Thursday, August 31, 2017

An All-Female Remake of "Lord of the Flies" #Feminism #Art


Photo via @DenofGeekUS


Remaking the movie will create another the world didn't need but there may be some mild pedophilic tingle in seeing teenage girls running around in loincloths like these feral monsters.

Zen Yogi:  do you want that?

Nooooo, but truckers went ape over LeAnn Rimes when she was sixteen.  They would likely attend.  Maybe you saw a crew of middle-aged dorks salivating over Jennifer Grey in "Dirty Dancing" even when her nickname was "Baby."  She was a high school kid being romanced by an older man so define pedophilia if you will.


The Rockhouse wants to take it a little deeper than that since it's not permissible to differ too much from the storyline of the book without Bowdlerizing it.

Ref:  Thomas Bowdler was an early-19th Century freakshow who edited Shakespeare to make it safe for families.  His name has been ridiculed for it ever since.  (WIKI:  Thomas Bowdler)


Most crucial of all is any remake must not miss the point of the last segment in which it was made clear the book was an anti-war protest.

Zen Yogi:  how do you know that was true when men made the movie out of the book in the first place.

I don't know if it's true for that movie but I know absolutely it was true in the book when the rescuing officer from the British Navy saw the depravity into which the children had sunk and couldn't understand where they learned such things.  Then he looked back to his warship across the harbor and it was clear to him.

That point is so critical to the book, it cannot be reasonably excised simply for the purpose of better box office performance.


For pure feminism, it shouldn't make any difference who wrote this version of the screenplay, right?  One guess on where a great deal of the female rage reaction was directed regarding this remake.

Devan Coggan Verified account

GOOD: A female-centric Lord of the Flies!
BAD: A female-centric Lord of the Flies written by... two men.
Scott McGehee & David Siegel Plan Female-Centric ‘Lord Of The Flies’ At…
Scott McGehee & David Siegel Plan Female-Centric 'Lord Of The Flies' At Warner Bros
deadline.com

@devancoggan

Bingo

That bilge water about female-centric is an abomination in English to start but the females or males are only the stars and the central part is the savagery.


Almost any job within physical limits should be suitable for men and women equally.  Women probably won't do too well with Olympic weight lifting but how many times do you need a woman who can pull a train with her teeth anyway.

Femme:  women don't think the same

The same as what since it's never been my observation that any two people ever think the same.  In any case, what difference should it make when the storyline to the original book is aesthetically immutable and any deviation would be literary blasphemy.

It's sincerely unclear as to why it matters who stars since the kids must descend into barbarism to truthfully honor the story so, either way, we wind up animals.  A female perspective not only can't alter that path, it mustn't.


Femme:  when we don't get the good gigs for the big bucks while we see men sucking them up, we're going to get tense

And rightfully you should.  The way the project likely proceeded was Mr McGehee and Mr Siegel came up with the idea and slashed out a storyboard.  Then they went out hustling it and someone thought it was clever.

However, they may have created an abomination in which it even has singing elves and fairies and rubbish of that nature needs a response.


If I may suggest, some femme needs to go Mel Gibson on the screenplay as with "Braveheart."

Femme:  bloody hell!  He's a man and that movie was savage.

Nevertheless, it was truthful to the times which were nasty, brutish, and short.  Even the Druids were savage, head-cracking brutes and there's evidence in their burial places to prove it.  I have no doubt a woman can write with the same or more passion but that shot at the brass ring has never or rarely come.

Superfluous note:  the Druids were the last of the resistance to the returning Romans after the Iceni revolt led by Queen Boudika.  That attack wiped out the Druids and they were not seen again.  There are statues of Queen Boadicea (i.e. her Roman name) in England to this day as she is one of the greatest female heroic figures of all time.


Femme:  you don't believe a woman can do it?

Of course I believe that but I don't believe a woman has had the opportunity.  If you ladies can turn up a female version of Sam Peckinpah, she will be a box office sensation in Hollywood.

Femme:  he was incredibly violent and we're not like that

You will have to be, young lady, if you will make movies along violent themes.  You will also have to pound the ground ten times harder than Mr McGehee and Mr Siegel because the system is rigged and we all know it.


If I may further suggest, remaking the story of the Iceni revolt could be an excellent opportunity for a rising female writer in Hollywood.  The movie has been made previously and I have not seen one but they were most unlikely to have portrayed the honest violence of it since you never, ever, want to have Celtics coming after you for revenge.  She burned Londonium to the ground and killed everyone there.

Femme:  you laud this?

She is history and that's what really happened.  The burning of Londonium is spectacle akin to the burning of Atlanta in "Gone With the Wind" and, with modern effects, it could be exceptional in film.  That's the dramatic midpoint since the Romans were driven out of England but they regrouped and they returned, at which time it's said Boudika died in battle.

She did this to protect her daughters after the Romans savaged she and they together.  This has female themes all through it but the screenplay must be savage or it won't really be truthful.

Note:  Queen Boudika did not drive the Romans from England but a few hundred years later those Celts damn sure did run them out and they never came back.  She's been a heroine with me for years and she's the ultimate tragic heroine.  I would dearly love to see a faithful modern rendition of her story.

Femme:  written by a man or a woman?

Here's the feminist answer and I believe it:  whether a man or a woman does it makes no difference and the bigger variable is who will deliver it first.

Femme:  why should I take advice from a man?

This is not so much advice as suggestion.  You take that and integrate and synthesize in your womanly way and do whatever you want.

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