Benedict Cumberbatch is good at playing posh
sociopaths. His IMDb page is littered
with them –Sherlock, Smaug, Khan, (both Shere and otherwise). It’s a type that he plays very well. And now we add Doctor Stephen Strange to that
list. Massive ego – check. Arrogance – check. Ability to stay bizarrely calm, whatever the
circumstances – check. Exceptionally
intelligent? Charming? Check, check.
The list goes on. I would be
crying about typecasting here, but he does always manage to bring something
“other” to each of the roles, so that you can’t just copy and paste the
characters from one film to another.
Arguably, you could not lift Stephen Strange and plonk him into the Grey
Mountains and expect the same outcomes. A
new facet to the list of posh sociopaths is that Doctor Strange is American,
and sounds a lot like Hugh Laurie’s House
M.D. Which is odd, because House is
based on Sherlock… and now I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole…
Doctor Strange is a brilliant surgeon who loses his ability
to be a surgeon because he is an idiot who checks his phone while driving at
high speeds on twisty roads. Those last
6 words are entirely superfluous. He
winds up in a fairly horrific accident and can surgeon no more because his
hands are completely and utterly messed up.
I’m reminded of Joey Tribbiani’s explanation of the demise of his Days of Our Lives character Doctor Drake
Ramoray (“they said that when they found me, the only person who could have
fixed me was...me. It’s supposed to be
some kind of irony”). I have little
sympathy for him because rather than admitting that any of this is HIS OWN
FAULT, he whines a lot about how all other surgeons are rubbish by
comparison. What a charmer. Don’t text and drive, kids.
At least one female character gets her own narrative arc that is not about supporting the man’s story.
Does Doctor Strange pass this test? No.
The female characters serve one function – to shine a bit more light on the enigma that is Doctor Strange. By the end of the film, we’ve barely learned anything more about them. Christine, in particular, is a problematic character because she literally spends the film pandering to the needs of Strange, but it’s coated in the guise of “independent woman who takes none of his nonsense”. Except that each time we see her, she is waiting for him to turn up so she can forward the plot a bit more. Even when he unexpectedly pops up in the hospital, she is casually lounging around doing nothing WHILE WORKING IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT OF A HOSPITAL IN NEW YORK!
Do people on the internet get mad about the film being “too feminist” and complain that “it’s so hard to be a man in films now”?
Does Doctor Strange pass this test. No. Not a murmur. Which I’m less concerned about in this instance. I don’t want every film to be an angry lecture about women and how important they are. I just want there to be decent female characters out there. And I want to be not surprised when I find them (in the same way I’m not surprised when I see a film about powerful, white men). And I’m concerned that for Christine, at least, someone out there will be convinced that this film empowers woman because Christine is an actual doctor (can women even be that??)
Gosh. Until I started writing this, I didn’t even know I had that much to say.
And that’s even without looking at the criticisms that the film has racist overtones. Go and google that argument for yourselves.
In conclusion: it’s worth seeing and it’s worth seeing at the cinema because it looks great, and aesthetically it’s a good film to get a tiny bit overwhelmed by on a big screen. But consider the Strange-ness of the messages that this film contains.
 |
| Ooh... |
Angered by the lack of surgical skill of every other surgeon
in the world (no, really), Doctor Strange winds up on a quest to Nepal to
discover the secrets of how a paralysed man is currently playing
basketball. Whereupon he meets Chiwetel
Ejiofor and Tilda Swinton who teach him about his own limitations and make him
consider the possibility that there are other alternative universes and
realities, including one where he might actually consider people other than
himself. He learns about the requisite
bad guy (Mads Mikkelsen who can convey more by raising one eyebrow than most
people can with all the words that exist) who is a kind of fallen angel type, convinced that he knows more than The Ancient One (Swinton) and will
destroy the world to prove it.
 |
| Next, the eyeliner flick... |
And that’s pretty much it.
Except it’s a Marvel film, so everything looks really cool and there’s a
lot of quipping.
