Evelyn Salt is the kind of character normally reserved for male actors and, in fact, was originally ‘Edwin Salt’, with Tom Cruise initially envisioned in the role. One of the few distinguishing characteristics of the movie is how little the role appears to have changed in the transposition from male to female. There are only one or two moments where it is difficult to imagine the action unfolding any differently with a man in the lead as opposed to a woman.
One of those moments might be the opening scene, which occurs two years before ‘the present day’, in a North Korean prison. Salt has been stripped down to her underwear and is being stretched out and tortured by her captors. Despite the near nakedness, the scene does not read as having been shot or staged for titillation. Cuts are quick, the action is discomfiting, and the camera is not used to fetishize Jolie’s body. Whether Tom Cruise, or some other male actor, would have been exposed in the same way is difficult to say, but the lack of sexualization to the scene suggests a staging that is largely indifferent to sex or gender.
I saw Salt back in August, only a week after a failed attempt which ended in the catastrophe that was Letters to Juliet. Action movies are one of my "exception" category, as in, "I listen to almost all genres of music, except metal" - so my usual instinct of comparing movies to make sense of them doesn't really work, since there is barely anything to go on. The quote above sums up why I found this movie rather astonishing fairly well, and I had a discussion afterwards with two friends about how female heroes are common in shows (never having actually seen the first show that came to my mind, Alias, I can't really judge how accurate that perception is), and have been for quite some time, but this hasn't really translated into movies yet. On the other hand, there's Besson's original La Femme Nikita (and Besson in general - Léon and The Fifth Element), which also follows this idea that the main character would actually prefer a normal family life to what she is forced to do but this isn't necessarily coded as gender-specific, just a general idea of breaking out of something that was forced on her for something else that seems peaceful (but then, again, there is also this weird "preserving the innocence of the female main character" theme in every single one of Besson's movies, so maybe that's actually a really bad example that negates the interchangeability of male/female characters).
In completely unrelated news, if Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone), Michelle Williams (for EXISTING, but more specifically for Blue Valentine which I can't wait to see), Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, which I really can't recommend enough) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan) all get nominated for an Academy Award, I couldn't possibly pick who deserves it most. While compiling my annual Best Of List I realizes that this has been a pretty spectacular year not necessarily film-wise, but when it comes to individual performances.
No comments:
Post a Comment