miércoles, 14 de julio de 2010

Die Hard



Yes, Die Hard. It's not as pointless as it seems. When this movie was released, I was 11 and it was clear that this was intended for adults. Soon after that, action films were made for a teen audience. That's why we can see here people casually snorting cocaine and having sex in the office...

Bechdel Rule: Minimally. The central female character talks very briefly with her assistant, her daughter and her maid.

Sexual violence: None. The hostages are approximately half male / half female and there is no glamorisation at all of violence against women.

Other forms of graphic violence. Lots of it. Fighting, shooting, explosions, people held hostage.

Other -isms. There are quite a few black men: a policeman (sympathetic), and a villain (no stereotypes there) but also a very stupid chauffeur. The one WOC is a Latina maid who can be blackmailed with a mention of Immigration. All in all, the POC are there to give pats on the back to the more central characters.

I think that the treatment of the central female character is surprisingly progressive if compared to more recent films. She's a high-level executive, the second person in authority in the international company she works for. She finds support for her career and family life in many people, some of them women. She's intelligent and the movie never gives the message that her career is a problem; in fact, the problem is that her husband doesn't support her like everyone else does.

I'm not spoiling anything if I say that the film begins with the couple living in different towns because of their jobs; in Die Hard 2, he has relocated to the city of her choice.

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