The Gay on Film Blogathon: Betty and Rita

So I've started The Gay on Film Blogathon and it's been very well-received. The objective of the blogathon is simple enough, it's about emphasizing well-written gay characters in contemporary media. Naturally since this is an issue I feel strongly about it only made sense to contribute a piece of my own, but first I needed a good pair of characters. Why not use the lesbian couple whose picture remains the first thing anyone clicking on that post will see? Betty and Rita were played respectively by Naomi Watts and Laura Harring in what is arguably one of David Lynch's best films, Mulholland Drive. 

A lot of viewers of Mulholland Drive tend to remember it for its lesbian sex scene. There are actually two scenes of intercourse between the two lead actresses: first one that happens when Betty invites Rita to share a bed, and later on in the final segment (after Rita opens the box and appears to become Camilla) when both women engage in sex, suddenly appearing fully nude, on Diane/Betty's couch. The lesbian elements may be crucial, but it is worth noting that it actually takes a fair bit of time for it to appear. Neither of the infamous sex scenes happen until about three quarters of the way through (in a movie that is almost three hours long). Sure, some men might get sexually aroused by that particular moment but to get there you have to sit through two hours of a brilliant Sunset Boulevard-inspired surreal thriller about the darker side of Hollywood. If you really want to just see two women having sex there's far simpler options. That's what gay porn is for, after all.

I think that may be part of what makes the relationship seen in Mulholland Drive so unusual among other gay couples in film. There is no love at first sight. Betty might not even know she is gay at first (she claims during the first sex scene to have "never done this before"), and the two aren't initially brought together by any form of sexual attraction. They bump into each other by pure chance and at first Betty is more concerned about this stranger unexpectedly turning up in her aunt's apartment. Much of the film is instead their friendship that comes from Betty realizing Rita's trauma of not being able to remember her identity.

The romance is a gradual process, just like a heterosexual romance you'd see in any other movie, including some of Lynch's other films. The romance between Jeffrey Beaumont and Sandy Williams in Blue Velvet, for example, isn't a whole lot different. Both meet up in the street and start as friends, bonding together as they get caught up in a mystery, eventually falling in love. Much like Betty and Rita they spend a lot of time together in public areas, sneaking into other people's houses, and discussing their case in a local restaurant. Mulholland Drive is a bit less direct in approaching the romantic aspect, but at its core the basic dynamics between the characters isn't that much different. One could even argue that a similar thing happens between James Hurley and Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks.

Another thing that I think is curious about this particular relationship is that the fact that they're lesbians is not itself a problem. There is never any point in the film where a character is explicitly shown to have issues with same-sex relationships, nor is it established that society as a whole will reject them for it. The closest thing they have to any such issues is when Camilla/Rita tells Diane/Betty "we should stop doing that" and even then it sounds more like an affair with a married woman than anything to do with the fact that they're both the same gender.

In particular, they have to deal with the simple pain of heartbreak, especially Diane/Betty, who watches her lover cheat on her with a man (it's suggested that she is engaging in sex with men to get ahead in the business) and for that matter another woman. Diane, being the young and reckless woman she is, has trouble coping with Rita's affairs the same way any young man or woman might have trouble seeing their lover with someone else. In theory you could swap out either of them with a man and not change much story-wise.

Quite simply, in the end being in a gay relationship really isn't that much different from a straight one, you still have all the same problems even without any exterior pressure. Blue Velvet also touched on similar issues by way of Jeffrey being roped into an affair with Dorothy Vallens, although that one did not end with Sandy contemplating his assassination. In that sense, I think Mulholland Drive is a solid look at a gay couple in that the fact that they are gay is really not that big an issue, at least not story-wise. The "story", if you can call it that, is really about the darker side of Hollywood's filmmaking scene, it just happens to be experienced through the eyes of two women who happen to be gay.

Sarah Connor and the Development of an Action Heroine

The iconic character of Sarah Connor, originally played by Linda Hamilton, was first introduced through James Cameron’s 1984 film The Terminator and its 1991 sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The story of The Terminator centered on Sarah being relentlessly pursued by a human-looking machine known as the T-800 (the titular “Terminator", played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) that has been sent back in time to kill her. Seven years later, a sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day was released, also directed by Cameron, which took the story into several new directions.

In the sequel, audiences were taken by surprise when the Terminator that had been such an effective antagonist in the first film was re-introduced as one of the heroes. Instead, a new, far more dangerous terminator, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) appears as the villain, this time sent to kill Sarah’s son John Connor (Edward Furlong). In order to survive and protect the future, Sarah must undergo a huge transformation in character. She begins the first movie as a young college student making a living as a waitress and evolves into a self-reliant musclebound hardbodied heroine by the end of the sequel.

At first Sarah Connor is a friendly individual who lives with her college roommate Ginger. She has no immediate aspirations in her life and is struggling to find some form of meaning. Her helplessness is made clear when she encounters what she believes to be a stalker (actually Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn, who has been sent from the future to protect her from the Terminator) and immediately calls the police. When she first encounters the T-800 at the nightclub Technoir, she can only stare helplessly as it aims its laser-sighted pistol towards her forehead.

