Sunday, July 29, 2007

making the sky rain coconuts with pinpoint accuracy

So I watched Supergirl (from 1984) last night. That's two hours of my life I'll never get back. The only redeeming factor was that it was so inane and ludicrous, that I laughed through most of the movie. Laughing at the movie, not with the movie. Of course they were basing it to some extent on the comic books, but that's no excuse for gigantic plot holes and general stupidity. And I think the cinematographer had watched Barbarella (the crazy-campy-wonderful 1968 Jane Fonda sci-fi/fantasy sexploitation film) one too many times but didn't channel it particularly well. And that was the least of the film's problems.

I've been watching a lot of old (and not so old) action heroine films in the past few months because I'm teaching an Introduction to Women's Studies class on Action Heroines in American Culture in the fall, and though I already have a syllabus together, I want to have a general sense of what else is out there. I'm having trouble with the 80s; there really isn't much. My filmography (so far) is below. If you see anything that I'm missing (American films or television shows or foreign films/shows with a widespread US release -- action films with a female protagonist), leave me a comment and let me know!

The Avengers (TV: 1961-1969)
Honey West (TV: 1965-1966)
Get Smart (TV: 1965-1970)
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill (1965)
Barbarella (1968)
Coffy (1973)
Cleopatra Jones (1973)
Foxy Brown (1974)
The Bionic Woman (TV: 1976-78)
Wonder Woman (TV: 1976-79)
Charlie's Angels (TV: 1976-81)
Alien (1979)
Remington Steel (TV: 1982-87)
Cagney and Lacey (TV: 1982-88)
Sheena (1984)
Supergirl (1984)
The Terminator (1984)
She-ra: Princess of Power (TV: 1985)
Aliens (1986)
Blue Steel (1990)
La Femme Nikita (1990)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Thelma and Louise (1991)
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (1992)
Bad Girls (1994)
The Next Karate Kid (1994)
Tank Girl (1995)
Xena: The Warrior Princess (TV: 1995-2001)
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
G.I. Jane (1997)
La Femme Nikita (TV: 1997-2001)
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (TV: 1997-2001)
The Avengers (1998)
The Matrix (1999)
Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Miss Congeniality (2000)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Cleopatra 2525 (TV: 2000-2001)
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2001)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Alias (TV: 2001-2006)
Birds of Prey (TV: 2002-2003)
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Underworld (2003)
Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (2004)
Catwoman (2004)
Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004)
Aeon Flux (2005)
Domino (2005)
Elektra (2005)
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)
Serenity (2005)
V for Vendetta (2005)
Underworld: Evolution (2006)
Heroes (TV: 2006- )
Bionic Woman (TV: 2007- )

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