Female Characters: Catwoman in "The Dark Knight Rises"
First of all, I loved “The Dark Knight Rises” whatever Christopher Nolan, the director, did wrong in “The Dark Knight,” he did right in this movie. The multiple plot lines were not one after the other, but they were all related and led up to possibly the largest climax ever. Like the title, the story development rises and keeps rising.
However, the women of the movie were greatly lacking. First of all, they were both objects of Bruce/Batman’s lust.
Marion Cotillard played another billionaire who was seemingly the other side of Catwoman’s coin. She was a do-gooder and wanted the world to be sunshine and butterflies. The two women emphasized the dichotomy of women today; the fact that there is no acceptable way to live in between the “bad girl” ideal and the “good girl” ideal.
Although both female characters had small roles, the bad girl Anne Hathaway plays had more screen time.
The character Anne Hathaway plays — Selina Kyle by day, Catwoman by night—is lacking, unfortunately. I hated her. For one, I had been wondering how Anne Hathaway would do as a villainess since her roles up to date have basically been goody-goody innocent-ish roles (“Princess Diaries,” “Ella Enchanted,” “Love and Other Drugs”). The answer was found in the voice and attitude of her portrayal, which was almost ridiculous.
She adopted for the pout and was almost so oversexed, that I couldn’t handle it. Catwoman was supposed to represent a woman living in a man’s word, which was obvious because Hathaway was one of the only women to be on screen in the entire movie.
Like many female characters of any movie (other than rom-coms), Catwoman/Selina was just a character foil for Batman, only appearing in key turning points of Batman’s psyche. But unlike in “Avengers,” where Scarlett Johansen could be sexy as a hard-ass, Hathaway was the sexy, manipulative woman.
And, of course, for the male audience’s enjoyment.
You know that one motorcycle that Batman rides? To drive it, he basically has to lie on his stomach, spread out. But was he ever shot from behind? No. Hathaway’s on that multiple times and if it weren’t for her trademark cat ears, I would never have known it was her, unless I knew the contours of her derriere intimately.
However, her Catwoman was significantly better than Halle Berry’s Catwoman.
Let’s now all take this moment to recall that and shudder. Aaand back to the repressed memory bank it goes!
We’ve all seen this before; how no top-grossing movie ever has too many women in the movies. And, when there are women in movies other than chick flicks, they have never interacted with each other.
Let’s look at the list: “Avatar,” “The Avengers,” “Titanic” (the exception only because it’s a semi-chick flick), “The Dark Knight,” “Star Trek,” etc. See what I’m saying?
Not only are there fewer actresses in movies, but the roles given to them are extremely stereotypical and embody helpers more than the independents we know ourselves to be.
But really, go see “The Dark Knight Rises.”
