Thursday, July 25, 2013

Love and Movies

After seeing one to many movies that had their few female characters almost exclusively focused on romance (and only heterosexual romance), I posed a question to my Facebook friends this morning:

All I want out of life right now is a movie that includes female characters that has nothing to do with romance or love. So lay it on me Facebook people -- I need some suggestions.

So far there are 96 comments, and the conversation has continued for over three hours solid.

Not many of the suggestions follow my guidelines (which were amended, a few comments in: Well, I guess I should be more specific: I want the female characters to matter/be primary.)

Here's the list that seem to apply, based on my criteria, so far:

Alien
Haywire*
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (I can't remember the newer one, but I think it works)
Wizard of Oz
Terminator 2*
Phantom Menace (although it's awkward, since you know two of the characters will end up together in the future...)
Whale Rider* (child, not adult, female character)
Little Miss Sunshine (main female character is a child, but there is the adult mother as well)
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?*
Winter's Bone*
True Grit*

We also had Coraline and Spirited Away, but I think animated films might need a separate list.

(Any movie marked with a * means I haven't seen it myself, but am relying on other peoples' suggestions and my Wikipedia search skills).

Pan's Labyrinth may apply, but I feel like I want to watch it myself before making the distinction.

So now I'm asking you -- what movies can you think of that have important/main/primary female characters that do not include romance or love? For that matter, what movies can you think of with no romance or love period (even those that don't include women)? Share in the comments!


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