Sarah only survives this encounter due to Kyle’s interference. Much of the rest of the movie centers on the two of them running away from the T-800, and Sarah is constantly looking for protection. During this time, Sarah is forced to become more self-reliant as everybody she depends on is killed. Even after she stops, faces, and destroys the Terminator, she is still shown to be in a panicked state of mind. While Sarah may be unsettled by her experiences with the Terminator, this final confrontation begins a major shift in her personality which is developed much further in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

In the second film, Sarah becomes something more closely resembling a middle-ground between the wise-guy action heroes of the 90’s, such John McClane in Die Hard, and the hardbodied action heroes of the 80's such as Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: First Blood Part II. This becomes evident during the climax in which Sarah is shot in the leg and later impaled through the shoulder. Much like the wise-guy heroes of the 90’s she does manage to show pain. She cries out as the T-1000 slowly runs a massive rod through her shoulder and she is visibly limping afterwards (she had also been shot shortly before that).

What puts her on a level with the hardbodied heroes is that the despite the obvious agony of her wounds, she keeps getting up and fighting. Even during that scene where she is impaled, Sarah never gives into the T-1000's simple demand: "Call John". Linda Hamilton’s co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger, known for playing hardbodied heroes and in this case a literal example, actually endures far more physical harm than Sarah. She gets hurt, but The T-800 gets an arm ripped off, loses an eye, and is temporarily shut down before finally being lowered into a vat of molten steel. This makes Sarah Connor more of a hardbodied hero than the literal hardbodied hero.

In Terminator 2 Sarah’s body is used as a far greater spectacle than that of the T-800. One notable aspect of the hardbodied action heroes of the 1980’s was their muscular display. Stallone made this image famous with the Rambo films and Schwarzenegger himself has done this numerous times in his earlier action films like Commando.  It's a trademark of the genre for the lead male actor to have few clothes on by the end in order to allow them to display their impressive muscular body, but that is not quite what happens in Terminator 2.

Instead, Schwarzenegger spends most of the film with shirts and jackets and much of the bodily spectacle focuses on the abuse he takes rather than on his muscles. By contrast, the majority of Sarah’s wardrobe throughout the film wholly exposes her muscles and puts them on display for the viewer. This also deviates from her wardrobe in The Terminator, where the more conservatively dressed Sarah Connor was less exposed. Muscular display has traditionally been associated with men, which makes Sarah’s character appear more visually striking.

In a similar vain to the hardbodied action films of the 80’s and even the urban vigilante films of the 70’s such as Dirty Harry, weapons are heavily romanticized in both Terminator films. In The Terminator, numerous characters are equipped with large guns, particularly the T-800 and Kyle Reese, whose weapons become an extension of their character. At the same time, Sarah never holds onto a gun until the final scene in The Terminator, where her handling a revolver is used as a visual indication of her growth as a character. By the start of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Sarah is far more comfortable around firearms, to the point where she has an entire cache containing a huge array of weapons. This leads to a development where Sarah herself starts to become more like the Terminator she had previously fled.

The parallels between Sarah and the T-800 as seen in the first film become especially clear in one scene of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. This scene happens right after Sarah has learned of the work of Miles Dyson (Joe Morton), whose programs later ultimately led to the creation of Skynet and, though indirectly, both the T-800 and T-1000. She decides to kill him in an effort to prevent the apocalyptic future from being realized. The scene begins with Miles in his home working on a program when a red dot appears on his back, quickly calling to mind the T-800 aiming its laser-sighted pistol at Sarah Connor’s forehead in The Terminator.

Unlike Sarah, Dyson is not aware of her presence nor is there anyone to save him. A close-up reveals Sarah outside the house, coldly looking through the scope of an assault rifle, and her finger wrapping around the trigger. In another close-up, Miles bends down after his son accidentally drives a remote-controlled monster truck into his foot, just as Sarah fires. The next close-up shows Miles sitting up in shock and staring out his window. Miles’ reaction is followed by another close-up of Sarah, but this time with the camera almost facing her directly—literally staring down the barrel of her gun. When she begins firing she only stops once, in order to reload, before she runs out of ammunition.

When she is finally forced to discard her weapon, Sarah proceeds to draw a pistol and walk just as coldly towards the house. Miles stands, and she immediately begins to fire on him. She shoots three rounds before finally hitting him in the shoulder. What distinguishes her from the T-800 is that she still shows her humanity when she breaks down after confronting him directly, creating a parallel to the way in which the previously emotionless T-800 is now being humanized. This scene shows her full capability, but also emphasizes that she is not completely transformed by her experiences.

Having men attempt to protect Sarah is crucial to emphasizing the transition in her growth as a character. All three of the men who attempt to protect Sarah Connor (Kyle and two police officers) die over the course of the first movie. The establishment of law enforcement’s futility against the T-800 eliminates its status as a source of protection leaving Sarah Connor with no one to turn to except Kyle. The transition continues as Kyle is wounded while escaping from the Terminator. This forces Sarah to take on a more active role. Finally, Kyle’s death puts Sarah into a position where she has to rely exclusively on herself to survive by seizing an opportunity to crush the Terminator with a hydraulic press.

A similar situation also occurs in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. During the climax, the T-800 is temporarily disabled by the T-1000, putting Sarah into a position where she is unable to rely on its assistance. When the T-1000 threatens her son, Sarah is able to save John’s life. Similar to how Kyle saved her in The Terminator, Sarah manages to stall the T-1000 by shooting it multiple times with a shotgun. This fails to kill the T-1000, but does save her son’s life and puts the T-1000 into a vulnerable position. While it is not Sarah herself who ultimately destroys the T-1000, this particular action manages to buy time for the T-800 to reactivate and take the other terminator by surprise.

