The EXPENDABLES, d. and written by Sylvester Stallone, USA 2010.

Having been asked to write a general review of this for work, I dragged my boyfriend to see it at the cinema... and was pleasantly surprised to actually enjoy it! (My expectations were seriously low, mind, which may have helped!) For my money, this movie's major "problem" - and the one big reason it was slated by so many critics and mainstream movie-goers alike - is not that it's a bad movie, but that it's an action B movie with an A movie budget, marketing and - therefore - expectations. Result? A bunch of viewers and reviewers who don't know what the hell is going on, have only a very limited grasp of how B action movies "work", and so just don't get it. If you do get it, though, and are familiar with the B movie action genre, it's actually pretty fun, and makes an interesting contribution to the genre, at that.

The Expendables has some typical B action flick politics, especially in that while it's categorically not right wing in its (characters') outright rejection of the CIA agenda, it ultimately does in fact do precisely what the CIA wants it to do - that is, characteristially, to go into a small (invented) Central American island state and depose its evil dictator along with its even more evil (fabuloulsy played by Eric Roberts) CIA-man-gone-bad North American uber-villain who's exploiting the locals AND their General to get rich the North American way (i.e., by producing and exporting cocaine). Its politics are very odd, certainly - and, again unsurprisingly, caught up with its gender politics, too.

While it's fun to see Charisma Carpenter (you know, Cordelia in Buffy and Angel!) on the big screen, her character's hardly poster child for B movie feminism(!). Playing the women beloved of Jason Statham's character, Lee Christmas, she makes the mistake of starting to see another man when Christmas for the umpteenth time disappears for weeks on end, doesn't call, and won't tell her what he does for a living. Christmas is suitably new man about the whole thing - not shouting at her or bashing in her new beau's face, even though he's so cut up by being dumped that he actually (sort of) discusses his feelings with fellow mercenary, Barney Ross (Stallone). But guess what? Christmas keeps an eye on his ex, as he's concerned for her safety... and guess what, again? He's right. When he goes round, she has a black eye and a sad tale: Christmas was right, the new boyfriend beat her... which leads us seamlessly into a sequence in which Christmas hammers seven bells out of said boyfriend and his basketball-playing mates (in what is a superb fight sequence, I have to say. No complaints about that!). Bizarrely, though, having left the several grown men groaning on the ground, Christmas tells Lacy that now she knows what he does (she does? what, he beats up guys who punch their girlfriends? Is that what mercenaries do? Well er yes, actually, in this movie it is!)... and then tells her, in essence, that she was a fool for dumping him merely on the basis of his secretive ways and habit of disappearing without trace or warning for weeks on end because, as he puts it: "I'm not perfect. But you should've waited for me." Hmmm. Yeah right. Cos mercenaries who beat the crap out of people playing basketball make the best boyfriends.

Anyway, you can check out the basketball fight sequence here. It's about as fantastic as the gender politics of that whole sub-plot are not! http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1392379417/

While Lacy's important only in that her character fleshes out Christmas's angst (thereby fuelling his and Ross's heart to hearts and the audience's understanding of how it must be to be a mercenary), the female lead in The Expendables is not as entirely peripheral and at the service of male protagonist characterisation. In fact, Sandra (Giselle Itié) is pretty central, in that it's her choice not to leave the island when she has the chance - but to stay to try to help her fellow citizens - that puts the film's core plot in motion. (Of course one might read this as blaming her, then, for the imperialism of the mercenaries who "liberate" the fictional dictatorship of Vilena, but I don't think that quite works.)

While Sandra is represented in fairly typical B movie female character style (being saved at the last minute from rape, for instance, not to mention being devestatingly attractive and wearing flimsy clothes!) - and also serves as a narrative device through which Ross and his men can save their tarnished souls (especially in light of what Tool (Mickey Rourke) says in his strangely affecting speech), her character is not all weak and girly, nor is she established as a romantic interest, as such. Instead, Sandra's character in many ways serves the purpose that so many women do in action B movies - that is, she stands for many of the things that the protagonits of the films claim to be fighting for and to protect (freedom, family, that kind of thing). But the lack of originality in that respect is no bad thing: it's actually quite refreshing to see it in a mainstream movie, for a start - and I think The Expendables does a decent job, too, of having Sandra be an actual character, rather than simply (if also) a foil for the men in terms of plot dvelopment and some kind of moral justification for their violence and imperialist actions.

Other aspects of The Exendables are well worth discussion - not least the various representations of race and ethnicity, its interesting obsession with the concept of emotional trauma suffered by mercenaries (most amusingly dealt with by Randy Couture's character's repeated references to his psychotherapy), and its reflectiveness on how and why mercenaries do what they do, and how they are affected by their actions and their choices. None of this, though, is especially new territory for an action B movie - which The Expendables most avowedly is. (For me, the fact that Willis and Schwarzenegger make only brief cameo appearance and play characters who want to be seen to have nothing to do with what Ross and his men are being asked to do, is politically interesting, and also shows Stallone's insistence on the movie's status as a B movie that can, precisely, do without the presence of such mainstream stars...)

