The shots that weren't there

[giandujakiss]

Spoilers for The Avengers, again-



such_heights has a post expressing rage at the fans who have derided the Black Widow's role in the film - mostly, they insist she was there to look pretty and do very little.

Which is a shocking reaction, since it was obvious that she did a lot, both in terms of straight up action and in terms of plot and character development. As I said to such heights in the comments, one review killed me - it not only said that Black Widow didn't do much, it also listed what each member of the team contributed, and in her case, it was sexiness. I can only imagine that perhaps that reviewer saw a different movie than I did, because in the movie I saw, Black Widow was sexy in the sense that all of the team members are attractive actors, but her sexiness was not used by the plot in any way. (Yes, she wore skin tight clothes - so did Captain America. I also notice that Thor mysteriously lost his sleeves for much of the movie.*). It's as though for some viewers, they are literally incapable of seeing Black Widow's role in the film - their eyes just slide away (or slide to certain body parts) when she appears on screen, and they can't see anything else.

Anyhoo, I just want to echo what a lot of the commenters at such-heights's post have mentioned. Black Widow wasn't just fantastic because she played an integral role in the film; she was fantastic because of what we didn't see. We did not have shots of her body parts. We didn't have shots of her looking sexy in skimpy outfits. There was no point in the plot where she was called on to seduce someone, unless you count the vague implication that she was dressed for a dinner party in her opening scene, which I do not.

That's truly amazing. In almost all movies with ensembles and the "token" woman, that woman has some perfunctory fight sequences but her main role is to be sexy. She's always called on to go undercover or get information or escape a tight situation by seducing someone, at least once. At the very least, she has to strip down to her underwear (*cough*Uhura*cough*Moira*cough*) for no reason at all.

(Sneakers presents a particularly egregious example of this - the brilliant woman mathematician, who you'd think would be an invaluable asset in breaking codes and helping with computer stuff, only helps by seducing a guy they need something from.)

But for Black Widow, that never happened. Even when she was sucking up to Loki to get information, she didn't do it by trying to appeal to him sexually - which would have been the case in any other movie. She did it by appearing to be emotionally, but not sexually, vulnerable. (Sidebar: I loved how effectively the movie conveyed that she was using her real feelings to draw him out, but she was fully in control of them at all times.)

Now I just have to wish - futilely - that we'll get a Black Widow movie. We won't, of course - Iron Man 3 (ugh!), Thor 2 (ugh!, yes, I know, YMMV), and Captain America 2 (yay!) are in development, there are rumors that even (another) Hulk movie is in the works because audiences are so pleased with Ruffalo (sigh, it'll never work), but Black Widow? Silence.

Baby steps, I suppose.

*Well, okay she did have the same situation as this but since she never stripped down to her underwear, I'm giving them a pass

Comments

[monanotlisa]

I just want to echo what a lot of the commenters at such-heights's post have mentioned. Black Widow wasn't just fantastic because she played an integral role in the film; she was fantastic because of what we didn't see. We did not have shots of her body parts. We didn't have shots of her looking sexy in skimpy outfits. There was no point in the plot where she was called on to seduce someone

Oh, fantastic point!

[liviapenn]

YES TO ALL OF THIS. And additionally, I really loved Natasha and Clint's relationship-- this is something that Joss *occasionally* does really well, the platonic male/female team, and he *nailed* it here. The sort of amusing thing about it (to me) is that, more than any other two characters in the movie, Natasha and Clint have the Two Guys Action Movie Bromance Relationship (ironically, the most recent example I can think of is Jeremy Renner with Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible") -- right down to Loki mocking Natasha/implying that her feelings must be romantic. "Oh, you care about Clint! Do you LOOOVE him?" "No, we are BROS, no one else gets our manpain!" That kind of deep but platonic bond almost NEVER happens with a female action hero. I loved it.

[monanotlisa]

The sort of amusing thing about it (to me) is that, more than any other two characters in the movie, Natasha and Clint have the Two Guys Action Movie Bromance Relationship (...) -- right down to Loki mocking Natasha/implying that her feelings must be romantic. "Oh, you care about Clint! Do you LOOOVE him?" "No, we are BROS, no one else gets our manpain!" That kind of deep but platonic bond

*laugh* This, this, so much of this.

[loligo]

No, we are BROS, no one else gets our manpain!

Yes! Natasha gets to have manpain! My god, the last female action hero with manpain that I can remember is Xena! It has been so freaking long....

(*Footnote that I never watched either version of Nikita, so maybe she had it too.)

[giandujakiss]

Actually, yeah, reboot!Nikita has "manpain" in the sense of mourning for her refrigerated boyfriend (every character has a refrigerated other character to motivate them in the reboot, it's actually hilarious), and guilt for the terrible things she used to do when she was working for the bad guys.