Sarah Connor goes through a very clear shift in personality over the course of both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, going from a passive woman with everyday problems to an action heroine determined to avert the potential end of humanity. This is emphasized by a wide range of elements including her treatment of guns, her general appearance, her attitudes, and the role of the male characters. Across both films, Sarah develops into a more “masculine” figure reminiscent of the types of heroes traditionally played by men. While The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day were not the only action films of the period to introduce a strong-willed heroine in a leading role (The The Terminator was released between Alien and Aliens, the latter also by Cameron) they helped to popularize it and create a path for later action heroines.

Character Profile: Evelyn Salt

Man, it's been a while since I did one of these. The titular character of the 2010 action thriller Salt is a peculiar and enigmatic heroine with quite the balance of qualities. Amusingly, she was originally written with Tom Cruise in mind, and very few changes to the script were made when Angelina Jolie was cast instead (which leaves me to wonder if Salt was originally supposed to be gay or if they had to rewrite his spouse). This allows her to channel a variety of different attributes of various action heroes. You can definitely see a bit of the "wise-guy" hero of Die Hard, but there's a bit of the hardbodied hero in her as well. 

She's also got some of the urban vigilante in there. Vigilante characters have sometimes been compared to the classical western hero, torn between the "savage" wilderness and the "civilized" world. Dirty Harry Callahan has a bit of this, if one interprets the "civilized" world as the authorities and the "wilderness" as the streets and the crooks that run them. In much the same way, Salt is torn between the "civilized" American authorities and the "savage" Russian underground. She does not truly belong to either, and fits into neither.

Salt begins as a CIA agent, but as we eventually discover, she is really an undercover operative for a secret Russian organization that has been carefully planning the fall of America for decades. She was an operative so deep undercover that even she didn't know that she was an operative in the first place. Similar to Jason Bourne, she is a character who has prior connections to something darker but never really affiliates herself with anybody.

What happens when a sleeper agent gets too deep undercover for too long? In Salt's case, the operation worked too well, since even though she could remember her past, she blended into American society so effectively she practically became one of them. It's implied that her shift really got started in the opening, when she discovers that her German husband had gone to extensive lengths to get her out of a North Korean prison, lengths that her peers never would have reached.

If anything, it takes a "defector" (or more accurately, her old boss) to really bring out any of her extensive prior training. This puts her on the run from the American authorities and allows her to begin to demonstrate one of her most useful skills: blending in. The fact that she is able to avoid drawing attention comes in handy throughout the movie. Because of this she is easily able to evade her pursuers when faced with the task to assassinate the Russian president (part of a plan by her superiors to provoke America into war). This becomes a strange plot point because it throws the viewer off, makes them sure she is in fact a Russian spy, but that leaves open the question of why she surrenders so easily. 

She has a very clear opportunity to kill the CIA man pursuing her but doesn't take it. It's an early clue that she might not be the spy she has been accused of being. Even he is confused by that question, especially when Salt is so easily escorted by the police. She then proceeds to easily break free from their grip and make her escape unnoticed. It is here when we start to see some of her true self emerging, as it is confirmed that she is indeed a Russian agent, and reunites with several of her former comrades who invite her back as one of them.

What they don't realize yet, however, is that Salt has been playing them. She watches them murder her husband, the one man who has shown her any form of compassion, and once they are satisfied that they can trust her, she proceeds to kill every single one. She does this in a systematic way, carefully timing her grenades to take out several at once, and easily catching the rest off-guard. By this point, she has not only taken several of the top agents out (including the man responsible for training them) but she has also found out the next part of their plan.

Here the vigilante aspects of Salt's character begin to emerge. Because she is a fugitive she can't directly warn the authorities of Orlov's plan to assassinate the president, so her only shot is to take matters into her own hands and do what she does best: infiltrate, blend in, and then take action. She successfully plays another agent, successfully convincing him that she is still with Orlov (word hasn't got out about his death at this point). Said agent also happens to be undercover as a NATO representative, and has a plan to get her into the White House undetected. What this agent doesn't realize is that he is giving Salt the perfect opportunity to thwart the very plan he expects to help complete.

His "sacrifice" creates a distraction that allows her to pursue the president into the elevator leading into a secret bunker under the White House, but not to kill him. She makes it through the bunker's security systems just in time to learn that her CIA boss, Ted Winter, was also a Russian agent. Here is where she finally reveals her true colors, in that she isn't really associated with anyone. She just doesn't want America to be provoked into war and because she can't be trusted by the proper authorities her only shot at saving the world rests in taking matters into her own hands. The result is a large brawl that ends with her being dragged away in handcuffs. Salt only manages to finally stop Winter by strangling him with said cuffs in front of numerous witnesses, adding to her fugitive status.

She is finally held and detained by one of the CIA agents who have been chasing her, but he seems to be coming around to sympathize with her. She convinces him that Ted Winter was an agent, and he in turn "accidentally" lets her go. It's a shame that there is no word on a sequel, because it would be interesting to see what she would try to do next. She's managed to alert the authorities about the presence of Russian spies trying to sabotage the government, so maybe like Jason Bourne she'll just go off the grid and try to leave her past behind. Alternatively she may just keep fighting the Russian underground movement as a vigilante, doing everything she can to prevent either side from re-igniting the Cold War, or maybe instead she'll find some new political mess and use her vigilante methods to deal with it.