In the end, the film offers some interesting reflections on these aspects of male violence, then - and some interesting political machinations around when and why it is and is not "right" to interfere in another country's dilemma. But also, the best thing about The Expendables, as with so many of the films its characters both draw on andd develop, is ultimately its action sequences and its explosions. Because the truth is, Statham and Jet Li's amazing moves are far more impressive than even Stallone's reflections on masculinity and the toll violence takes on it.

DOG SOLDIERS, d. and written by Neil Marshall, 2002 UK.

For some reason I watched this last night, and remembered that one of the reasons I like it so much (given that I'm not all that big on werewolf flicks - except maybe An American Werewolf in London) is that its female lead seems to be devoid of a problematically gendered character - except, sadly, for one moment where she inexplicably (in terms of plot and characterization, nevermind the politics of the film!) spouts some weird crap about the main protagonist having a problem with women, and it being her "time of the month". All very bizarre (in a Ginger Snaps kind of a way), and wholly incongruous with the rest of the film. Hey ho.

Forgetting for a moment that bizarre moment in which the film undoes much of the feminist good it does for the duration(!), Dog Soldiers goes for decidedly (and apparently consciously) realistic gender representations which choose not to sexualise its attractive female lead, and to have a little fun with the boyishness of its mostly male cast. The cast is mostly male, by the way, because they're mostly soldiers - and soldiers are, in the UK, mostly men.

Interestingly, the director chose to cut sequences in which the soldiers comment on (or "discuss," if it could be called that) the physical attractiveness of Megan (Emma Cleasby), having already initially decided to dress her in a manner that seemed sensible given the wilds-of-Scotland setting and her status as a zoologist and Land Rover driving rescuer. This may not seem like such a big deal, but of course it is: it really isn't all that often that we get to see a female character in a horror film who's not inexplicably dressed in scanty garb, and who's not positioned as an object of the male gaze. But Megan is not. And that makes the film all the more convincing - as frankly, surely even squaddies obssessed with footie and the laydees wouldn't seriously be wanting to make moves on their rescuer when they're surrounded by a bloodthirsty pack of werewolves with no means of communicating their plight to the outside world, and stocks of ammunition running low? Of course they wouldn't! 

Although one of the two campers in the opening sequence is grabbed by a werewolf and her blood is splattered, there's no lengthy sequence where we watch her squirm or run in horror - and indeed, her boyfriend looks as scared as she does (understandably enough!). And given the almost all-male cast, it's then only men we see running scared - and we do see a few, chased down or sprung upon in the forest, and screaming for help. That said, we don't get the kind of drawn-out chase sequences so typical of female victims in horror flicks. Of course it could be said that this is because Dog Soldiers is not your typical horror, and also because it's set primarily in one house, it'd be odd (not to mention hard!) to have chase sequences. Plus what we do get is scenes in which the men are hiding in cupboards and frantic to escape - using spray cans and lighters in much the same way as the infamous "Final Girls" of slasher films have used coat hangers and the like before them. So there's plenty room for debate there: does the gender of the protagonists have much bearing on how their deaths and their fear is represented, or not?

All of the characters are shown as capable and brave (if to differing extents), and gender lines aren't really drawn. In the end, though, it is hard to avoid the fact that Megan betrays the men - and at the same moment refers to her female-ness in terms of being a "bitch" and having a menstrual cycle. I can't help thinking that the film lets itself down here, as the implication - deliberate or not - seems clearly to be that the men have ultimately suffered by failing to take note of Megan's "difference" and to be suspicious of her and her motives, accordingly.

This does undermine what is for me, otherwise, a really great British film. And it's not even just that the only woman in the end turns out to be the bad guy; it's more the fact that this is correlated with her female-ness in and through the dialogue. Such a shame. 

SALT, d. Phillip Noyce, USA 2010

Originally intended as a star vehicle for Tom Cruise, this is a film I'd never have bothered with had it not been re-worked to star Angelina Jolie... and then I only watched it because I like (some) action films and thought it might be interesting to see a mainstream action movie with a female lead. I was just hoping it wouldn't be anything along the terrible lines of the dismal Tomb Raider films.

Although the plot's tenuous basis in the notion of Russian sleeper agents put in place in the Cold War coming to life in 2010 is, frankly, ridiculous, the film certainly had its moments, and was fun to watch, and very well made in terms of editing, pace and structure. It had the pace and flow of skillfully edited and snappily scripted mainstream action films such as Speed and The Bourne Identity, and in fact had something of the Bourne Identity about it, too, in terms of characterisation and plot. Its twists and turns weren't entirely surprising, as with Bourne - but their basis in character rather than plot made them engaging and not entirely unconvincing(!), and anyway even when they seemed a little silly, the pace and impressive nature of the film's visuals kept laughter at bay!

