ONTD Original: Final Girls of Non-Horror Films
When film fans think of the term "Final Girl," they automatically think of the girl who survives at the end of a slasher film. Names like Nancy, Laurie, and Sidney are synonymous with the Final Girl trope.
The term was first coined by Carol J. Clover in her 1992 book," Men, Women & Chainsaws: Gender in Horror Films." She analyzed the rules of gender in horror films, including the nuanced versions of Final Girls pre-1992. She says most of the Final Girls are virginal, resilient, resourceful, and most of all, someone who the audience can identify with. Since Clover's critique, there has been many incarnations of the Final Girl.
Perhaps, this particular trope has inspired filmmakers outside of the Horror Genre. And, maybe, earlier characters from non-horror films influenced the ideology and characteristics of the Final Girl. For instance, we can look at the sisters, Marion and Lila, in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The "vixen" Marion, who is in a relationship with a married man, before she can redeem herself from partaking in criminal activity, is killed halfway into the movie. Lila, often credited as one of the original Final Girls, is seen as resilient, resourceful and relatable when looking for her missing sister. If Psycho is considered the blueprint for the modern slasher, can the same be said for Lila and Marion for the women characters in slashers?
One might wonder how these two characters were created. What were the ingredients that made these two what they are? Perhaps these characters were unintentionally designed after Scarlett O'Hara in the epic tale of Gone with the Wind. O'hara can be seen as both a vixen and good girl. She's seen as needy, but irrepressible, as, manipulative, but ultimately caring.
We can also go further back, way back, with the story of The Iliad. The characters of Helen and Cassandra of Troy, whose lives, depending on the iteration, were manipulated by Greek Gods, ultimately controlling their fate. Helen, considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world, ran away from her husband to Troy with her lover, Paris, the son of King Priam and Hecuba of Troy. This action instigated the Trojan War. Cassandra, on the other hand, the sister of Paris, was cursed with psychic abilities to see the future but was to never be believed. She prophesized the Trojan War, but was deemed mad.
Again, depending on the story, the fate of these two figures vary, mainly of Helen. Some stories have her living in peace after the war, while in others, we find her facing death. Most stories tell of Cassandra, although escaping Troy, is ultimately met with death.
The characteristics of the Final Girl have been within our arts for many, many years. I decided to take a look at some examples of the Final Girl trope that appear in films outside of Horror.
Jada Pinkett-Smith in Set It Off
Set It Off is a film by F. Gary Gray and written by Takashi Bufford and Kate Lanier. The film stars Jada Pinkett-Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A Fox and Elise Neal. The film focuses on four young women who turn to bank heists in order to escape the reality of Los Angeles in the 1990s.
Roger Ebert says, "Set It Off is advertised as a thriller about four black women who rob banks. But it's a lot more than that. It creates a portrait of the lives of these women that's so observant and informed. The movie is more aware of the economic struggles of its characters than most American films allow themselves to be."
Entertainment Weekly says Set It Off is "a film about the '90s that takes place in the '90s." "The film was released merely four years after the Rodney King trial and the uprising, two years after Bill Clinton signed the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law, which accelerated mass incarceration and further built on the already racist legacy of Reagan's "War on Drugs" that decimated black communities."
In Set It Off, Jada Pinkett-Smith portrays Stony, who raises her little brother on her own, ultimately making dire sacrifices in order to help him build a future. Tragically and coincidentally, her brother is killed by the police after mistaking him for one of the bank robbers in the opening of the film. Out of desperation, the four women vow to make it out of the area, to be able to thrive elsewhere, by any means necessary. They plan a bank heist, and continue these heists until they feel they cannot get away with it. With the cops closing in, they make one last robbery, which ends in tragedy.
Ultimately, Stony is the only one to survive the aftermath of their last heist that included police shoot outs. One by one, T.T. (Elise Neal), Cleo (Queen Latifah) and Frankie (Vivica A Fox) are killed, allowing Stone to escape to Mexico with the bags of money.
When analyzing the characters of Stony, Cleo, Frankie and TT - they are all archetypal Final Girls. All strong, resilient, resourceful and relatable. This could be a result of screenwriter Kate Lanier.
