Beyond Bullets and Blades: Female Rage in Film
I like violent movies. More importantly, I like violent movies with female leads. There’s a satisfying feeling of seeing a woman carry a machine gun or a samurai sword in her hands and take down fifty male extras.
Naturally, Kill Bill (both volumes) used to be some of my favorite films of all time. But in February 2018, Uma Thurman came out with a statement accusing critically-acclaimed director Quentin Taratino for mistreatment during the shooting of both of the iconic films.
She posted a video on her Instagram of a car accident that happened while filming a driving scene. She was told by a crew member that the car was not safe; yet, Tarantino told Thurman to proceed anyway or else he would make her repeat the stunt.
The car accident resulted in Thurman permanently damaging her neck and knees. Other allegations against Tarantino as an abusive director surfaced, such as spitting at Thurman’s face and choking her with a chain.
Bittersweet revenge
It is now impossible to watch Kill Bill without acknowledging the harassment that was ongoing in its production. It’s almost ironic to watch Thurman’s The Bride to exact her vengeance on the men that raped her and ruined her life. Some scenes even become voyeuristic for those who enjoy the pain and suffering a woman.
If Kill Bill, which at its time was considered to be one of the most female-empowering movies, what else is left? Are films that feature female rage not as empowering as everyone thought they were? Is there anything wrong with women getting revenge against her abusers through glorious and bloody violence?
A study by researchers Antonina Starzynska and Magdalena Budziszewska actually says yes. Entitled “Why Shouldn’t She Spit on His Grave?”, the study is a plot analysis of 60 films from American popular cinema featuring a male or female protagonist seeking revenge. This includes classics such as the 2002 adaptation of the French classic Count of Monte Cristo to gruesome body-horror flick Teeth (2007).
The biggest difference between male-led and female-led revenge films lie with the purpose of the violence. Male-led revenge-induced violence can be categorized into three purposes: death and suffering of a loved one, anger against the unjust and corrupt system (usually the cause for the former), and a change in heart to reform the corrupt system.
As for female-led movies, violence remains corporeal. Revenge is not seen as an honorable task, unlike in their male counterparts, but rather a violent reaction carried out directly or indirectly.
The Crazy Girl
Of course, not all films with women seeking revenge are purely based on rape or bodily harm. In fact, the lack of physical harassment and violation can portray the heroine as insane, manipulative, and heartless.
The 2014 thriller Gone Girl had female viewers on the hedge. Should Amy Dunne be hailed as a anti-patriarchal, intelligent, and dedicated woman or is she just a sociopath? And if the latter, is Gone Girl a misandrist and misogynist film targeted to left-wing feminists?
Yet, The Bride keeps her bloody yellow tracksuit and her glory. Because scalping Lucy Lui definitely isn’t a sign of mental instability but being jealous of your husband’s mistress and murdering your life-long stalker and kidnapper is.
Some had cheered for The Bride to redeem herself of her rape and violation with a 4 hour and 10 minute murder rampage. But some sneer at Amy Dunne for risking her comfortable two-story Missouri home and trust fund for getting a divorce from her practically deadbeat husband.
In her study, Lori Marso analyzes Gone Girl through second-wave feminist Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of “perverse protests”. De Beauvoir defines perverse protests as the “wrong” feelings that arise from the false promises of femininity like marriage and motherhood.
Marso writes that films like Gone Girl suggest to consider the diversity of women’s feelings that push them towards violence. These expectations can be as simple as the female smile, which is imagined to be perpetually present on a woman but absent of her character.
Amy is remembered by her husband, her parents, and the public as a spitting image of the American Girl. David Fincher and Gillian Flynn deliberately mislead the audience with the film’s non-linear storytelling that Amy could possibly be simply a victim of little agency.
I would like to argue that Amy Dunne exists in this liminal space between tragedy and heroine. Marso says that even if she had tried to live to her mythicized self — as Amazing Amy or The Cool Girl — she is still denied pleasure and “experiences only jealousy, paranoia, and desire for revenge”.
Naturally, these feelings give birth to a type of resistance and redemption (of sorts) that is disturbing, uncomfortable, and perverse. Her final act displaying a smile that is not out of obligation but rather out of pleasure of winning.
Superpowers and comebacks
Roughly 20 years after the Kill Bill series and 5 years after Gone Girl, how have we progressed in portraying and reacting towards female rage in film?
DCU’s Wonder Woman made headlines of being the highest grossing superhero film in 2017. Marvel had released its first female-led superhero movie Captain Marvel (2019), which is to be followed by a Black Widow origins film in 2020. The Terminator franchise released a pre-dominantly female leading cast with its sixth installment Terminator: Dark Fate (2019).
But there is a danger in merely attributing female rage and resistance with guns and extraterrestrial powers. Believe it or not, everyday women can’t fight these institutions and be redeemed from their loss by shooting lazer beams out of their eyes then finishing with a witty comeback.
Somehow, television succeeds movies in this aspect. This is especially the case with streaming platform’s series like Netflix’s GLOW and Orange is the New Black and Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s possible that television offers a better format to build-up and explore female rage better than a movie’s two-hour time limit. There is also the pressure to break even in the box office that could affect filmmakers’ decisions to take risks.
This is not to say that female vengeance is now on limited to big summer blockbuster movies. I experienced a similar viewing pleasure in watching the 2018 heist movie Widows as with Gone Girl. The movie, also written by Gillian Flynn, sets the stage for three wives of a Chicago criminal gang, aptly led by Viola Davis, who have suddenly become widows after a job gone wrong.
Contrary to Starzynska and Budziszewska’s study, not only are the widows acting in honor of the death of a loved one and anger against the dirty politics of Chicago local government, but also the death of their dignity that was tied to their husbands. At the end, rage, frustration, and violence are indeed possible to earn them their own redemption and agency.