And it does look really cool. The aesthetic is like being in a
kaleidoscope, where realities bend and fold around each other and it feels like
Escher, but it looks like Inception and
Tron.
As a result, fight scenes are complex and compelling, and a welcome
difference from people just punching each other into exhaustion. The soundtrack is by Michael Giacchino who
has composed for a lot of the Pixar films (Ratatouille,
Inside Out, Up) and an increasing amount of sci-fi (Jurassic World, Star Trek,
Fringe). The results are light, fast paced,
ethereal. Both of this world, but also
not. Special credit to the CGI of a
sentient red cloak which chooses to wrap itself around Doctor Strange, to help
and hinder and occasionally reduce our hero’s efforts to mere slapstick.
Did I like it? Yes,
probably. It’s not the best Marvel film,
but it’s perfectly alright. And it’s
well worth the price of a cinema ticket – it’s one of those films that’s worth
seeing on the biggest screen you can find.
My hesitations? It all felt a
little formulaic to me. Strange learns
valuable lessons about his own limitations after losing the one valued thing he had, and simultaneously learns that he is
gifted and amazing in a whole different way and is even more of a tortured
genius. He learns this via Eastern
philosophies, an Ancient guru (also a flawed genius). I’m annoyed that at he doesn’t seem to
recognise that his predicament is entirely of his own making. I’m concerned about the portrayal of women. So much so that I’m going to put it onto a
new paragraph.
Marvel don’t have a great relationship with women, and it’s
particularly evident in this film. I
count three women – Christine (Rachel McAdams), The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton)
and one of Kaecilius’s henchmen, that IMDb has listed as “blonde zealot” (alongside
“brunette zealot” and “tall zealot”. HR
needs to have a word with Kaecilius). IMDb
tells me that there are more, but they are so thinly and slightly written that
I don’t even remember seeing them. And
one of them is Meera Syal. How did I not
notice her? Let’s hold this film up to a
couple of easy “feminism” tests:- The Bechdel Test.
A low bar, and not necessarily an
accurate one but, at times, surprisingly hard to clear.
Does Doctor Strange pass this test? No.
The female characters don’t talk to each other. Most of the female
characters aren’t named.
Let’s turn our attention to
those two named women – Christine and The Ancient One (acronym “TAO” – a
Chinese word signifying “way” or “path”. How apt.) - The “sexy lamp” test.
Can you take out the female character and
replace her with a sexy lamp and have the plot remain intact?
 |
| I don't actually know what a sexy lamp looks like. |
Does Doctor Strange pass this test? Barely.
Arguably Christine is a qualified medical practitioner, and
without her, Strange would have died in this film. But both times we see her in her role of
qualified medical practitioner (at the start of the film with the “brain dead”
patient and when Strange comes to the hospital as a patient) Strange has to very specifically guide her
actions. The message is writ large –
without him, she is nothing. She might
as well just be a sexy lamp. And this is
poor from a franchise as big as Marvel in 2016.
“Ah, wait, but what about The Ancient One” I hear you
cry. Fair enough. TAO is completely androgynous and (if I
remember correctly) makes a point about the unimportance of gender. Which is an interesting (and arguably
progressive) point. Which is completely
undermined by Strange’s assumption that someone who is as wise as TAO is heralded
to be must be a man. He introduces
himself politely and deferentially to an elderly man, and when his mistake is
made clear to him, he does not transfer any of that courtesy or respect to
her. Boo, Marvel. Boo.
 |
| The Ancient One. An elderly, Asian mystic. Played by this white woman. |
·
The Mako Mori test.
At least one female character gets her own narrative arc that is not about supporting the man’s story.
Does Doctor Strange pass this test? No.