The original Nikita TV series was ... different, she had her own pain but it was a different quality (and actually sort of awesome, but I am digressing and will stop now)

[thirdblindmouse]

I wasn't expecting much from Natasha, since I found her dull and pointless in Iron Man 2, but she (and Fury, and the Hulk) pleasantly surprised me by being amazing. There is [almost] nothing about her that I didn't love. Even though the woman being the emotional one is a tired trope, she kicked ass by using her own real and fake emotions to great effect, and it felt fresh. The one thing about Natasha in this movie that didn't work for me was her costume -- more specifically, the back of it. There was a shot or two in Avengers where Natasha is standing alone with her back to the camera, and it's supposed to be dramatic ...but the costume is yelling HEY LOOK AT THIS ASS, which detracted from the gravity of the moment. Still, it's a small quibble with a movie that, as you've pointed out, avoids most of the common faults found in action films.

[giandujakiss]

See, I actually thought that shot was interesting - it wasn't about framing her ass, it was just how she looked wearing a skin tight thing from the back. And as it turns out, her ass is - well, woman-sized. Which I appreciated seeing. Because they could have used the costume to shape it and make it smaller, and they didn't.

[liviapenn]

Also, speaking of DAT ASS, we got a pretty much 100% equivalent fanservice shot of Steve from the back in those thin workout pants when he was working on the heavy bag. (Not that I have spent a lot of time looking at this animated gif or anything.)

(ETA to actually post a link instead of the .gif itself, heh)

Also to go back to what you said in the original post: There was no point in the plot where she was called on to seduce someone, unless you count the vague implication that she was dressed for a dinner party in her opening scene, which I do not.

Seriously, how can you think her "sexiness" was her power in that scene? Unless you weren't paying attention to the words actually coming out of her mouth? The plan wasn't "Seduce the General, get the information, oops that went wrong, now I'm tied to a chair, noes! Well, I'll use Plan B which is psychological manipulation." The plan ALL ALONG was "Get the guys to underestimate me and think I'm just a dumb sexy redhead who is here to sex the answers out of them, and then once I'm tied to a chair AS IS MY PLAN, use my toughness and resilience and LOKI-LEVEL psychological sneakiness to manipulate the answers out of them while they THINK they've got the upper hand." Complete trope reversal! And with no sexy "rolling my stockings up my legs and spraying perfume on my boobies and the long pan up my body as I step into the room" or any other similar types of shots. Just badassery. I'm all for that.

[dysprositos]

The plot to a Black Widow movie, as pitched by a Metafilter member in a discussion thread about the Avengers trailer pre-Avengers. (There's also a suggestion of an Agent Coulson movie in that thread, but it's set after the Avengers movie, *sob*)

[scrollgirl]

Yes, yes. All of this.

I swear, if we get an Ant-Man movie before we get a Black Widow movie, I may contract Hulk to go smash up some Marvel offices.

[meri]

Yes, this. I left the theater thinking she might now be my favorite Avenger and I knew (I just knew) that there would be people who would dismiss her because she was "the girl" in the group - which, hey, also dismisses Maria Hill who is also pretty bad ass and super competent while never once seducing anyone or playing up her sexiness.

[cellia]

Here from liviapenn's link list and YES to all of this. How much I liked Hulk surprised me, but how AWESOME Natasha was was an even bigger surprise to me. Perhaps I should have expected it, because: Joss, but there are so many action-movie-token-female pitfalls the movie avoided. I thought she was actually one of the more fleshed out and interesting AND badass characters in the whole film. The people who thought her power was "sexiness"... uh

(It also makes me think, because I've never really enjoyed watching Scarlett Johansson except as Black Widow. I now think I've been unfair to the actress, and it's the writing I haven't liked, not her acting style.)

[giandujakiss]

Yeah, she really got wonderful development in many ways - it was like, there didn't need to be the same sort of development for Iron Man/Captain/Thor/Hulk because they'd had their own movies, so Joss took the time to make sure we knew something of Black Widow's backstory, as well.

[ithiliana]

So glad I ca now read posts--I am not usually major about avoiding spoilers, but sometimes it hits me.

and YES a MILLION TIMES yes, YES YES YES.

I was confused becuause I'd seen some major critique of the film and her character (now maybe I was confusing the critique with that of past stuff, or the comic books or something), but she ROCKED in this one.

And the opening scene totally blew me away starting with when the phone rang.

DED.

Awesome.

[giandujakiss]

You saw my post about that scene, right? I think it was basically a revamp of a different scene from Joss's work - where Faith breaks out of prison. It's got a similar sort of rhythm and a similar punchline (i.e., we think the woman is trapped until someone tells her that a guy needs her, and then she calmly switches gears and breaks free).

[brownbetty]

Yes. I loved Natasha's role-up-her-sleeves and get-it-done -ness, if you will. She reminds me of Katniss in her willingness to make even her own emotions into a weapon; you want an emotional vulnerability? Okay, here you go.

I mean, she's not ludicrously super-powered and she's *playing at that level anyway* and *winning*.