Witchy Woman

I'm not going to bother delving into the blatant historical and mythological errors of this movie.

First off, the only pentacles in the movie were used by the bad guys (Morganians, after the sorceress Morgan la Fey), perpetuating the lie that they are associated with evil. And the tools used were considered vital for practicing magic, despite the fact that, that is not true in real life. Only an insecure young man is able to overcome this obstacle, despite his elders having practiced for hundreds of years. Once again, Hollywood emphasizes youth over wisdom and experience.

Then there's the centuries old dichotomy of male wizards good/female witches bad. The most powerful female sorceress is automatically evil, and the most powerful male conjurors are good (Merlinians, after Merlyn). Despite the fact that Morgaine was originally a healer, actually treating Arthur when he went to Avalon, seriously wounded. It wasn't until later cycles when she was portrayed as being evil and conniving, likely because she did not adhere to the sexual ethics projected onto women of that time period. In other words, since she was not a virgin and refused to settle into an arranged marriage, she had to be a whore and therefore demonized for it.

The movie fails the Bechdel Test, obviously. The female characters are either in need of rescuing, rewards for a job well done, or evil and need to be defeated. When Dave tries to keep Becky safe, she tells Dave that she is already involved and might as well help save the world. Dave, the physics geek, says that, that's sexy. I wanted to throttle the character because he's wanting to treat her like the reward he sees her as by keeping her on the pedestal he's placed her on for so many years: safe and pristine. He's supposed to be a geek and is just NOW figuring out that intelligence is a turn-on? I'm not even touching the resurgence of emo boys stalking the women whom they allegedly love. Some things from the '80's should have been left there.

If you're the kind of person that can turn your brain off, it's an enjoyable flick. If you're like me and unable to dissociate entertainment from larger sociological problems, you might find your blood pressure rising to unsafe levels.

First off, it fails the Bechtel test. And before anyone says, “It was the Dark Ages, they were all misogynist pigs” not necessarily. These were the same people of the Valkyries, Freya, and the Norns. However, Astrid and the female twin were two of the best warriors. The strong female element was presented, but one of the few times that the two directly interacted was at the end when the twin hits on Hiccup and Astrid puts her in her place. Naturally, both being female they must be attracted to the strongest male and compete for his affections. On the other hand, they did have a wisewoman who would have been ubiquitous in that culture.

Just a quick rant: Vikings did NOT wear horned helmets. While it was nice to see the women running around in armour next to the men, I would have loved to have seen apron dresses. And the general untidiness and slovenly state of the characters was another misconception perpetuated. In fact, the Ango-Saxons found them to be rather fastidious because they bathed every week.

I do have to hand it to them: they certainly did their homework. The sigils on the shields, architecture, and other artistic touches were true to the time and culture. The runes were a nice touch, I believe elder futhark, but don’t quote me on that. But it has never been determined for certain whether or not they were a proper alphabet in addition to their role as a divination tool.

I absolutely loved the non-ablism aspects. As the twins noted at the start of training, scars and other marks of battle were considered heroic. While originally the loss of a limb would have severely curtailed the life and trade of a Viking, in the movie their status was not diminished. The blacksmith was not treated any differently because of his prosthetic limbs, if anything, he was respected even more for his courage in battle. Toothless was able to fly just as well as before once he and Hiccup settled into their symbiotic relationship. And naturally Hiccup was just as much a hero after losing his foot, his new prosthetic meshing even better than before with Toothless’ new tail piece.

And they get +10 geek points for the nerdy kid rattling off Dungeons and Dragons stats.

Good news: it passes the Bechdel Test.

Bad news: I was reminded why I don't watch movies after having read the book, usually.

In the book, she cleverly defeated the Other Mother all by herself.

At the end of the movie, she has to be rescued by a boy named "YB" invented entirely by the screenwriters.

In this, major fail.

I couldn't remember if I'd posted about this before.

"It’s not a coincidence. It’s not that there aren’t enough women behind the camera (there aren’t, but that’s not the reason). Here’s what we’re up against (and for those who have requested a single post that summarizes my experiences in film for linking reference, now you’ve got it).

When I started taking film classes at UCLA, I was quickly informed I had what it took to go all the way in film. I was a damn good writer, but more importantly (yeah, you didn’t think good writing was a main prerequisite in this industry, did you?) I understood the process of rewriting to cope with budget (and other) limitations. I didn’t hesitate to rip out my most beloved scenes when necessary. I also did a lot of research and taught myself how to write well-paced action/adventure films that would be remarkably cheap to film - that was pure gold.

There was just one little problem.

I had to understand that the audience only wanted white, straight, male leads. I was assured that as long as I made the white, straight men in my scripts prominent, I could still offer groundbreaking characters of other descriptions (fascinating, significant women, men of color, etc.) - as long as they didn’t distract the audience from the white men they really paid their money to see."

Go read it. Why Film schools Teach Screenwriters Not to Pass the Bechdel Test.