Life in Stepford
I just finished reading Ira Levin’s “Stepford Wives.” I had seen the remake about a month ago and was interested to see how it compared. The book was good. The remake could have been better. It was intended to be an update, rather than a remake, which lends itself to all sorts of possibilities. Sadly, the movie itself started strong but sort of petered out in terms of an update. The ending was good, and I’ll spoil it: you find out that the wife of the main guy in town was the one behind Stepford’s conformity - she just wanted a place where women could be women again. An interesting commentary on feminist backlash, I think.
But the movie could have been so much better with the social commentary! There were so many possibilities!
Redone with all gay couples, the movie focuses on stereotypes of the gay community and what happens when you try to fit someone into a predesigned mold.
Who is the “ideal woman” right now? I would think it’s a woman who can be SuperMom and CareerWoman while maintaining her calm, cool and fresh-from-the-salon hairstyle. The new wife in Stepford, Joanna, would fuss about the difficulties of raising children and being a career woman, but the other women don’t commiserate and seem to manage just fine. Then we find out…dun-dun-DUN…that the Wives of Stepford are actually two women, identical in every way, except one is dedicated to work and the other to the kids.
The Stepford Husbands. A perfect blend of sensitivity and machismo, the movie would look at the current - and some might say unclear - role of men in today’s society. Women say they want a man who can cry, but they also want a man who can change a tire. The movie would follow John, a former construction worker, who is baffled by the men who seem alternately feminine and masculine.
Why didn’t they make the movie overly campy? The film couldn’t seem to figure out whether it was a comedy or a suspense, so it decided on an awkward blend of both. Make everything too much - add corsets, painful beauty treatments and cleaning grout with a toothbrush. This version would show how far we’ve come in our expectations of women.
Not Another High School Movie. We all remember high school and the desire to fit in. The Stepford Students would take place in a high school where all students perform at the same level, wear the same clothes, and get along with each other. Gone are the cliques: the populars, the jocks, the nerds, the slackers. Stepford High promotes a peaceful co-existence between all students. The elimination of individuality leads to perfect harmony and better test results!
The purpose of an update, one would think, would be to portray society as it is when the film was made. This update would use pills to provide that Stepford look. Technology would be a bigger part of the film, as women are shown as being increasingly reliant on computers and machines to perform their daily activities - from cleaning house to dressing themselves. As an added bonus, the breakdown of Stepford would begin to manifest itself as women stop taking the pills and their machines begin to break down.
The concept of Stepford itself has such interesting and manipulatable (is that a word?) themes: conformity, the real and the ideal, technology. I know it’s a lot harder to write a movie than it seems (right, Sam?), but surely the writers and directors could have put a little more thought into their update. Goodness.
Okay. Rant complete. For those of you who skimmed, be sure to check out my new quiz: Which 80’s Song Are You?
http://quizilla.com/users/demeter37/quizzes/Which%2080's%20song%20are%20you?
I want Live Journal to have a “Book You’re Reading Now” field. But they never will. And that’s sad.
16 more days until I leave Texas for-ev-er. Or at least for two years.
But the movie could have been so much better with the social commentary! There were so many possibilities!
Redone with all gay couples, the movie focuses on stereotypes of the gay community and what happens when you try to fit someone into a predesigned mold.
Who is the “ideal woman” right now? I would think it’s a woman who can be SuperMom and CareerWoman while maintaining her calm, cool and fresh-from-the-salon hairstyle. The new wife in Stepford, Joanna, would fuss about the difficulties of raising children and being a career woman, but the other women don’t commiserate and seem to manage just fine. Then we find out…dun-dun-DUN…that the Wives of Stepford are actually two women, identical in every way, except one is dedicated to work and the other to the kids.
The Stepford Husbands. A perfect blend of sensitivity and machismo, the movie would look at the current - and some might say unclear - role of men in today’s society. Women say they want a man who can cry, but they also want a man who can change a tire. The movie would follow John, a former construction worker, who is baffled by the men who seem alternately feminine and masculine.
Why didn’t they make the movie overly campy? The film couldn’t seem to figure out whether it was a comedy or a suspense, so it decided on an awkward blend of both. Make everything too much - add corsets, painful beauty treatments and cleaning grout with a toothbrush. This version would show how far we’ve come in our expectations of women.
Not Another High School Movie. We all remember high school and the desire to fit in. The Stepford Students would take place in a high school where all students perform at the same level, wear the same clothes, and get along with each other. Gone are the cliques: the populars, the jocks, the nerds, the slackers. Stepford High promotes a peaceful co-existence between all students. The elimination of individuality leads to perfect harmony and better test results!
The purpose of an update, one would think, would be to portray society as it is when the film was made. This update would use pills to provide that Stepford look. Technology would be a bigger part of the film, as women are shown as being increasingly reliant on computers and machines to perform their daily activities - from cleaning house to dressing themselves. As an added bonus, the breakdown of Stepford would begin to manifest itself as women stop taking the pills and their machines begin to break down.
The concept of Stepford itself has such interesting and manipulatable (is that a word?) themes: conformity, the real and the ideal, technology. I know it’s a lot harder to write a movie than it seems (right, Sam?), but surely the writers and directors could have put a little more thought into their update. Goodness.
Okay. Rant complete. For those of you who skimmed, be sure to check out my new quiz: Which 80’s Song Are You?
http://quizilla.com/users/demeter37/quizzes/Which%2080's%20song%20are%20you?
I want Live Journal to have a “Book You’re Reading Now” field. But they never will. And that’s sad.
16 more days until I leave Texas for-ev-er. Or at least for two years.