Faye Dunaway and Peter O'Toole star in this 80s box office bomb. Kara Zor-El (Helen Slater) escapes the lost Kryptonian Argo City to retrieve the precious power source which she carelessly sucked out of the airlock. She emerges on earth as Supergirl, where she is pursued by hunks, an evil witch, and Lois Lane's teenage sister who kind of resembles Rachel Dratch.
Despite a near rape scene, Supergirl handles gender politics surprisingly well. It's possibly because of her willingness to sit down with shirtless teenagers at the local Popeye's, or humbling experience as a C student in Argo City. Overall an enjoyable movie despite making very little money. At the very least better than Superman IV.
I liked your comments about gender issues. I have not seen this movie, but I have seen Red Sonja. The villainess definitely has a lesbian thing going on with Sonja, and Sonja just wants a man to conquer her. Not very progressive stuff.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want cultural stagnation, check out the movie Fire and Ice. It's an animated movie that I saw on Netflix streaming. It has almost every stereotype in it: the blonde male hero, the princess who is constantly running from danger while wearing her tiny underwear, the noble savage who is clearly a Native American, the sub-human monsters that look more-than-vaguely African, and the super pale and effeminate villain. I almost expected the text of White Man's Burden to be in the credits.
Yeah Supergirl is far from perfect, but it at least plays around with these traditional gender roles.
DeleteFire and Ice, eh? Apparently Ralph Bakshi directed, of Fritz the Cat and Cool World fame. People often refer to him as a pioneer of modern animation, but really he was just the first person to start animating cartoon animals having sex in semi-mainstream movies.