Whatever happens, Salt becomes a very interesting character as far as modern political thriller heroes go. There's no questioning she's a strong character (it may help that she was originally written as a man, which kept her away from some of the pitfalls faced by action heroines), but she also has a lot of different roles in her. There's definitely a bit of Jason Bourne, particularly in the way she gets set up and caught between two different sides that want her for different reasons and is never fully affiliated with either one. That also brings out the urban vigilante qualities, which leads us to that torn nature of the classical western hero who takes the law into their own hands.

Character Profile: Galadriel

My Women in Film blogathon is ending in a week, and I got to thinking about writing another entry on an interesting character. I've been getting lots of good choices and so I thought this one might be something a bit different from the others, also a bit out of my usual comfort zone as I'm not normally big on fantasy. This is a brave an noble woman, wise and complex, one with a lot of power and influence... and did I mention that she originated from a novel published in 1954.

The Lord of the Rings may have a very predominantly male cast but it certainly makes up for that by making the few female characters especially memorable. Across the original trilogy the girls get their heroic moments: Arwen gets to save the life of Frodo Baggins and Eowyn manages to kill a major antagonist (granted, she did have help from a Hobbit, but she was still the one who delivered the final blow).

I've even defended the addition of Tauriel to The Hobbit. Before that I was willing to defend Itaril (a character who was rumored to be added to the films early in production, supposedly to be played by Saoirse Ronan), if only on the grounds that we knew nothing about her beyond rumors, which were later proven false.

Still, there is one female character in the series who tends to stand out. She doesn't have much screentime but her roles across both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are crucial, and that is Galadriel. If Sauron is the embodiment of all things that are evil in Middle-Earth, than Galadriel is exactly the opposite: she is everything that is noble or good about their world.

Galadriel may not be known to take up arms the same as Eowyn or Tauriel, but she is quite possibly the most powerful figure in Middle-Earth, and yet she also knows how to handle that power. She knows what is right and will stand up, doing everything she deems necessary. Even if she does not herself take the ring to mordor, she is always watching Frodo and even helps him find confidence during some of the more desperate moments of the quest.

That's just the thing. Galadriel might not be a warrior in her own right, but she knows what's good and stands for it at all costs. She knows what needs to be done and is determined to see that it is accomplished.

There is always a sense of genuine compassion whenever she is present. She is kind to everyone, even those she should have reason to hate (she hardly objected to leaving Gimli a lock of her hair, something even he thought she'd never do) and does everything in her power to see that good ultimately triumphs. It may have been Gollum who ultimately destroyed the ring but it might never have gotten that far if she hadn't given Frodo the extra push he needed to get to that point. 

With a story as male-dominated as the writings of Tolkien, the fact that we can have a character as strong as Galadriel is an achievement in itself. She is a great character especially because of how she stands out in such a story, being one of the most powerful characters in it and the perfect embodiment for all that is good. It makes her an excellent contrast to Sauron, the embodiment of evil, and a character that is rightfully looked up to by the male heroes.

Character Profile: Lieutenant Fontaine

From the moment we first meet Fontaine, we can tell he is a determined man who doesn't want to take any crap from the Nazis. Many of his fellow prisoners are more willing to submit but there is no way he plans to let them win. Every moment he's always looking for some sort of opportunity, as established right at the beginning.

In the very first scene we see him carefully studying the car he is being transported in. He quickly notices the door is unlocked, and he waits for his opportunity, which comes when the car is forced to stop. He is quickly recaptured but he hardly regrets making the attempt to get out.

When at the prison, Fontaine is a bit more pessimistic, but he is still willing to take an opportunity when it comes. He sees a chance to get word of his capture through a group of men who seem to wander around the courtyard. He has no way of telling if he can trust them or not, but there really is no other option and so he has no choice but to risk exposing valuable information. Fortunately, that risk pays off and the man turns out to be trustworthy.

Of course, Fontaine is still human, and we see that he quickly forms connections with other prisoners. During his first few days in prison he becomes close friends with another prisoner, one he never even sees or speaks directly to, and he is clearly upset when he learns of the man's execution. Later on he is able to interact more directly with other prisoners and makes several friends. This ultimately works in his favor as many of those friends provide him with the necessary materials to plan his escape.

As determined as Fontaine is, he is still not immune to fear or any anxieties you might expect to fall upon someone in his predicament. Throughout the movie he has to deal with the strain of not knowing what's going to happen to him. Even after he's told he is sentenced to face a firing squad, he still has no idea when it's going to happen. The best he can do is figure out the right time to leave and hope the execution doesn't happen before then.

As if that weren't enough, he also has the added stress of an inmate named Jost, who he may or may not be able to trust. By the time Jost arrives he's mostly ready to go, but understandably has trouble dealing with what to do about his inmate. The solution he arrives at is to find out as much about Jost as he can and then force him into a position where he has to help. Ironically of course, Jost turns out not only to be more trustworthy than Fontaine thought but also ends up being essential to the escape's success (there is one wall which required two people working together to get over).

