Strong female characters in film

TexanStar

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I'm re-watching Alien right now. It's almost a full 40 years old now (came out in 1979), and every time I watch this movie (let alone Aliens), it strikes me how Ellen Ripley is probably the strongest female character that I've ever seen put to film and that so much time has passed between that film and now makes me wonder why.

As a point of trivia, that is very possibly related, the script for Alien was unisex. That is, none of the characters were specifically written to be male or female. The screenwriters left that decision for the director to make and referred to all characters in the script only by their last name.

It's possible that decision created a circumstance where because the character was developed without a bias towards gender, Ripley ended up imbued with a particular strength that wouldn't have been there if she'd been planned from the outset to be a woman (not because women can't be strong, but because bias on the part of the writers would've messed with things -vs- writing characters that were divorced from gender).

I guess for starters, am I wrong in that assessment that there haven't really been characters that have fully lived up to the standards set by Ellen? I've certainly seen other strong female characters that I can highlight, whether it's Lisbeth Salander or Clarice Starling and so on, but I feel like as strong as they are, they're still not quite on the same level. All of those mentioned were in life & death situations, so I can't say it's due to the danger level... I think it's probably more that those characters have identifiable weaknesses too (Whereas Ellen Ripley comes across as flawless to me, while still grounded in a realistic representation).

If I'm wrong in that assessment, what are some other equally strong characters that I'm really overlooking?

If I'm right in that assessment, why do you think it is that almost 4 decades have passed where we haven't seen a character of such strength to argue that she's on equal or stronger footing.
 

MickeyLee

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Vasquez from the Alien sequel Aliens, played by real life badass Jenette Goldstein
arguably one of the most bad ass women to have ever visited scfi *childhood hero*
unlike Ripley who had bad-ass thrust upon her, Vasquez picked bad-ass as her default setting
*yes, more bad ass than Ripley*
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TexanStar

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Vasquez from the Alien sequel Aliens
arguably one of the most bad ass women to have ever visited scfi *childhood hero*
unlike Ripley who had bad-ass thrust upon her, Vasquez picked bad-ass as her default setting
*yes, more bad ass than Ripley*
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Vasquez is very formidable physically, but as a total package I'd consider her weaker than Ripley (I meant strong characters in terms of strength of character -vs- physical strength).

Vasquez cracks jokes about the aliens when she should be listening seriously to Ripley's briefing which falls into a general flaw of conceit (a level of over-confidence that several of the marines have that ultimately leads to their downfall). She's by no means dumb, but she's not really there to be a thinker either. She's there to carry big guns and shoot them at stuff which is mostly what she does.

Ripley does a much better job assessing the situation, calling for retreat when it's warranted, etc. For the situation they're in, both characters are valuable and ultimately needed, but suppose you removed either character and replaced them with a clone of another character of your choice from the film. I think you could remove Vasquez and replace her with a clone of Drake and they'd still make it through with a similar outcome. If you removed Ripley, you couldn't replace her with anyone else's clone... they'd all die. You could replace Ripley with multiple clones and they all die if Ripley's not there.

Vasquez could beat up Ripley in a fistfight, but I see Ripley as the stronger character.
 

MickeyLee

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Rain Ocampo of Resident Evil played by Michelle Rodriguez
another self determined bad-ass
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also from Resident Evil Alice played by Milla Jovovich
who also played Leeloo in The Fifth Element
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Furiosa from Mad Max played by Charlize Therone
bad-ass with a mac-truck has her around town whip
you don't get more bad-ass than that
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just about the entire cast of women from the last XMen movie
Psyclocke owned ass kicking
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there are heaps more, from heaps of obscure syfy flickers
these are just the first to spring to mind
 
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MickeyLee

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Vasquez is very formidable physically, but as a total package I'd consider her weaker than Ripley (I meant strong characters in terms of strength of character -vs- physical strength).
.

them are fightin' words

Vasquez ultimately sacrifices her own life to save her team
She is just not given the screen time to have her character fully developed
that is why women are rarely seen as strong characters, for the most part all women characters of there to support the male leads. Ripley stands most of the Aliens films as a sole survivor, she has heaps of screen time and is given the spotlight in ways that few women are ever given.
Ripley is carried through the first half of the films on the death of others.
hand to hand, on all levels Vasquez hands Ripley her ass.

multi-edits: something is wrong with my S key *grrrr*
i like plurals, damn it!
 
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phallic_deity86

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While it might be fun to watch Vasquez shoot through xenomorph after xenomorph, it's far more interesting to watch Ripley find the strength to finally fight back against something that's ruined her life. Plus she gets a second chance at motherhood with Newt. There's just a lot more to unpack with Ripley.
 
