Cathy Yan Fought to Keep Birds of Prey's Most Upsetting Scene
https://io9.gizmodo.com/cathy-yan-fo...ing-1842692401
Warning for spoilers and discussion of sexual assasult.
Yeah because as we know Captain America, Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man and a whole bunch of other superheroes have never been about pushing agendas and philosophies.
"Its just comic books from nerds for nerds" has not been true for as far back as 1940 with Captain America 1. Or the decade old "Agenda" in X-Men Comics.
So "Go and take your agendas and philosophies elsewhere" would be difficult to do. Would require to rewrite an awful lot of Comics.
And why do we Always get stuff written like that Focusing on "Feminist culture"?
There is no conflict between the two. Great entertainment can provide both escapism and themes. In fact, some of the most classic art of all times was created by the fusion of popular entertainment and "high art" thematic content.
Now, it's hard to do both well at the same time. But that's the artistic challenge.
«Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])
You can still enjoy the Matrix as escapism while knowing it’s an allegory for transgenderism.
Dark Knight and Winter Soldier funny enough both had similar themes being "when it comes to security, how much are people willing to give away their freedoms and how far is too far".
Mad Max Fury Road was a pretty feminist movie though. The director just did an excellent job of letting the movie flow without ever stopping to "preach" its themes, so its not something that jumps out at you. That's something that some movies fail at (like the recent Black Christmas reboot).
Can't say much about Dark Knight or Winter Soldier, but Mad Max: Fury Road is a great action piece. It is also thoroughly infused by feminist themes and theory, arguably on the same level as BoP.
Of course it's possible to make escapist entertainment without thinking too much about themes (though I'd argue that in a lot of cases like that you end up with a sort of bland conservatism that simply isn't noticable because we live in it all the time). But it's eminently possible to make great escapist entertainment that has plenty of themes or ideology built in.
«Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])
The superhero genre is miserable today for becoming escapist entertainment without thinking too much about themes. I cannot say if this is what led to the downfall of birds of prey but the film is no Joker. You don't have to love Joker but it is not meant to be escapist entertainment. Birds of prey was meant to be. DC is afraid of taking itself too seriously when it concerns the DCEU.