What makes Fontaine such an interesting character is in how he still manages to persevere and never truly gives up. He has his darker moments, his fears, and times where he isn't sure he'll succeed, but he never willingly submits to his captors. It should hardly come as a surprise that he should have this attitude, considering he was a member of the French resistance, it makes sense that even when captured he'd still resent the Nazis.

Being a member of the resistance, Fontaine is naturally very resourceful, finding clever ways to take advantage of his circumstances. He notices little things that might otherwise have been overlooked, such as the flawed design of the doors that made it possible to dismantle them piece by piece without being noticed, using a spoon he hid during one of his meals. This talent is established early on as well, where once Fontaine has access to a safety pin is able to easily slip out of his handcuffs and put them back on as soon as a guard comes his way.

In the long run, Fontaine's determination and his resourcefulness go a long way. Not only does he manage to remain one step ahead of his captors but manages to make and escape that at first seemed impossible. He manages to think of just about every problem he could see coming from his cell, and ultimately also shows that he can think on his feet, figuring out how to deal with other problems even if his own consciousness made it hard for him to face the likelihood that he would have to commit murder to succeed.

Character Profile: Douglas Mortimer

When discussing Leone's wonderful "Dollars Trilogy" the obvious character to discuss is Clint Eastwood's role as the memorable anti-hero we've come to know and love as "The Man With No Name", but instead I've decided to shift focus to a slightly different character. When discussing Lee Van Cleef's performances in these films, the obvious choice to bring up is the ruthless villain Angel Eyes in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but let's look instead at his role in the second installment of the series: For a Few Dollars More.

This is certainly a film that likes to mess with your expectations and there is no clearer example than the Lee Van Cleef's performance of Douglas Mortimer. From the moment we first see him you'd be forgiven for assuming he was going to be the main villain. The fact that he has a habit of dressing in all black doesn't help, but the first thing we see him do is force a train to make an unscheduled stop just so he can get off.

It isn't a very pleasant thing to do, but if you pay attention he never actually causes any serious harm. He never forces anyone at gunpoint or resort to any drastic measures. He simply pulls the emergency break and gets off as soon as the train stops. It's small but it is a little clue that he is not who he initially seems.

Once in town the man is ruthless. He forces a man into revealing information about an outlaw's whereabouts and proceeds to gun him down in the street. He makes plans to track down other outlaws and is especially entranced by a wanted poster for the film's real villain, El Indio and the money offered for him dead or alive.

In the town of El Paso there are hints that he's in league with Indio, with him apparently understanding their plans to rob a highly fortified bank. In fact at the same time as the bad guys are counting the seconds it takes for the security patrol to complete one move around the building he is making the same observations. He seems like a cold-blooded killer desiring nothing but money, right? Wrong.

As we eventually discover, Mortimer may in fact by the most honest man in the film, and the closest person to having a truly noble cause. Once the plot starts to get going, he gets his first confrontation with Manco (the nickname given to Clint Eastwood's character in this film). During this confrontation they quickly prove to each other that they are both a force to be reckoned with (hey, it takes a lot of nerve to be able to hold your own in a gunfight against the Man With No Name) and become what might be considered worthy opponents.

They get pretty friendly with each other, having a drink and sharing information, but one gets the sense Mortimer is an experienced man. He says he's around 50 years old and it's implied he has been working as a bounty hunter for some time. He knows the job inside and out and already knows ahead of time the risks he's about to face and the best way to minimize them. This creates a sharp contrast to our hero, who is much younger and a lot more aggressive.

The partnership between Manco and Mortimer is one that becomes very strenuous, and is really only solidified when circumstances necessitate the two to work together when they're both living among Indio's gang (after all, they can trust each other a lot more than anyone else in their immediate vicinity). However, one thing you may notice is that while Manco tries to get out of it several times and even makes attempts to double-cross his partner, Mortimer always sticks to it. He remains loyal to his comrade and never shows any indication to the contrary.

In the end, Mortimer even shows his respect for Manco by allowing him to keep the reward for Indio himself, his gang, and returning the money they stole. However, this is not simply a generous move on his part but because his reasons for going after Indio were far more personal. As it turns out, Indio murdered his sister's lover and then raped her, which led to her committing suicide.

At first it seems Mortimer is just a cold-blooded scoundrel interested in money, but that ultimately had nothing to do with it. The whole reason he was so keen to get Indio was because he was rightfully angry with the man and wanted revenge. He's not doing it for himself, but for the sister he presumably loved dearly. Contrast with Manco's clearly money-centric incentive, and suddenly he seems a far more noble man.

Of course, given this is a Leone western you can hardly expect Mortimer to be a perfect human being. He is still a bounty hunter who kills without remorse, but in the long run, he is the closest person the film has to an honest man. He has a moral code and he sticks to it, and while he may be a killer his motivations extend far beyond a mere desire for a few dollars more.

Character Profile: The Alien Seductress

Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin is a very strange experience. It is a very curious film, a semi-surreal science fiction film of almost Lynchian proportions. Particularly of note, however, is the enigmatic heroine we follow. She is never given a name. I can't even get any sort of identification off the cast list on IMDB. We know she is an alien, but we never find out much about who she is, where she came from, or why she is on Earth. All we know is that she preys on men in a weird manner.

In any other story, this character would have been a villain without a doubt. Most likely she would have been an invader who would have to be defeated by the (probably male) protagonist, but here that's not really what we get. Yes, this woman makes a regular habit of luring innocent men to their deaths, but in a weird, twisted sort of way she's also the most human character in the movie.

