Despite Jennifer Lawrence’s claims to the contrary, The Hunger Games did not come up with the novel idea of putting a woman front-and-center in a blockbuster action movie, a statement that would have led to Sigourney Weaver bludgeoning the former Katniss Everdeen had she won the Academy Award for Best Actress she was nominated for after headlining Aliens.
That being said, it’s not as if agency was at the forefront of the screenwriters who penned some of the biggest smash hits of the 1980s and 1990s, although on the other side of the coin, now is as good a time as any to remind everyone that Geena Davis gives one of the genre’s best-ever performances in The Long Kiss Goodnight.
John Woo is one of the ultimate auteurs of action cinema, with Broken Arrow serving as a spiritual successor to the vastly superior Face/Off, a statement that won’t be argued. However, the showdown between Christian Slater and John Travolta with nuclear annihilation looming overhead does have its successor beat in one key area; it’s got a three-dimensional role for a female character.
Samantha Mathis proves her worth and then some as park ranger Terry Carmichael, but if the forums of Reddit are to believed, the mere fact she doesn’t “follow around the hero and be weak” is worthy of particular praise. It’s certainly true that she’s allowed to fare substantially better than the majority of her contemporaries around the time, but maybe the bar should be raised just a teensy bit higher if Broken Arrow is being fawned over for ensuring a woman isn’t just eye candy, femme fatale, or a spare part.
Published: May 11, 2023 10:49 am