Movie stirs strong emotions
‘Wonder Woman’ brings female audiences around the world to tears with its message of power
Superhero’s show of strength moves many to tears
Why are women crying when they watch Wonder Woman fight?
Director Patty Jenkins has grown accustomed to hearing stories about audience members welling up as Gal Gadot, playing DC Comics heroine Diana Prince, grabs her shield and sword and plunges into battle in the new superhero epic (in theaters Thursday night).
“I didn’t even realize I needed this,” says Jenkins, who makes history as the first woman to helm a superhero movie. “I didn’t realize that I needed to let this out, that’s what I was tasked with. But it opened a door to all the expressions of this superhero, all the dimensions of a woman that maybe we haven’t seen or felt.”
To prepare herself for battle, Gadot, 32, spent six months in superhero training camp. “I had to gain a lot of body mass,” says the Israeli actress, who introduced her character in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Wonder Woman opens on the island of Themyscira, where its population of female warriors, or Amazons, endure daily military exercises in relative peace. When the island’s security is breached by a fleet of Germans during World War I, the armored women fly into spectacular action, bows and arrows eclipsing the gunwielding soldiers.
On set, Jenkins instructed the Amazons not to appear angry. “This is them in their element,” Gadot recalls Jenkins would say. “Just to fight in an aggressive, strong way. Own it.”
The resulting fight choreography? “It’s feminine-style superbada - -, super-original,” says Gadot. “I’ve never seen a fight battle driven by so many women on the big screen. Never!”
Look for a scene as Wonder Woman weaves through the trenches of no man’s land.
“Up until that point, she’s an Amazon who has stolen a costume,” says Jenkins, who had to sell the scene of Wonder Woman fighting solo to studio executives. “(They said), ‘She’s on the field by herself. How many times is she going to block a bullet?’ But the scene is about her,” says the di- rector. “It’s a battle with oneself to change the way the world works.”
The message is proving universal. In China, where the cast recently screened Wonder Woman footage, “it was palpable, the swell of emotions as the audience watched this woman,” says Chris Pine, who plays Steve Trevor. “I got goosebumps.”
In the end, it’s the way the real Wonder Woman wanted it.
“You have to imagine (Gal) doing that shot standing there in the dead of winter,” says Jenkins. “She’s standing there in the freezing cold, not just because I told her to, because she fought every day to make this movie great.”