The female characters serve one function – to shine a bit more light on the enigma that is Doctor Strange. By the end of the film, we’ve barely learned anything more about them. Christine, in particular, is a problematic character because she literally spends the film pandering to the needs of Strange, but it’s coated in the guise of “independent woman who takes none of his nonsense”. Except that each time we see her, she is waiting for him to turn up so she can forward the plot a bit more. Even when he unexpectedly pops up in the hospital, she is casually lounging around doing nothing WHILE WORKING IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT OF A HOSPITAL IN NEW YORK!
·
The Furiosa Test
Do people on the internet get mad about the film being “too feminist” and complain that “it’s so hard to be a man in films now”?
Does Doctor Strange pass this test. No. Not a murmur. Which I’m less concerned about in this instance. I don’t want every film to be an angry lecture about women and how important they are. I just want there to be decent female characters out there. And I want to be not surprised when I find them (in the same way I’m not surprised when I see a film about powerful, white men). And I’m concerned that for Christine, at least, someone out there will be convinced that this film empowers woman because Christine is an actual doctor (can women even be that??)
Gosh. Until I started writing this, I didn’t even know I had that much to say.
And that’s even without looking at the criticisms that the film has racist overtones. Go and google that argument for yourselves.
In conclusion: it’s worth seeing and it’s worth seeing at the cinema because it looks great, and aesthetically it’s a good film to get a tiny bit overwhelmed by on a big screen. But consider the Strange-ness of the messages that this film contains.
Fascinating. I had only heard of the Bechdel test, not the others and didn't expect a superhero movie to pass this or show any social progressiveness. I'm sure you're right and they have only managed to drag it sociologically from the late 60s-early 70s into the 1990s rather than up to date. Male filmmakers still have a lot to learn I guess. Perhaps they should consult some actual women for opinions? The Furiosa thing is funny. I thought these types reacted to everything. Weren't they peeved that the Ancient One wasn't a man? I suppose he/she wasn't really a woman so actually less threatening to their little wieners.
ReplyDeleteIn the comics, The Ancient One is a man. And an Asian one at that. So there's been a whole furore about that. Which has some legitimacy, as Hollywood has a history of "whitewashing". That said, here is the argument of the writers, which is also valid:
DeleteThe character in the comics is a Tibetan man, a situation which co-writer C. Robert Cargill compared to the Kobayashi Maru, an unwinnable training exercise in the Star Trek universe. He explained that adapting the character as the comics portrayed him would be realizing the major Asian Fu Manchu stereotype, and would involve the film with the Tibetan sovereignty debate, but not giving one of few significant Asian roles to an Asian actor would also understandably be received negatively. Derrickson wanted to change the character to an Asian woman, but felt that an older Asian woman would invoke the Dragon Lady stereotype, while a younger Asian woman would be perceived as exploiting Asian fetish and "a fanboy's dream girl". To avoid the character filling any of those three stereotypes, as well as enabling the stereotype of a "Western character coming to Asia to learn about being Asian", Derrickson decided to cast a non-Asian actor in the role, but to still take the opportunity to cast "an amazing actress in a male role". Feeling that Swinton was the obvious choice to play "domineering, secretive, ethereal, enigmatic, [and] mystical", Derrickson wrote the Ancient One in the film specifically for the actress, before she was offered the role. Additionally, though the film uses the terms "her" and "she", Swinton chose to portray the character as androgynous, while Feige explained that the Ancient One and Sorcerer Supreme are mantles in the film held by multiple characters through time, so a more comic-accurate Ancient One could exist within the MCU. Still, Swinton's casting was widely criticized as whitewashing. In response to this, Derrickson said that though he was pleased with the diversity of the film's cast, in terms of both gender and ethnicity, "Asians have been whitewashed and stereotyped in American cinema for over a century and people should be mad or nothing will change. What I did was the lesser of two evils, but it is still an evil."
I do expect superhero films to be a bit more progressive, or at least equal. Marvel are owned by Disney who have been making great strides to correct some of the lessons they had been indoctrinating young girls with. It seems a shame not to put the same effort into the MCU, especially given that there's such an appetite for the films across ages and genders.