Since Sarah talked about Brave in passing on Monday, I thought I'd follow up with an interesting experience I had with the movie.
I generally pride myself on being able to think through my opinions reasonably, tell you why I think the way I do, and change my ideas if it seems I'm incorrect. You know, basic Nerdfighter intellectual honesty stuff. I'd been very excited to see the movie, but just a couple of days before I went, someone whose opinion I think highly of tore it apart due to claimed misogyny.
(mild spoilers ahoy)
As I went into the theater with my friends, I tried really hard to put aside the review I'd read to judge for myself. But throughout the movie I had a hard time distinguishing whether I was noticing the points the review brought up because I would have actually noticed them, or because they were already in my mind.
I loved some parts of the movie - her kid brothers were awesome (even without saying a single word!), I liked that Merida worked hard to get her great archery skills, the family interactions were hilarious, there's no real "bad guy" but instead a situation that needs to be remedied, and showing that the queen is the one that really runs the show was great as well.
But instead of sitting back and enjoying the movie, I found myself trying to distance myself from it to analyze it and my reactions to it; I won't argue the merits of it here, since that's not the purpose of the post, and I'm still not really sure what I think of it. And that's a really strange feeling for me, especially because now I'm wary to jump into any discussions of it because I'm not sure what's my opinion and what's either confirmation bias or being primed by reading the review first.
Maybe the lesson I'll take from this is: don't read spoiler-y reviews before I see something, just go off the Rotten Tomatoes score or something :P
I like to watch a movie without bias so I can understand the message and story the movie was trying to convey before I analyze it for myself and what it appears to convey. That way I can enjoy it and understand from two perspectives. But it's always tough to do after hearing someone else make a strong opinion.
ReplyDeleteI always watch a movie twice though before I make a solid opinion.
I personally thought it was more feminist than misogynistic due to her stance on arranged marriage and her reason for not being ready, but also in a realistic sense that it would have been necessary to maintain alliances, which was a real reason for an arranged marriage. Sure pushing the archery and warrior bit may have been very forward of the movie because of the time period but there were also quite a few female warrior out of that region of the world in those days too.
I read the review you linked to and I think that person expected too much of the story that would have made it too unrealistic for the time period and what people now expect to find in that time. The movie still says you can be different and that's okay but rather than a threat to the family it presented a threat within the family that had to be resolved in order for the overall conflict to be resolved. To me it was new and much more interesting then having a sole external antagonist.
Sorry made a little post there. I'd say let's go watch it again together but we live too far away.
Well if I ever make it out to your neck of the woods, we can rent it! :P
DeleteYeah, I like to go into a movie (or book or tv show or whatever) unbiased as well. I read that review and although I think there are some good points, I don't really agree with their main complaint, which is that Merida should have just kicked ass at archery and beat everything that way. I find it tends to be a pretty common theme in media that "strong female characters" always end up being good at fighting and I think it sends the message that in order to be worthwhile women have to take on traditionally male roles. And I think there should definitely be a message that it's perfectly fine to take on "male roles," but I think there needs to also be more focus on finding value in traditional female roles, and on trying to get rid of the line separating the two.
ReplyDeleteI also definitely agree with both of you about liking that it was a difficult situation that needed fixing rather than just an antagonist to defeat; that allowed for a much more nuanced and complex story, I think.
Also I agree with what Sarah said about historical accuracy - they did limit themselves somewhat by making this a historical movie because it bound them to be at least somewhat realistic to the time period, and you can only do so much within that.
And then there's the "parent problem" - another one of the main complaints in that review was about the fact that even though Merida shot for her own hand it didn't change anything because her mother was still in charge - again, that's just being realistic. Kid's movies often run into trouble with parents because if they're being good parents it usually prevents the children's stories from playing out, but if they're absent/neglectful so that the story can get told, then everyone gets all uppity about how movies never portray healthy families blah blah blah.
I think I do agree with the criticisms about the all the men being portrayed as stupid and all that.. that was a bit of a problem for me as well.