What's special about Jada Pinkett-Smith is that she has played an actual Final Girl and a First Girl (another trope in the slasher genre where the first victim of the killer opens the story). First, she portrayed Maureen in Scream 2, where she was killed in the opening sequence, a victim of Ghostface in front of a crowd of audience members. Secondly, in Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, she portrayed Jeryline, whom fights off demons and the otherworldly Collector, played by Billy Zane.
Kirsten Dunst in Drop Dead Gorgeous
Drop Dead Gorgeous is a film by Michael Patrick Jann and written by Lona Williams, an ex-beauty queen. It stars Kirsten, who at only 16, starred as Amber Atkins in the mockumentary. The film was under appreciated at the time and was met with pretty scathing reviews, but has since gained a cult following.
Amber, a humble but driven character, decides to run for the local Sarah Rose Cosmetics Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant. Her mother, Annette (Ellen Barkin), a winner of beauty pageants, now a has been whose favorite accessories are a cigarette and a beer.
Amber says, "I'm signing up because my two favorite people competed in pageants: my Mom and Diane Sawyer," she adds, "course I hope I end up a little more like Diane Sawyer than my Mom."
The film sets off to satirize the beauty pageant community by introducing a slew of small town characters including mother and daughters duo, and Amber's main opponent, Becky (Denise Richards) and Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley).
Rigging the pageant isn't all what Gladys, head pageant committee leader, is up to as she will do anything so that her daughter comes out the reigning Queen of Mount Rose, Minnesota.
Throughout the film, Amber advances through the pageantry, seemingly by luck, ultimately winning the runner-up to Becky's crowned victory. These advances continue to the victory parade on the following day which results in the tragic death of Becky, revealing an unhinged Gladys. Because of Becky's death, Amber is crowned Queen. Amber advances to the state competition and wins the Minnesota American Teen Princess be default after the other contestants fall ill after eating seafood.
"Ma always says 'don't eat anything that can carry its house around with it,'" Amber says, "'Who knows the last time it's been cleaned.'"
Amber is automatically in the running for the Sarah Rose Cosmetic Teen Princess, but as contestants arrive at its headquarters, its revealed the company folded and no one is crowned winner. Sometime later, Gladys escapes prison and has a stand off with the police as she tries to kill Amber. Gladys ends up shooting a news reporter who drops the microphone into Amber's hand, and Amber continues the duties of the reporter. The film closes with an older Amber as a news anchor for the local news station, following in the foot steps of Diane Sawyer.
Although these advances in Amber's life can be seen as coincidence, it's Ambers drive that helped get her to her ultimate ending. The same can be said about Kirsten Dunst, who landed the role after director Michael Patrick Jann spotted her on Celebrity Teen Jeopardy, "She radiated genuineness. Every emotion was right there on her face; I found myself charmed watching her on that show."
Cynthia Erivo in Bad Times at the El Royale
The plot of Drew Goddard's Bad Times at the El Royale follows six strangers and an employee at the El Royale, a hotel located on top of the California-Nevada border, who arrive with personal dark secrets that eventually intersect on a fateful night.
Cynthia Erivo portrays Darlene Sweet, a singer traveling to perform in a nearby gig. Eventually She reluctantly befriends Father Daniel Flynn aka Dock O'Kelly (Jeff Bridges), who really is an ex-convict who is in search of a stash of hidden money. Together they must find a way to survive the night as madness and chaos occurs in the mysterious El Royale, involving a cult, a CIA agent, a war veteran and other hidden mysteries.
When Erivo was auditioning for the role as Sweet, she says, "whoever gets to do this is going to have a great time." She went on to win the role as Sweet, which was molded after singer Darlene Love. Sweet "has been through a lot," Erivo says of her first movie role, "and I think she's got a point where she needs change... she needs to do something makes her feel confident." Erivo believes upon arriving at the El Royale hotel, she's lost her love of music. Erivo even sings live during the filming of the film, even up to 20 takes of a scene where she sings.
Drew Goddard's Bad Times at the El Royale is often described as a neo-thriller noir, but Erivo has a difficult time explaining which genre the film lies, "I think it's a combination of many different things. I sometimes find myself at a loss of words to describe as exactly what it is. Because I feel like it encompasses so many different things, really well that, I kind of end up going, 'you just have to see it.'
