Wonder Woman shines the light on some home truths
A revisiting of the superhero movie that audiences have been waiting for. It’s taken 40 years — after Lynda Carter played her in the ’70s — to bring Wonder Woman back on celluloid. The film works at many levels
There is something reassuring about a superhero discovering ice-cream in our world. You know, love at first bite. In the world Gal Gadot’s Diana inhabits, there is no ice-cream. And no men. It is a world of the women, for the women and by the women. Naturally then, when a British spy accidentally enters Themiscyra, the swordwielding Amazonian warriors are less than impressed with the “above average” intruder. Except for a precocious Diana, of course.
If superheroes found answers to their existential angst in their own universe, the world of comic books would have been barren. And that would have been a pity because some of them can be interesting commentaries on our life and times. Patty Jenkins’ film qualifies as one. At the heart of the origin story is a young woman trying to find her place in the world, perhaps even outside her nest. A sentiment even the non-Themiscyran women in the audience would approve of. Take the shield, the sword and the lasso of truth away, and Jenkins’ Wonder Woman becomes an everywoman. She is as strong and powerful as she is naïve and gullible. Embellishing the demi goddess with human traits, the film triumphs in sending a powerful message — ‘female’ superheroes are not only as competent in saving mankind (sometimes from itself) as their male counterparts, but can actually be as vulnerable as those who they set out to save.
It is actually in the latter that Wonder Woman is peppered with moments that are as clever as they are entertaining. Some of the best scenes in the film come with the character’s somewhat non-superheroic questioning of widely accepted norms. One of the most poignant scenes in the film is when she enters an all-male gathering and questions the decision taken by them. It turns out to be an intelligent dig at the idea of ‘manels’. In the meanwhile, the ‘skimpy’ costume has often been subjected to scrutiny. Last year, the United Nations reportedly dropped Wonder Woman from her honorary role as ambassador of women’s empowerment after concerns were raised over her highly “sexualised” image. In yet another scene, the film subtly takes the issue head on. As Etta Candy, Steve Trevor’s (Chris Pine) secretary helps conceal Diana’s real identity by making her wear traditional English clothes, the Amazonian princess asks, “How can women possibly fight in these clothes?” It is a rhetorical question that explains the need for an outfit that is suited to the character’s allure as a woman as well as a fighter. Oscillating between being a feminist parable and an entertaining make-believe, the film treads a fine line and largely succeeds.
In the superhero universe, Wonder Woman is among the few female characters that has her own film. It has taken 40 years to remake a Wonder Woman film (Lynda Carter starred as the superhero in a show in the 70s), even as Superman and Spiderman films have been revisited multiple times. As soon as the film released last week, most critics gave it their vote of confidence. If that wasn’t enough, today, the internet is abuzz with articles that compare and contrast the agency afforded to Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman as opposed to Scarlett Johannson’s Black Widow (The Avengers series), Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman (in The Dark Knight Rises, Halle Berry’s Catwoman is nearly forgiven and forgotten) and Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique (The X Men series). Though it is reasonable to ask why these characters are not offered more layers, it is equally important to find their purpose in the larger stories that their respective films set to tell. Johannson’s Black Widow shares her screen space with five other superheroes, while Hathaway’s Catwoman appeared only in the last instalment of the Batman trilogy. Both characters in both films further a larger narrative. While Lawrence’s Mystique shows promise, the character motivations are only glanced through. To think of it, even Wonder Woman clinically marks her attendance in her maiden appearance in Batman Versus Superman: Dawn of Justice. What Wonder Woman’s critical and commercial success then does is that it tickles the imagination of filmmakers to endorse scripts that afford greater agency to female superheroes.
Superhero films have become an industry unto themselves. While the world (that often starts and ends with America) still needs saving, the means of storytelling are varied. Marvel’s narratives are more linear, while DC tends to put its leading men through some introspection (think the many shades of grey of Superman and Batman in Man of Steel and Batman Versus Superman: Dawn of Justice). However, one of the few times a superhero has been made to undergo an intensive psychological examination has been in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Patty Jenkins’s film is not that ambitious, but makes a decent attempt to understand the genesis of her superhero.
In a poignant scene in the film, Wonder Woman’s mother Queen Hippolyta tells her mankind does not deserve her. The critical nod to the film should prove otherwise.