankos Avatar
    dankos

    I second "Hanna" and "Run Lola Run"

    Definitely see Haywire. Gina Carano is a strong, violent female protagonist (literally, her day job is MMA), great fight scenes, minimal dialog, and the only movie in which Bill Paxton is not annoying.

    Reply
  16. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124348109@N01]
    Scarlett: "I can shoot straight, if I don’t have to shoot too far."

    Reply
  17. linux-works Avatar
    linux-works

    ‘idiocracy’ is a future-based movie worth seeing. a little tongue in cheek but, sadly, only a little.

    Reply
  18. Chucil Avatar
    Chucil

    +1 on "the girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy". Also perhaps MuLan. If interested to detour, try "Breakfast at Tiffany’s".

    Reply
  19. Lars Plougmann Avatar
    Lars Plougmann

    You may want to check out Australian film Animal Kingdom (2010) when you are ready to leave warm, fuzzy feelings behind for two hours. In terms of strong female characters, Jacki Weaver is chilling yet stellar. Not much longbow action though.

    Reply
  20. Resh B. Avatar
    Resh B.

    The Hunger Games, Steve? Really? I hope the movie was better than the book. 🙂

    Reply
  21. obskura Avatar
    obskura

    Also check out "Battle Royale", the japanese original of the Hunger Games scenario (although supposedly completely unrelated…). And, no, they didn’t try to make it PG-compatible… 🙂 How was that joke again? "you know what they call the Hunger Games in Japan? Battle Royale with Cheese" 🙂

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/biotron] oooh, Audition was creepy… if you like violent females, maybe this one will change your mind…

    Reply
  22. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Thanks for all these cool suggestions!

    Adding to Netflix queue: Haywire (looks awesome), John Carter, Serenity, Battle Royal with Cheese =), Heavy Metal 2000, Cherry 2000 (Y2K must have been a cheesy year), Kick-Ass, Xena (just for a refresher).

    Audition looks spooky. Is it actually good? (I am not into the horror/slasher genre)

    Aw, crap, now Netflix recommends Nude Nuns with Big Guns for me! Flickr is a better collaborative filter, clearly!

    Saw but did not like much: Girl with Dragon Tattoo (U.S. version, long and slow IMHO) and Suckerpunch (I don’t like to see the ladies getting hurt or victimized), Max Mad sequel was a disappointment, just like Matrix 2 and 3.

    Already enjoyed, and forgot to mention in opening: Hanna, Run Lola Run, Ghost in the Shell, Heavy Metal (I do love the anime angles here… so other suggestions welcome there)

    Meanwhile, I am looking forward to snooping around the set of Avatar 2….

    PhotonQMontage-AVATAR 2 the Uncanny Jurvetson Valley

    Reply
  23. biotron Avatar
    biotron

    i saw Audition in NY back in 2000, after a sweltering day and a large Italian meal… to the extent that within the first few minutes, the viewer beside me leaned over to his friend and loudly enquired (for everyone’s benefit) "Gee, can you smell GARLIC in here?" before promptly shuffling along a few seats. for the rest of the film, the air con kept kicking in and out, so the temperature swing was wild… sweating one minute, teeth chattering the next… which in retrospect just made the film far more tense than it already was, so i probably have a false impression of it – and it is really a mild form of the torture porn genre that has blown up everywhere now, not into that myself.

    this was also my first proper experience of "vocal" American audiences in the cinema, whereby there were no bones made whatsoever about very audibly voiced displeasure at certain scenes: "Oh MAN!" / "that’s GROSS" etc in chorus all over the auditorium. this led me to thinking about how reserved our general experiences are in UK cinemas, where – apart from spontaneous outbreaks of hilarity – it is tacitly agreed upon as unacceptable to articulate an emotional response in any concrete sense, which does have the benefit of preserving the willing suspension of disbelief for all concerned… [memory of Mulholland Drive – having had its lesbian subplot over-egged in the promotional campaign – and some VERY disappointed teenagers suffering the best part of 2 Lynchian hours before witnessing those core scenes and immediately storming out exclaiming how "shite" the whole thing had been and that they wanted their money back]

    interestingly, i also saw Murnau’s Sunrise in NY that year, which – although it had a musical accompaniment forced upon most of it – ended largely silent, and this was the first time i have heard a significant number of people crying, wiping up snot and snivelling in a public place.

    the only three films i have seen at the cinema this year:

    Two Years at Sea (no strong female lead; no women at all)

    The Last Dogs of Winter (some female dogs, quite strong and on leads to prevent their rampaging around the neighbourhood)

    Prometheus (3D / IMAX – strongish female lead, but no Sigourney cigar)

    Reply
  24. ruttworld Avatar
    ruttworld

    Take a look at Winter’s Bone. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399683/

    Reply
  25. McPHX Avatar
    McPHX

    Yes, if you add cheese to the filter Cherry 2000 would be excluded. It is one of Melanie Griffith’s early films though.

    Is the Hunger in Netflix? 1980’s…. David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon all vampires. Loved watching in the theater as a goth wanna be teenager.

    Reply
  26. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    you might like this…just found this posted by Reese Jones on facebook… from the creators of Matrix and Run Lola Run… science fiction-history-time-less… they play with the ancient idea of reincarnation… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgI6EeYbV84&sns=fb

    Reply
  27. TomiTapio Avatar
    TomiTapio

    I second Barbarella and Run Lola Run. Kill Bill Vol 1+2?
    I don’t think The Matrix and Blade Runner had that much violence from the women.

    Reply

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