dreaming of a female-gazey Han Solo movie…

hansolo

…maybe one directed by a woman who understands why we love this scoundrel.

I tweeted this and it got a lot of love. This tells me that I’m not the only geek girl a little cheesed off that the fan service we get in Solo is not the fan service I wanted.

The more I think about this, the more I wonder whether my complaint in my review that Alden Ehrenreich is bland — cute, but bland — isn’t the actor’s fault but because Ron Howard barely lets the camera linger on him long enough for him to show any personality.

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Bluejay
Bluejay
Tue, May 29, 2018 11:57am

MaryAnn, does Han REALLY hold up as swoon-worthy today? If his courtship of Leia were written today, he’d be rightly viewed as an entitled male and a predatory creep.

https://mic.com/articles/186792/does-the-best-star-wars-movie-hold-up-in-the-metoo-era-lets-ask-han-solo#.aKVudXjHB

Unless it’s just the thigh-holster thing, of course. :-)

I’d hope a Han Solo movie written/directed by a woman today would at least put Han in a scenario where he gets called out on his misogynistic bullshit.

Tonio Kruger
Tonio Kruger
reply to  Bluejay
Wed, May 30, 2018 5:07pm

If only we knew someone who liked writing science fiction fanfic…

Jurgan
Jurgan
reply to  Bluejay
Thu, May 31, 2018 2:46am

Yeah, Harrison Ford had a ton of these predatory roles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWoP8VpbpYI

Bluejay
Bluejay
reply to  Jurgan
Thu, May 31, 2018 12:04pm

Yeah, that video is highly worth watching. Its points about male entitlement and women’s consent have been made many times, but we sometimes forget to apply them to the movie heroes we’ve admired unquestioningly for decades. (And the last clip is yet another reason why Frozen rocks.)

In contrast, I just recently saw Gifted (great film for so many reasons) which has a lovely romance scene between Chris Evans and Jenny Slate. At no point does the scene read as Evans forcing Slate to yield to him; he’s constantly reading HER cues and going with what SHE wants, even when she changes her mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8gjSVy8fmQ

MaryAnn Johanson
reply to  Bluejay
Wed, Jun 06, 2018 11:11am

So many things are problematic when we look back at them from the perch of today.