We see the whole world as she does, and to be fair to her Earth is a very unfamiliar environment. For lack of a better world, it's completely alien to her and we see that in a variety of forms. One thing that comes up a lot is her interactions with humans. Most of the humans speak with distinct accents, as you'd expect for a film set in Scotland, but the accents used are extraordinarily thick.

I've heard my share of accents from watching British movies and television programs, but the accents used by half the men in this film are almost incomprehensible. By contrast the heroine speaks with a somewhat more subdued accent. It sounds vaguely English but not really to a point where you can identify a specific dialect. This actually makes a lot of sense as it helps to emphasize just how unaccustomed she is to speaking the language, she knows what she means to say but she doesn't entirely understand the men she is talking to.

Now in any other film, this sort of character would be evil in every sense of the word, but here you don't quite get that. While she is luring innocent men to their deaths she never seems to fully understand what she's doing. One gets a sense of naivety of all things. We never find out her full motivations but it almost seems as though to her mind, our objections to her actions would be completely alien. It almost seems as though she just doesn't know better. She does this simply because she has always done it.

We see a bit of this in one scene where she stands on a beach. She just watches, with an apparent mix of curiosity and confusion. She only talks to someone when addressed directly, but then she sees a married couple in trouble, both getting caught up in some big waves. She pulls the man ashore only to bash a rock over his head and drag him off, apparently failing to hear the cries of his child (or at the very least, not understanding that it was his child or why it made those sounds).

Later on she hears a radio report of the man's body being found and his family's disappearance on the radio but there is something in the way she reacts. She doesn't necessarily show remorse, but she's not exactly cold about it either. It's more like she is just confused. Perhaps she just doesn't understand how seriously people on Earth take this kind of thing. It all ties in with the idea that her mind is completely alien and we couldn't begin to understand how it functions.

In her interactions with society we do see that she finds much of it to be extremely confusing. She sits down in a restaurant and apparently orders cake right away (as opposed to a main course) and she struggles to figure out how to use something as simple as a fork. Later on when staying with a friendly young man she watches a comedy program on television. The man bursts into laughter constantly but she doesn't seem to fully understand the concept of humor.

Of course, this character does have some strangely human qualities. After all in the film she has the most depth out of anybody. Most of the men are fairly minor parts, few if any even have names. We don't find out much about them other than bits and pieces of personal relationships. We do see that she is capable of love. One sub-plot concerns her meeting up with a young man suffering from what I've been told is a condition called Neurofibromatosis that causes facial deformation.

She actually manages to sympathize with him in his loneliness and allows him to feel her. In fact she feels so bad for him that she even spares his life (though unfortunately the guy was murdered by someone else shortly after). There are also the scenes where she interacts with a potential boyfriend. She stays at his house and the two do make love. She does seem to be grateful but eventually she feels the need to leave.

In the end, she meets a rather tragic fate, one that ends up being quite a tear jerker for a character who at first hardly seems sympathetic. It is a curious role we have here. Scarlett Johansson does a perfect job capturing the essence of an alien who is... well... alien. She has a mind we cannot begin to fathom, and at the same time Earth is as puzzling to her as she is to us.

Character Profile: Mr. Blonde

He's the dark-haired guy in the middle.

Reservoir Dogs is a very interesting film. It's a very non-conventional story (only a man like Tarantino would try to make a heist movie without actually showing the heist). The cast is made up primarily of a bunch of guys who have very few redeeming qualities. Let's face it, all but one are crooks (and even he ended up shooting a civilian) who spend most of the film yelling at each other, not to mention they utter a lot of offensive language including a few racist remarks. The weird part is it somehow still manages to be extraordinarily compelling in its simplicity.

The main cast of course consists of a bunch of men who, with the exception of Nice Guy Eddie and Joe, are dressed similarly (making them harder to identify) and identified by color-coded names: Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, Mr. Pink, and Mr. Blonde. All of them are nasty characters. Mr. White seems slightly better by comparison but even he does a few less than pleasant things. 

Mr. Pink does a lot of horrible things: we first see him refusing to tip a waitress in spite of pressure from his colleagues and only relenting when Joe points out he paid for his breakfast. Later on we see him firing at cops giving chase and dragging an innocent woman out of her car so that he can get away, showing little concern over one of his partners being severely wounded, and trying to make off with the diamonds on his own after everybody else ends up in a Mexican stand-off. The funny thing is in the long run he doesn't seem so bad.

As bad as the others get ("Nice Guy Eddie" shoots a cop in cold blood, as if they weren't already in enough trouble), they seem like really nice guys once Mr. Blonde (who isn't actually blonde) steps onto the scene. From his first appearance in the film's opening scene when he jokes about shooting Mr. White to his arrival at the warehouse we know something's not quite right about this guy. 

Mr. White is freaked out by him and even Mr. Pink mentions that he came close to shooting him (there is talk about how he went on an unnecessarily violent killing spree during the heist of which White was almost a casualty). While Mr. Blonde's joking about shooting one of his own partners and Mr. White's testimony certainly help to set things up, we really get to see his true colors when he arrives at the warehouse. The others are shocked and confused. Mr. White arrives desperately trying to comfort a critically wounded Mr. Orange and Mr. Pink bursts into the warehouse mid-tantrum. 

