So yes, I've been living under a rock for the last year and hadn't seen Frozen until we watched it as a family on Boxing Day. It was great to find out what this movie phenomenon was all about. I have to say, I was really impressed. Quite apart from the fact that the script is funny, the characters loveable and the music really gets in your head, it sends lots of really good messages to young women.
Their eyes might be huge and their waists impossibly tiny, but the heroines of the film, Anna and Elsa, are not your typical Disney princesses. I particularly like the moment when Anna wakes up with her hair in a mess and dribble on her cheek. She does fall in love (twice), but the love interests are not central to the plot of the film. The central love relationship is between the two sisters who are estranged because of Elsa's magic powers.
The most interesting moment occurs at the climax of the film when (SPOILER ALERT) Anna is trying to find the man she loves so that he can kiss her and break the spell her sister has accidentally put on her. The trolls have explained that 'only an act of love' can break the spell. She is very weak, close to death, when she sees her man running towards her through the snowstorm. At the same moment, she also sees a man raising his sword to kill her sister. She runs towards her sister and throws up a hand to stop the sword; at that moment the spell is complete, and she turns to ice (also handy when you're trying to stop the path of a sword). But in saving her sister's life at the cost of her own, she has performed an act of love and, moments later, the spell is broken and she returns to life.
There's so much I find refreshing about this. Firstly, the fact that Anna is saved by her own actions rather than someone else's, and that she saves Elsa too. Women are usually saved by men in fairy tales; rarely by women and never by themselves. I also like the fact that the film deliberately subverts your expectations of what an 'act of love' might be - not a kiss from your romantic hero, but the sacrifice of a sister.
Another film I very much enjoyed over Christmas was Skyfall, the most recent Bond film which celebrates the franchise's 50th anniversary. Directed by Sam Mendes, it's visually stunning, with a great plot, lots of beautiful locations, a fantastic soundtrack and a truly creepy villain. A lot of fun to watch. But in terms of female empowerment, a poor contrast with Frozen. I know, I know: no-one looks to James Bond films for good female role models. I used to think Tomorrow Never Dies was a welcome exception, until I realised that the ass-kicking Michelle Yeoh is constantly having to be rescued by Bond. The scary thing is, I didn't notice anything disturbing about Skyfall until a friend posted a review on Facebook pointing out its flaws. While Frozen passes the Bechdel test with flying colours, Skyfall barely scrapes through. In order to pass the test, a film needs at least two female characters who speak to each other about something other than a man. Apply it to the next five films you watch and you'll notice how many films fail. The fact that Eve, a female field agent, accidentally shoots Bond (as he fights on a moving train - not exactly an easy shot); flirts with him throughout the film; finally concludes that she's not cut out for field work and takes a job as M's secretary is irritating enough. The fact that M - renowned for her 'balls' and targeted by a rogue agent because of her ruthless willingness to sacrifice agents for the greater good - has to be protected by Bond, is also annoying. But the fact that Bond meets a victim of the South East Asian sex trade, identifies her as an abused and terrified woman, sleeps with her and then seems relatively unaffected when she is killed in a trivial shooting match, really gets my goat. I do enjoy the film, but I have to watch with raised eyebrows at times.
So hurrah for Frozen, and may a million little girls grow up knowing that that they can take control of their own lives; that women can be strong too; and that while romance might be sweet, sacrificial love is stronger than death.
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