Grindhouse and why double standards suck.
Watched Grindhouse this past weekend.
For those of you who haven't a clue, Grindhouse is the name of a joint project between Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino, in which each director created a film as a homage to exploitation films of old. The name comes from, presumably, the term given to these back to back double features.
Now, I highly enjoyed both films. Planet Terror, Rodriquez's film is a zombie-movie lover's dream, with more than enough gore to keep you through it and quite possibly the most badass thing ever: a go-go dancer with an M4 for a leg (you read right). Most people seem to agree that Planet Terror is the better of the two films, but not me.
Death Proof, Tarantino's affectionate parody seems to have quite a low opinion. This one's not as fast-paced and tends to be dominated mostly by dialogue (but if you're a fan of Tarantino that's not necessarily a bad thing) and perhaps that might be the reason. But what I've noticed is that this movie doesn't go over well with guys (for the most part) because instead of Samuel L. Jackson or Bruce Willis or any big name male actor, you have a predominately female cast.
For some reason, women aren't supposed to talk about sex as freely as men. We aren't capable of being vulgar or petty, or god forbid witty. It's a crying shame that these female characters are instead regarded as annoying for displaying the same behavior that male characters are damn near worshiped for. It's sad that the closer we get to bridging the gap created by these double standards, the more it seems we haven't progressed at all.
I came across a post in the IMDB forums which said that, had this been a male cast with a female villain, Death Proof likely wouldn't have seen the light of day. Instead of being a prime example of how double standards go both ways, it only cements the fact that there's still things a woman is apparently incapable of doing (and things which just aren't done to a woman) on the big screen.
Really, it just shows that we still have a long way to go.
For those of you who haven't a clue, Grindhouse is the name of a joint project between Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino, in which each director created a film as a homage to exploitation films of old. The name comes from, presumably, the term given to these back to back double features.
Now, I highly enjoyed both films. Planet Terror, Rodriquez's film is a zombie-movie lover's dream, with more than enough gore to keep you through it and quite possibly the most badass thing ever: a go-go dancer with an M4 for a leg (you read right). Most people seem to agree that Planet Terror is the better of the two films, but not me.
Death Proof, Tarantino's affectionate parody seems to have quite a low opinion. This one's not as fast-paced and tends to be dominated mostly by dialogue (but if you're a fan of Tarantino that's not necessarily a bad thing) and perhaps that might be the reason. But what I've noticed is that this movie doesn't go over well with guys (for the most part) because instead of Samuel L. Jackson or Bruce Willis or any big name male actor, you have a predominately female cast.
For some reason, women aren't supposed to talk about sex as freely as men. We aren't capable of being vulgar or petty, or god forbid witty. It's a crying shame that these female characters are instead regarded as annoying for displaying the same behavior that male characters are damn near worshiped for. It's sad that the closer we get to bridging the gap created by these double standards, the more it seems we haven't progressed at all.
I came across a post in the IMDB forums which said that, had this been a male cast with a female villain, Death Proof likely wouldn't have seen the light of day. Instead of being a prime example of how double standards go both ways, it only cements the fact that there's still things a woman is apparently incapable of doing (and things which just aren't done to a woman) on the big screen.
Really, it just shows that we still have a long way to go.