SOMEONE (the writer, the director, who knows) decided that Marion needed to be at the battle at the end, in a full suit of armor. There was absolutely no need for this regarding plot, or characterization, or anything. No reason at all.
What I've come to call the Arwen Syndrome. It doesn't matter at all that there's no benefit - that there may even be detriment - in sticking a "strong female character" in there somewhere, even where she isn't needed, wanted, or remotely fits in. But it's the "O noez we haz no wimmin so the wimmin will be mad at us" syndrome.
I'd love to be able to somehow stuff into overzealous directors' heads that stuffing an arbitrary woman into a situation totally wrong for her so that she can be seen to have been stuffed there =/= feminist brownie points. In fact, quite the opposite...
As far as the rest of the movie is concerned, I somehow think I'll be giving it a miss. There are a lot of things that I'll overlook, but I read in a review somewhere that the Robin Hood character is on the way back from the Crusades... where King Richard was killed.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-05-16 01:25 am (UTC)What I've come to call the Arwen Syndrome. It doesn't matter at all that there's no benefit - that there may even be detriment - in sticking a "strong female character" in there somewhere, even where she isn't needed, wanted, or remotely fits in. But it's the "O noez we haz no wimmin so the wimmin will be mad at us" syndrome.
I'd love to be able to somehow stuff into overzealous directors' heads that stuffing an arbitrary woman into a situation totally wrong for her so that she can be seen to have been stuffed there =/= feminist brownie points. In fact, quite the opposite...
As far as the rest of the movie is concerned, I somehow think I'll be giving it a miss. There are a lot of things that I'll overlook, but I read in a review somewhere that the Robin Hood character is on the way back from the Crusades... where King Richard was killed.
OY. Historical HOWLER.