Susanne Saville - Caffeinated Natter

Monday, September 6, 2010

Uncalled for Misogyny

I just Netflix-ed Clash of the Titans. The new one. This one:

On the cover there, our hero is holding up Medusa's head. You can't tell what her face looks like (the snakes obscure it). Which is good since she's dead. Also good because she's a Gorgon. And scary looking.

Or at least she should be.

In the original Clash of the Titans she was appropriately terrifying. Or that's how I remember her.

In this new version she looks like a beautiful woman until she switches on her turn-you-to-stone powers. And that's a brief on-off switch.

Which means we are watching a group of men pursue a beautiful woman with the intent to decapitate her.

Add in the fact that we're told she was a rape victim just before this, and instead of Medusa being a terrifying force to be reckoned with, we now are watching a beautiful woman who has already been victimized once by a man, get attacked by a gang of men, and murdered.

What were they thinking??

Okay, yes, she does take, what, three men with her? But it's self-defense.

And that reminds me. The men were willing to befriend that weird tree-desert creature - a male creature - but they couldn't try asking Medusa to cooperate? I know that's not really how the myth goes but, hey, practically nothing about this movie goes according to myth so I don't see a problem with that type of re-write.