Bechdel-ing the classics

Many of these I have not watched. I'm prejudiced against All About Eve because it later turned into the stage musical Applause, which is one of those musicals in which actors gather on stage to tell audiences how special it is to be an actor. But thinking about it makes me wonder if Bechdel needs a piece of shading. Yes, there's a lot of fighting over a man and using a man to keep score, but he's treated rather like a piece of meat and not an object of adoration.

Bonnie and Clyde I still haven't seen. Philadelphia story is still in que. Sound of Music I've avoided for decades, particularly when I was getting ready to direct it. Swing Time-- I agree. In fact, now that I think of it, the 30's might be a fertile decade for us to look at, with a fairly good supply of hard-boiled women.

Wizard of Oz. Good catch. Not only are there a bunch of ladies, but what men are present are largely ineffectual-- the Uncle, the Wizard, the trio. It's the women who have to sort everything out. But does Dorothy count as a strong woman if she's written to be a girl?

Bringing Up Baby. Tell you what. You don't have to feel bad about not watching Aliens until I finally watch this.

Cabaret. Again, I'm going to allow half a point if the woman is looking for a man, sort of, but not to rescue her or fix her.

Singing in the Rain. Wow. The two female leads are together for the discussion of whether Cathy will sing for Lena or not. And Rita Moreno had some more stuff that got left on the cutting room floor.

Some Like It Hot. There's a trombone player named Doris, if that helps. Several of the band girls get names in passing, and the band bus scene is an interesting femaled-up locker-room talk scene.

I can't dispute the fails. In fact, the entire original Star Wars trilogy-- three entire movies-- only has Leia, the Aunt, and some unnamed female crowd person in the last one. Outside of that it's dancing girls and crowd scenes. It's six hours and an entire universe of boys. I suppose some of the ewoks might be female, but that's a stretch. We know Ben Burtt could even have created female robots if he wanted to (he did it four decades later for Wall-E), but no-- even the hardware in Lucas's universe is male.

And while Woody Allen movies may have well-written women, in terms of lead roles, all Allen movies have the same woman in them-- she's just played by different actresses over the years.