The live action version of Beauty and the Beast
is expected to break all the records for a movie opening in March on
this, opening weekend.
I can't say I care either way about the movie. I'm not excited about it, although I may end up seeing it someday. I am also not upset by the 'zomg there's a GAY in it!!' although it's apparently very controversial. That's a lot of hype, really. Just a very short scene of two men, dancing. I really don't think it's worth all the coverage it gets.
But let's think about the rest of the movie a bit.
First, there's Gaston, who plans a damn wedding with Belle even though she doesn't want to be with him. Most of the town goes along with his plans and they're willing to help him carry out his plan.
He STALKS her! He's going to make her marry him.
Instead, she ends up forced to live with a beast who controls everything she does.
He locks her up.
Growls at her.
Makes demands.
Pitches a fit when she doesn't do what he wants.
Scares her.
Then, aw gee, she sees how kind he is under that ugly and mean exterior.
So she stays with him.
Now in the real world, those are not behaviors you want to see when you're in a relationship. I knew a girl many, many years ago who had a boyfriend with a horrible temper. We, meaning the other girls in the high school (it was a small school) encouraged her to break up with him. She often had asshole-inflicted bruises and contusions. They fought a lot. Because she didn't do what he said. He got mad.
She blamed herself for it. "Well, I made him mad."
We'd tell her that he was a jerk.
She disagreed. She LOVED him, you see.
"But he's really a sweet guy," she tried to convince us. "He just has a temper."
He was arrested for battery more than once, and she didn't want to press charges. Because under that mean exterior, he had a heart of gold, ya know.
And when they were a young married couple with two small children, he was once again beating her up one night when he came home drunk, and someone called the police.
He beat the officer to death with a piece of wood.
Despite the life sentence, his (paid for by us) lawyers try to get him out every few years.
His face is splashed all over the news for a week or so. He manages to manufacture some tears for the cameras and pretend that he's sorry.
The only thing he's sorry for is getting caught.
He's a petulant-faced whiny little bitch, to be honest.
I hope he never gets out.
Okay, so I digressed a bit, but the obsessive and abusive relationship is relevant, I think. It's a sick relationship. And when our young people are being encouraged to look beyond that mean and abusive exterior and agree that 'he's really sweet' underneath, it worries me.
I don't like it.
And Emma Watson has this whole persona, she's a FEMINIST and she's STRONG and she is EMPOWERED and makes her own choices, blah, blah, blah.
Also, this.
I can't say I care either way about the movie. I'm not excited about it, although I may end up seeing it someday. I am also not upset by the 'zomg there's a GAY in it!!' although it's apparently very controversial. That's a lot of hype, really. Just a very short scene of two men, dancing. I really don't think it's worth all the coverage it gets.
But let's think about the rest of the movie a bit.
First, there's Gaston, who plans a damn wedding with Belle even though she doesn't want to be with him. Most of the town goes along with his plans and they're willing to help him carry out his plan.
He STALKS her! He's going to make her marry him.
Instead, she ends up forced to live with a beast who controls everything she does.
He locks her up.
Growls at her.
Makes demands.
Pitches a fit when she doesn't do what he wants.
Scares her.
Then, aw gee, she sees how kind he is under that ugly and mean exterior.
So she stays with him.
Now in the real world, those are not behaviors you want to see when you're in a relationship. I knew a girl many, many years ago who had a boyfriend with a horrible temper. We, meaning the other girls in the high school (it was a small school) encouraged her to break up with him. She often had asshole-inflicted bruises and contusions. They fought a lot. Because she didn't do what he said. He got mad.
She blamed herself for it. "Well, I made him mad."
We'd tell her that he was a jerk.
She disagreed. She LOVED him, you see.
"But he's really a sweet guy," she tried to convince us. "He just has a temper."
He was arrested for battery more than once, and she didn't want to press charges. Because under that mean exterior, he had a heart of gold, ya know.