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phallic_deity86

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Rain Ocampo of Resident Evil played by Michelle Rodriguez
another self determined bad-ass
tumblr_static_bitchisntstandingnow.gif


also from Resident Evil Alice played by Milla Jovovich
who also played Leeloo in The Fifth Element
tumblr_l9fuhir9BJ1qbxq6qo1_500.gif

images



Furiosa from Mad Max played by Charlize Therone
bad-ass with a mac-truck has her around town whip
you don't get more bad-ass than that
giphy.gif


just about the entire cast of women from the last XMen movie
Psyclocke owned ass kicking
giphy.gif


there are heaps more, from heaps of obscure syfy flickers
these are just the first to spring to mind
Weilding weapons is a narrow way to define "bad-ass". Yes, there's the action element, but there needs to be something deeper in the character that's motivating them or creating conflict. Did Psylocke even talk in that new X-Men movie?
 
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MickeyLee

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Charlize Theron is my ultimate girl crush. When she had a shaved head especially. That woman defines beauty and strength to me.

Furiosa owns my current crush status
Atomic Blonde comes out later this year
super spy type bas-ass
*falls in love/lust/admiration*
 
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MickeyLee

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Weilding weapons is a narrow way to define "bad-ass". Yes, there's the action element, but there needs to be something deeper in the character that's motivating them or creating conflict. Did Psylocke even talk in that new X-Men movie?

:mad: that you only see these women as bad-ass because they are heavily armed says heaps about how you see these women

every character i mentioned had thrown off conventional ideas of femininity
they have stepped into and hold there own in a very masculine world.
each character has a resolve of self and a unflinchable dedication to what is right
they will put blood/ass on the line for the ultimate good
given screen time, a back story and maybe a few more lines their stories would be profound
 

TexanStar

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Rain Ocampo of Resident Evil played by Michelle Rodriguez
another self determined bad-ass
tumblr_static_bitchisntstandingnow.gif


also from Resident Evil Alice played by Milla Jovovich
who also played Leeloo in The Fifth Element
tumblr_l9fuhir9BJ1qbxq6qo1_500.gif

images



Furiosa from Mad Max played by Charlize Therone
bad-ass with a mac-truck has her around town whip
you don't get more bad-ass than that
giphy.gif


just about the entire cast of women from the last XMen movie
Psyclocke owned ass kicking
giphy.gif


there are heaps more, from heaps of obscure syfy flickers
these are just the first to spring to mind

This is getting more into who's the biggest badass which isn't really along the lines of what I was getting at. No one is going to write down Clarice Starling, for example, as some kind of combat badass. She's a rookie FBI agent who doesn't even live through her simulated combat drill (she forgets to check the corners). It's not the kind of strength I meant.

If I could phrase it this way, I have a daughter. I could suggest that Ellen Ripley or Clarice Starling are good role models to strive for. There is an approach they took in facing dillemmas and finding solutions... they used their brains... they had to deal in a realistic way at times with resistance / interference from men, etc.

Leloo is not a role model... none of her success is earned. She's just inherently genetically superior. She doesn't think her way through any of her challenges, she's just programmed to know the answer from the outset (or else magically absorbs the answer, matrix style, through a computer). Leloo kicks a lot of ass, but she's not what I mean when I talk about strong characters (same goes for the women flying through the air in the X-men and resident evil movies). There's not a lot of "character" to them at all, they're just women in skimpy outfits imbued with a lot of superpowers to beat up bad guys (which is fun to watch, but not particularly challenging to write. I think any of us in this forum could write up a sexy woman who beats up the bad guys with superior physical strength and reflexes).
 

phallic_deity86

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This is getting more into who's the biggest badass which isn't really along the lines of what I was getting at. No one is going to write down Clarice Starling, for example, as some kind of combat badass. She's a rookie FBI agent who doesn't even live through her simulated combat drill (she forgets to check the corners). It's not the kind of strength I meant.

If I could phrase it this way, I have a daughter. I could suggest that Ellen Ripley or Clarice Starling are good role models to strive for. There is an approach they took in facing dillemmas and finding solutions... they used their brains... they had to deal in a realistic way at times with resistance / interference from men, etc.

Leloo is not a role model... none of her success is earned. She's just inherently genetically superior. She doesn't think her way through any of her challenges, she's just programmed to know the answer from the outset (or else magically absorbs the answer, matrix style, through a computer). Leloo kicks a lot of ass, but she's not what I mean when I talk about strong characters (same goes for the women flying through the air in the X-men and resident evil movies). There's not a lot of "character" to them at all, they're just women in skimpy outfits imbued with a lot of superpowers to beat up bad guys (which is fun to watch, but not particularly challenging to write. I think any of us in this forum could write up a sexy woman who beats up the bad guys with superior physical strength and reflexes).
I understood what you meant and that's what I was trying to explain as well. Not sure why I'm getting attacked by others.
 
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