Goddard, no stranger to horror, also wrote and directed The Cabin in the woods. Erivo continues, "because it could be horror, or it could be drama, or a mystery..."
When cult leader Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth) shows up to "reclaim" Rose Summerspring (Cailee Spaeny) after her sister Emily (Dakota Johnson) tried to save her from the cult. In the third act of the film, Lee holds the visitors hostage. Sweet, strapped up in a chair, stands up to Lee, "I'm bored of men like you," she says, "You think I don't see you for who you really are? A fragile little man preying on the week and lost." Although Dock and Sweet survive, it was Sweet's tenacity that kept them both afloat the chaos the the El Royale.
In the end, Sweet performs in Reno, and Dock is in the audience, as she has found her confidence again.
Sandra Bullock in Gravity
Nominated for ten Academy Awards, Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity is about the survival of one woman dangling in the outskirts of earth's atmosphere.
Many actresses tested and were up for the role as Dr. Ryan Stone before Sandra Bullock ultimately landed the role. Although the film earned Bullock an Oscar nomination, she was apprehensive about taking on the role. "I don't want to work. I have nothing to offer," she says, "I wanted to stay home with my sweet little boy (her son)."
Stone is a medical engineer, who invented a special scanning device to be used on the Hubble Space Telescope. She is joined by a crew, led by Lieutenant Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), to install the device on the Hubble. Stone spent six months training as an astronaut for her week long mission into pace. It is later revealed that prior to the events, she lost a daughter in a accidental death that left Stone devastated.
"The reason I did [the film] was for him (my son)," Bullock says of accepting the role. "Because of my son, I felt it was really important for me, as his mom and as a woman, to try and pull it off so I could tell him what I felt about him. To tell him to what lengths a mom would go for her child."
"The silence," Stone answers Kowalski who asks, "what do you like about space?" She continues, "I can get used to it."
While installing the device, NASA calls to abort mission as they detect space debris from a Russian satellite. Unfortunately, the debris hits the Hubble before crew can properly abort. The impact leaves Stone and Kowalski as the only remaining crew members. Dangling in space, the two a hope to drift onto the International Space Station, while connected to each others suits. Sadly, in order for Stone to call for help, Kowalski must disconnect from her, sacrificing himself into the void of space.
"I, Ryan Stone, am the sole survivor of STS-157," Stone radios to a near-by station upon reaching a damaged ISS.
Being alone in space allows a grieving Stone, to reflect on her life, as well as her child. Mishaps continue to follow Stone who ultimately decides to allow her life to slip away due to hypoxia. However, the lack of oxygen manifests a vision of Kowlaski who helps guide Stone and she ultimately makes it to the Chinese space station, Tiangong.
After many obstacles, including explosions, Stone finds her way to a spacecraft that will, hopefully, carry her to earth. During this time she uses the skills she learned in training as well as will to live.
As the space capsule descends to earth, Stone radios into the Mission Control station: "The way I see it there's only two possible outcomes. Either, I make it down there in one piece, and I'll have one hell of a story to tell, or I burn up in the next ten minutes. Either way, which ever way, no harm no fail. Cause either way, it'll be one hell of a ride... I'm ready."
Stone's capsule lands in a lake in an unknown, to the audience, stretch of land. She swims her way out of the water and finally reaches land.
"I think rebirth in many ways is part of the journey for everybody, not only every human in Earth, but it's also the journey of great characters. Great characters in literature or in cinema they go through the stages of rebirth and of a new understanding." Cuarón says of the ending of Gravity.
The way Stone arrives to earth is similar to that of Sarah (who also lost a daughter in an accident) escaping from the cave dwelling beasts in 2006's The Descent. During test screenings, Alfonso Cuarón alleges he received cards stating, "“Why aren’t there any aliens in this?” read one, while another said, “I wish there was a monster in this.”
SOURCE: RogerEbert | Facebook | Facebook | | Youtube | Youtube | Youtube | Youtube | Gizmodo | BARRY KOLTNOW, KNIGHT RIDDER. The hamilton Spectator; Hamilton, Ont. [Hamilton, Ont]. 24 July 1999: W5.