Yet another Rey of light
Wake up, Hollywood: Female-centric action flicks rule
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has prompted plenty of writing about how putting Rey (Daisy Ridley) in the lead role shook up the way we see one of the most venerable action franchises of all time.
Forbes box office watcher Scott Mendelson made the point the film didn’t just lay down an artistic marker.
The Force Awakens has made a giant pile of cold, hard cash, the kind of signal the entertainment industry is quickest to respond to.
But while money talks, I think it’s important to be cautious about declaring Rey and The Force Awakens will change everything.
Even if they do, The Force Awakens illustrates just how far Hollywood still has to go to shed the assumption that its core customers are men who only want to see men on screen.
“I’ve talked about how one big female-centric hit or another (Twilight, Bridesmaids, The Hunger Games, Frozen, etc.) offered some kind of proof that female-centric mainstream popcorn entertainment was just as viable as malecentric fantasy films and malecentric comedies.
“And taken together, the last several years of big hits and small hits starring women and about women provide indisputable proof of the idea that targeting women is not a risky proposition and not a niche demographic sell,” Mendelson wrote.
“But now there can really be no argument. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a female-centric megabudget action fantasy which features a young woman in the core heroic ‘chosen one’ role, is the biggest movie of all time.
“Even if you argue that having a female lead made no difference in terms of its success, you must also agree that it did the film no harm either.”
Rey is part of a tradition that includes Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the Alien franchise and Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in the Terminator movies. While these predecessors aimed battering rams at the doors that keep women marginalized in action movies, they splintered that barrier rather than smashing it decisively to pieces. For all that Hollywood tends to be motivated by money, part of what’s interesting about the industry is the times when it diverges from cold economic logic.
Even if Hollywood decides it wants more Reys in the mix, the past month is a great illustration of the many ways in which the entertainment and retail industries will have to break free of old assumptions and shake up long-established habits to respond to the enthusiasm for these characters.
Hasbro neglected to make Rey playing pieces for The Force Awakens edition of Monopoly, then tried to pass the choice off as an attempt to avoid spoiling the movie for fans.
The character was left out of other figurine sets as well, just as companies have neglected to make toys of female characters from some of Disney’s other franchises.
The success of The Force Awakens is welcome and important.
But befitting the first instalment of a franchise, its victory for women is an early step on a long journey rather than the destination.