Mr. Blonde, however, steps in very cool and casual.  He doesn't seem to fully understand the gravity of the situation, having apparently taken the time to stop at a fast food joint to get a soda and some fries whereas everyone else has been desperately rushing to their meeting point. We see him just casually leaning against the pole, sipping at his drink and teasing his partners. This is certainly a sharp contrast to the two men present who are obviously a bit more worried about the fact that the heist was a disaster, they don't know how many people got out alive, and the cops could be closing in any time.

Then of course we get to the infamous torture scene, the scene so horrifying Michael Madsen had a lot of trouble going through with it, and even broke down on set after Kirk Baltz, who played the cop he tortures, ad-libbed a line about his character having a wife and kids. Blonde of course proceeds to duct tape the guy's mouth shut and violently cut off his ear with a razor blade (incidentally, I do wonder if Tarantino took some inspiration from Blue Velvet when writing this scene). He then goes on to douse the poor guy in gasoline (which is already painful enough) and very nearly sets him on fire. 

The thing is that before he does this, he looks the cop in the eye and honestly says that he's just torturing him for fun. He doesn't care what information the poor guy will give, he's going to hurt him anyway. Worse still is just how casual he is about the whole thing, putting on some of his favorite music and dancing around. 

The guy is a psycho, plain and simple, although White and Pink are the only ones to recognize that. We even see a bit of this in his flashback, when he talks to Joe and "Nice Guy Eddy" after getting out of jail. He has a chance to go clean and get a job, but he loves his criminal work too much to even consider that possibility. 

Whatever happened to make him this way there's no turning back, and the only way his story could end was with his own death, which is precisely what happened at the hands of Mr. Orange. Sadly, Blonde does manage to get a partial victory against Orange in that he had earned enough trust from Joe and Eddy that there was no way they would believe Orange's story that he planned to betray them.

The Many Characters of Gregory Peck

I've been thinking about writing something on Gregory Peck. He was one of the finest actors of classical Hollywood, a man of many talents who could play many different roles, so I thought it might be worthwhile to discuss some of the characters of his I have come to admire.

And yes, I am in part ripping off Alex Withrow of And So It Begins. He does sheets like this all the time. I just hope he doesn't mind me borrowing his style for the moment.

James "Stretch" Dawson in Yellow Sky (1948)

Blimey, I really need to see this wonderful western again. You've probably never heard of Yellow Sky, but it is a surprisingly enjoyable little film loosely drawing off of Shakespeare's The Tempest (also features a woman wearing pants and wielding a shotgun). Peck plays the leader of a ruthless gang of outlaws who after spending time in a ghost town manages to find redemption.

Joe Bradley in Roman Holiday (1953)

We've got some dramatic roles here, so why not balance it out with Peck doing comedy. Here was quite the character, a man who spends a whole day in conflict between his personal feelings and his professional work. On the one hand, he has the opportunity to get a first-hand one-on-one story interviewing a princess and her certainly takes it. On the other, he becomes closely acquainted with the princess and starts to understand the pressure upon her. He can choose to take on the greatest assignment of his career or do the right thing giving the princess her day of freedom from the press.

Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (1956)

This is going to be one of the more obscure choices, but according to IMDB Peck was unsure if he was right for the role (he felt he was too young). However, I personally don't know that a better choice could have been found for a literary character as iconic as Ahab. The character doesn't even look much like Peck (though he still has the distinct voice), and here we see him going against his usual type.

Peck was usually known to play the good guy, but here we see an anti-hero. More specifically, a man who never seems to be all there (literally in this case, on account of his missing leg) and has a very clear goal right from the start: to find and ultimately kill the white whale responsible for crippling him.  Peck gets plenty of soliloquys to himself, but he always manages to capture the essence of the bitter, (literally) broken man who is gradually consumed by his obsession with revenge.

James McKay in The Big Country (1958)

Another great western role from Peck, but a very different one. In contrast to his outlaw personality in Yellow Sky, here he works more in a fish-out-of-water sense, as a sea captain who moves out west unaccustomed to life in the desert and caught in a violent feud between two farming families. Peck's role is very much a link between the audience and the world of the film, as it is through his eyes we see events unfold, and it is ultimately his experience as a sea captain that gives him the out of the box thinking to help bring an end to the long-standing rivalry.

Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Oh boy, Atticus Finch is just such a great character in general, but there is something about Peck's performance that nails it. In fact, according to IMDB, Peck did such a good job that when Harper Lee (the author of the original book) visited the set during production she started crying because he reminded her of her father who she based the character on.

Right from the moment we see him, we know Finch is such a great guy. There is something to be admired about a man who is able to by himself resist the pressures of a bigoted society and stand up for what he believes is right. This is a man who takes on a legal case that he knows full well he has no chance of solving, but that doesn't stop him from trying and honestly making an effort.

Character Profile: Maya

While I'm still waiting on entries to my Women in Film Blogathon I thought I'd post one of my own about an interesting female character. It is an especially interesting case because as far as I know this is the first time director Kathryn Bigelow has given us a strong female protagonist, and she does the job quite nicely. I am of course talking about Jessica Chastain's performance as Maya in Zero Dark Thirty.

I don't have much information on the actual person Maya was based on, outside of the fact that her name was changed for the film probably for security reasons. Nonetheless, what we have here is a strong, determined woman who takes the job of single-handedly going after the most dangerous man on Earth and even in the face of multiple obstacles and mounting pressure she refuses to give up in her pursuit of Osama Bin Laden.

