both snatch and lockstock only have one girl character with lines the pikey mum and the card dealer in lock stock this tbh makes the films so much better because it eliminates all the boring emotional crap that ruined layer cake and rock n rolla it is the perfect way to make a good guys movie anyone else agree and have any other films with the same thing
shareI don't agree 100%, but do think there are plenty of great action and/or war movies without significant female characters. The old Hollywood trick of adding a woman/love interest to a story simply to make it more appealing to the female audience definitely did more harm than good.
Other great movies without significant female characters:
Reservoir Dogs
Apocalypse Now
Blackhawk Down
Captains Courageous
Stalag 17
Platoon
A Walk in the Sun
The assistant in the bookies was female and she did pretty well. ALL BETS ARE OFF
shareI agree that she was great in her small scene. I was talking about significant female roles, with a major part in the story, etc.
shareWell The Head's twin daughters had some lines, and it was their idea to go get Bullet-Tooth Tony, so to an extent they had a significant part in the story
share^^This. They were good.
"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit me!"- Hudson in Aliens.
The twins were extremely cool and clearly their work involved much more than window-dressing the shop front window and attending to the till.
shareYou are forgetting KELLY'S HEROS and THE GREAT ESCAPE.
shareThe Thing (1982)
12 Angry Men
Shawshank Redemption
Saving Private Ryan
Layer Cake was great and she really belonged in the movie.
shareThe Twins(that's 2 right there)
Mickeys Mom
The woman working at the bookie
So there are at least 5 female characters in this movie. Further, having females in the film doesn't automatically mean there will be "boring emotional crap."
Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
The one good thing about no women is no pointless sex scenes. One of the reasons The Thing is great is because there's no sex in it. Although to be honest, I didn't notice a lack of women. It shouldn't even be an issue.
shareNot necessarily, OP. What about the Kill Bill movies? Batman Returns was hella great mainly because of Michelle Pfeifer as Catwoman. Ellen Ripley in the Alien series?
Don't blame female characters for ruining a guys movie. Blame the writers for lacking in that department instead. If not done right, then of course you're gonna have the boring emotional bullsh*t to wade through while the actress/es recite the lines or do the pointless nude scenes based on the piss-poor script that the WRITERS wrote.
"Rommel...you magnificent bastard, I read your book!"
-- PATTON
Excuse me, but who are supposed to write the scripts if not the writers!?
shareExcuse you, try putting into context my reply in regards with the subject of the damn question raised in this thread.
Instead of making a sweeping statement of herding girl characters as 'weak', blame the writers who wrote the bloody story. Number one rule of a writer: There is always room for improvement; and if the writers are lacking in the female department, then so be it. IMO, not all great stories need a great female character. It all depends on the flow and arc of story. Mickey's mother is not a conventional female lead, but a great one nonetheless. In a sense, she was a huge influence to her son, and her death impacted him into executing the maximum force upon Brick Top and his associates.
"Rommel...you magnificent bastard, I read your book!"
-- PATTON
Well, if someone complains about weak female characters and subplots with them, it is automatically assumed that this critique is directed at the writers, because they, well, write all the stuff. The OP doesn't blame anyone else. So, I ask you, who do you think was blamed here if it wasn't the writers? Nobody called out the writers explicitly because that is just common sense. If I complain about the wooden acting, do I have to explain explicitly that my complain is directed at the actors!?
That doesn't mean I am okay with what the writers usually do. I am sick of most cliches they are drowning us in, especially with female characters. I especially learned to hate the typical martial arts chick we are served for so many years now. Not because women shouldn't be able to kick ass, too. No, mostly because they always cast good looking but skinny actresses for those roles and then proceed to make them throw fully grown men thrice their weight through the air without breaking a sweat (and their hair and makeup is still perfect after each fight).
So.... if I'm understanding you correctly, then are you saying I can't explicitly direct my complaints to the writers? Who am I supposed to direct it to? Am I not free to do so?
dude, calm down with the exclamation points/question marks... I think we're on roughly the same page here anyway. Like I said, not all great stories need a conventional female lead, that I agree with you, and I have stated all along. Some great stories like Ellen Ripley, Batman, Kill Bill, etc. depend on a great conventional female lead; Other great stories like this movie Snatch, Patriot Games, Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan series et.al., Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Jack Reacher, the 24 TV series, even Ben-Hur, Gladiator and Predator - they all have an unconventional, non-physical, non-"martial arts" action female lead, but that doesn't mean the female leads aren't 'great', they are great in their own right, that they send out something more than meets the eye -- their quiet inner strength and character. That's what makes superb writing, and even more difficult to conceive, execute and materialize onscreen. Terminator 2's Sarah Connor combined those two conventional and unconventional elements, and it made a great story of a mother protecting her son to the bitter end, but staying true to her vulnerability, yet maintaining her inner strength. Like an iron fist wrapped in velvet. Person Of Interest's Joss Carter also combined those two elements and that's one of the reasons that's made POI currently a hit TV series.
The OP didn't bother to explicitly blame anyone else, not even post again to explain himself further, but he sure as hell said in that running sentence of his that adding female characters to these type of stories would be a negative to the film, quoting
"no girl characters... tbh makes the films so much better because it eliminates all the boring emotional crap that ruined layer cake and rock n rolla it is the perfect way to make a good guys movie"
lawrence of arabia was a classic and it had NO females in the entire movie. Not one!
share