with the bold text in the example below:

Sunday, May 13, 2012

On strong (and fascinating) female characters (second part)

Following up on the "Strong (and Fascinating) female characters" reviews, I would like to add a few more examples.

Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991)
Transformed from the first Terminator to the second into a leader, perhaps a freak from everyone's perspective, a survivor, also a mother, strange combination, innovative for the time. Amazing.
Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton, Terminator 2: Judgment Day by James Cameron, 1991)

Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich, 2000)
Difficult the take seriously, Erin builds her credibility upon her brain, persistence, involvement instead of appearence and diploma. Therefor, she looks like a prostitute and have her language betraying her origins, not afraid to get close to people, crossing some legal boundaries and finally unveil a great environmental scandal. And it is a true story, making it much more valuable.
Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich by Steven Soderbergh, 2000)

Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz, The Whistleblower, 2010)
Another whistleblower, besides that I always love Rachel Weisz, from "the Fountain" to "About a Boy", to even "The Mummy", specially "Constantine", "Agora" (which will probably be my next female character to list) or her similar role in "The Constant Gardener" (perhaps except that poo movie that was really low "Envy" or "The Shape of Things"). Anyway, she is the perfect UN agent, with the non-bureaucratic spirit that the whole UN has taken on being, a true believer of the values that the people can bring: peace, help, respect, hope. She is thrown into a man's world where no humanity rules applies, protected by its own governance. It is of course a real story, which makes it even more horrific, but her more courageous, beautiful, suicidal to some extent. It was a difficult movie to ingest, knowing that little has been done to change the order of things. But at least, the movie spread the word that K. Bolkovac started to spread on the BBC a few years back. "The interpreter" was the other movie that made me question our greatest institution.
Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz, The Whistleblower by Larysa Kondracki, 2010)

Hypatia (Rachel Weisz, Agora by Alejandro Amenábar, 2009)
History is sometimes painful to look at. What science has reached is being removed so easily from the minds, the libraries, the civilizations. Replaced by religion, beliefs, blind submission. Hypatia's character is not well known, much because most of her researches have disappeared. What remains is the idea of a woman that in her time, made major discoveries that it took more than 15 centuries to recover. The character played by Rachel Weisz is of a modern woman, who believes that knowledge is power, that everyone should be entitled to this knowledge, and be free to believe in what they want, in her case, science, philosophy. She wasn't wrong.
Hypatia (Rachel Weisz, Agora by Alejandro Amenábar, 2009)

Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez, Out Of Sight by Steven Soderbergh, 1997)
Charm-full Jennifer Lopez, which I really loved in this movie and "The Cell". Besides, she has been singing too much r&b and been in too many romantic comedies. But Steven Soderbergh nailed her it what must be her best performance. She is strong, seductive, emotional, a cop with some internal conflict when comes Georges Clooney (who wouldn't), fast to answer, intelligent. Her character is very human with all its facets, and I believe that is what's making the movie so appealing.
Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez, Out Of Sight by Steven Soderbergh, 1997)

Ms. Rain (Paula Patton, Precious by Lee Daniels, 2009)
Ah, this is a modern character. You get to know her little by little, through the eyes of Precious, get to admire her strength, determination, the devotion she has for her students, the role and sacrifice she is taking to give them a chance. And beyond any judgment, you discover her personal life, with her life partner, a woman, and how the normality is to being surrounded by good people, no matter who they are, who they love. It is a beautiful.
Ms. Rain (Paula Patton, Precious by Lee Daniels, 2009)

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