We see this characterization established right at the beginning in her relationship with Dan at a "Black Site" (basically a secret torture camp set up by the CIA outside of American jurisdiction to get information from suspected terrorists). She never takes any action herself, but she always maintains that she can handle the brutality and watches up close several violent beatdowns of a prisoner without showing any signs of unease. This determination comes into play when she opts to find more creative outlets by which to convince the prisoner to speak, such as temporarily letting him out and tricking him into thinking he gave information that saved a bunch of lives (when in fact he had withheld information and a lot of people died).

This sheer sense of determination continues throughout the film. Maya refuses to give up, even when pressure is put upon her by her superiors. When they do have a lead she presses for it to be followed, to the point where she makes a point of counting the amount of time in which no progress has been made (by writing the numbers on her boss's window in marker). It all gets to the point where eventually she is the one person who is willing to confidently say with 100% certainty that Bin Laden is hiding where she has been led to suspect he is.

On the other hand, though, Maya is also a great character because she isn't perfect. She isn't cast as being better or smarter than any of the guys she works with. She does have her weaknesses and moments of emotion. The film doesn't exactly hide the fears and anxieties that go through her head, and she has plenty of reasons to feel that way (being increasingly trapped in her headquarters to the point where she can't so much as pull out of a driveway without being fired upon). She also develops a friendship with her partner Jessica and is clearly upset when she is killed trying to speak with a supposed informant. On the other hand Jessica's death gives Maya even more of a drive to keep up the search.

In addition, it is interesting that for all the determination Maya displays, it does have its consequences. It is summed up brilliantly in the final scene with no dialogue, when after spending a decade chasing Bin Laden and finally catching him Maya becomes unsure of what to do with herself. The shot of her sitting alone in an airplane, unsure how to answer the pilot's question of "where do you want to go?" as she suddenly bursts into tears. All through the film she has kept her head up and this single image of her crying provides such a contrast yet at the same time it emphasizes the confusion going through her head, the fact that she has no idea what to do now that all that determination has paid off.

Maya is a great character. She is a complex and well-rounded individual, with sufficient strength to make her engaging but imperfect enough to make her seem real. She is the perfect sort of character to guide us through the complicated events of Zero Dark Thirty, to the point where the movie may well be more about her than Bin Laden himself (who doesn't even appear until the very end, after he's been shot, and even then we only get a few glimpses of his corpse).

Women in Film Blogathon

The film industry has a notorious reputation for being very masculine in nature. Many genres are notoriously male-dominated and I've written several articles dedicated to criticizing the lack of women in specific areas. We live in an age where we should know better, and I happen to have come to know several female bloggers with similar interests in film to my own (Katy Rochelle, Brittani Burnham, Fritzi Kramer, Kristina Dijan, Sati, and Mette being good examples). In fact at this point I might even know more female bloggers than male ones.

While running of my Favorite Movie Scenes event I got to thinking that this would also be a great subject for a blogathon. With this one, the intention is to draw attention to some of the good, strong, female characters we do have in the movies.

Naturally to keep things orderly I have to come up with some rules:

1. The female character in question should have qualities that make her strong. That doesn't necessarily mean better than the guys, just well-written; we're trying to promote equality here, not reverse misogyny.
2. Unlike my previous blogathon, I'm going to be a bit stricter here and say that each entry should only focus on one character. However, if you like you can write multiple entries examining different characters.
3. If you can, do try to find less obvious choices. There are a few that I can expect are likely to get picked: Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, etc. If you decide to write about any the "obvious" choices, I encourage you to at least try and find something new to say about them.
4. You are allowed to pick characters from any film from genre or time period you like.

One area I would suggest exploring if you like would be if you can find well-rounded female characters in areas that are known to be male-dominated. There are certain genres known for this such as war movies, science fiction (though it's gotten a little better about this more recently), and westerns. That said, there is nothing wrong with pulling out a character from a romantic comedy or melodrama if you think they are good enough. If by some chance you actually manage to find a movie that depicts a strong, well-rounded and competent woman firefighter you will have my everlasting respect.

You also are not limited to the present day, it is possible to go further back and still find well-written female characters (I've previously written about Howard Hawks, a studio-era director whose films often had surprisingly progressive images of women). 

As for how to submit your entries, there are a few ways you can do so. The most straight forward method would be to simply post a link in the comments, but you can also send it through my twitter feed or by e-mail if you want. I'll make sure to post each submitted entry here so you can find them easily.

Since I'm currently running this at the same time as a separate blogathon (and I've had ideas for another one), I'm going to set the deadline for this one much later, since I don't want anyone to feel they have to rush to get their entries in. This time I'm going to set the deadline for July 31.

Submissions:

Hitchcock's World- Tauriel

Hitchcock's World- Maya

Radiator Heaven- Ruby Lee Gissing

Dell on Movies - Troy Carmichael

Flick Chicks- Mary Poppins

Flick Chicks- Marge Gunderson

The Oscars Project- Jenny Mellor

Let's Go to the Movies- Hermione Granger

Girl Meets Cinema: Elizabeth Swann

Rambling Film: Anna

Hitchcock's World: Galadriel

Feeling Fuzzier: Mulan

Cinematic Corner: Elizabeth Shaw