What interested me most was the way in which Jolie was shot as well as characterised: for a start, it was refreshing not to have the endless close-ups typical of a Cruise star vehicle (does the man's egoism know no bounds?), and it was also refreshing and a huge relief to have Jolie shot and costumed not to make a spectacle of her femininity, but as many action stars are - as an impressive and attractive individual, whose physical prowess we can enjoy and admire even when he or she is fully clothed, and even in disguise! Jolie in fact stayed more clothed than many a male action star, and wore clothes with some basis in reality, which made her look stylish and active, rather than like a chest on legs (a la Tomb Raider). This was good to see - as was the impressive and convincing fight choreography, which was not only visually great, but took on board Jolie's comparative lightness, choreographing moves that someone of her height and build might actually need to employ in order to deliver, for instance, an effective kick. With her building momentum by using walls and spin, the overall effect was convincing and flashy, too - evoking The Matrix in its use of overcoats, at times!

Interestingly, it's reported that Jolie refused to have her character written as the mother of a child, as was in the original script for a male lead: she argued - persuavively, I think - that while a CIA operative might well be convinced to put a spouse at risk, as evidenced as a concern in Salt, she would not do the same to a child - as a child cannot make the same choice as a partner can, to be part of a spy's life. The fact that Salt (Jolie) and her future spouse are seen - if very briefly - to discuss the fact that a life together will involve risks for him rings true, too, and makes the events of the film, and Salt's responses to them, more convincingly established in the story world (whether or not one thinks that world has much to do with the reality of the CIA at all!).

Overall, Salt gives the impression of not overly sexualising its protagonist, and not having its plot revolve around her female-ness any more than many mainstream actioners revolvea round the male-ness of their protagonists. Of course nothing is that simple - and in NOT visually emphasising her female-ness in an overtly sexalised way, the film in many ways differs from other action films, precisely as it shies away from such imagery, whereas many action films that star men of course, do not! This in itself is interesting, of course - and points to some of the issues surrounding the difficulties for a (male, perhaps especially) director wanting to direct a female lead in a male-dominated genre, especialyl where director and star alike seem not to want to over(t)ly sexualise the star. The pay off is, to my mind, an effective piece of action cinema attractive to many viewers - and less off-putting than many action films in its portrayal of women, for sure. On the downside, I imagine Salt might well have done better at the Box Office had it sexualised its star as much as the camerawork and costuming of male-lead action vehicles so often do.

Landlocked Film Festival, Iowa City, August 2010

Even though this festival presented a really good range of films - many centred in or around Iowa, or on Iowan filmmakers, but definitely not all - there were, as is is often the way, really not that many in the programme by women. This, of course, is hardly the "fault" of the festival programmers alone (as they chose a very diverse set of films), but reflects the fact that filmmaking remains somewhat dominated by men - even, it seems, in more independent arenas such as those highlighted by this rather fabulous festival, now in its fourth year.

One set of shorts offered two films by one female filmmaker, Pat Atkinson. The first, One Bullet (USA, 2010), is an interesting look at what we are willing to do for someone we love - and perhaps wouldn't seem to comment on gender as such, were it not for the programming of it alongide the next film by Atkinson, Trophy Wife (USA, 2010). In that short, a taxidermy enthusiast with a mean streak handles his dissatisfaction with his wife in a predictably but nonetheless horrifyingly unpleasant manner. Trophy Wife therefore comments on the role of wives and their treatment at the hands of violent men, while One Bullet takes a look at self-sacrifice in a different, less clear context.

I the same programme was a longer short(!) entitled Clemency. Directed by Joseph Albanese (USA, 2009), this was I think by far the most well made film I saw at the festival. Again, I don't want to ruin it by setting out what happens, but suffice to say that it's no loss if you get a chance to see it, to know that it involves a serial killer's torture of two women. What is interesting to me is how it comments on what the State is willing to forgive, and how the film is located in the context of how films show men and women being chased and/or murdered in different ways. It's certainly interesting to watch a short like this in tthe context of mainstream film's tendency to focus on women's terror and fear (close-ups of their faces when they're afraid/about to die, for instance, as well as the tendency to show extended sequences of them before they die, as opposed to having male characters killed without such precursive imagery, or off-screen, etc.). And this is often, of coure, what is interesting about short films - how they comment and interact with mainstream films of the same genre, for instance, and how far they can (or cannot) do things differently.

I think my favourite film of the festival, though, was about a little chicken who was giving its excuse for being a little bit late for school. It was called Kidnap, and made by Sijia Luo(USA, 2009). I liked that I couldn't tell if the said chicken was male or female, for a start. (That said, I doggedly refuse to believe that Road Runner is necessarily male, so maybe it's just me? LOL.) But mosty I just loved the essential idea that the chicken was kidnapped muliple times - even by aliens - and that THAT is why s/he was late. It was just so sweet and engaging, and so devoid of gender representation, which is always good!

That said, a short from the same programme, Damsel Distressed (d. Tiffany Schmidt, USA, 2010), DID have some cool gender stuff, but managed to still be very sweet and popular with the children in the audience. In a nice combination of live action and drawn animation, it plays a little with gender stereotypes, without being too heavy-handed.