And when they were a young married couple with two small children, he was once again beating her up one night when he came home drunk, and someone called the police.
He beat the officer to death with a piece of wood.
Despite the life sentence, his (paid for by us) lawyers try to get him out every few years.
His face is splashed all over the news for a week or so. He manages to manufacture some tears for the cameras and pretend that he's sorry.
The only thing he's sorry for is getting caught.
He's a petulant-faced whiny little bitch, to be honest.
I hope he never gets out.
Okay, so I digressed a bit, but the obsessive and abusive relationship is relevant, I think. It's a sick relationship. And when our young people are being encouraged to look beyond that mean and abusive exterior and agree that 'he's really sweet' underneath, it worries me.
I don't like it.
And Emma Watson has this whole persona, she's a FEMINIST and she's STRONG and she is EMPOWERED and makes her own choices, blah, blah, blah.
Also, this.
I don't get into this shit. I never watched the tv show either. Not my cup of tea. I find it all baloney but it made a boat load of money this weekend so they will make more.
ReplyDeleteIt really is all about money. Nothing else matters. A lot of people will view the movie, think it's harmless fun and move on. I can't watch it without thinking of that long-ago girl who married her abuser because he was 'good' under that mean exterior.
DeleteAlthough I had my share of disney stories (& movies), Beauty and the Beast was not one I ever watched as a kid, nor did I read the story. I think my Mom didn't like it either, and steered us girls away from that one. But Pinocchio? Loved that one.
ReplyDeleteDisney often kills off the mother in the stories, too. Something I didn't address in this post, but that's another thing I really dislike.
DeleteI don't know. It bothers me to consider the things I've said about sticking with an abuser. Is that a lesson we should be passing on to our little people?
I've decided that this all brilliantly points out how certain Christian groups apparently applaud Stockholm Syndrome and abusive power dynamics as long as women are bearing the brunt of the suffering; but, golly gee, let 2 people of the same gender express a positive relationship in a slightly non-approved way and we get a giant NOPE stamped on it.
ReplyDeleteI'll probably see it when the DVD is free at the library. Most of the people we hang out with are so excited to see a musical that they look past the plot (see also: American in Paris, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, etc). Heck, I read my kids the older versions of most of the fairy tales -- the ones where most people died horrible deaths, and life generally sucked. I like to think I've prepared them well for the current culture we live in.
Mm, the original fairy tales.. I have a huge book of them that was given to me at the age of 8 by my great aunt, who thought there was NOTHING that should be kept from children. I admire her even more now that I'm getting older and she is no longer with us.
DeleteYes, some of the Christian community is up in arms over the scary gay people in the movie. I really don't get it.
My mom goes along with whatever 'Pastor' says, wherever they're going to church. She strongly disapproved of Harry Potter, too.
I once asked her if she had read any of the stories or knew what they were about. She said no. "But Pastor says _____."
Thinking for herself isn't necessarily one of her talents. I love her, but she's very easily squashed and controlled. Which probably explains the passive acceptance of being told what to do all her life.
I am willy nilly about this one. We have pointed out more than once that the moms are all gone in the movies, leaving the kids to their own devices. However we haven't pulled out the 'true stories' part of it yet.
ReplyDeleteMultiple times I've had 'there's something there that wasn't there before'... ringing through my head.. and then my subconscious shouts STOCKHOLM SYNDROME really loudly.. and I giggle.
Because it's so watered down as a disney fairy tale (much like the others that have so much less gore to them)... it doesn't seem as 'brutal'. More like a person having a temper tantrum and then asking forgiveness the next day. After all most of these things are less than 2 hours. Little kids don't approximate relationships from disney movies, at least not if they have healthy households that teach them something. I see it more as learning that people can be jerks (even our own selves) and do the wrong thing and eventually learn to do the right thing and stand up for what's good eventually. Obv. the original was NOT that, but neither did any of the other Disney versions end up anything other than outwardly cheerful.
I haven't heard a word about a gay scene. Oh Lord, who cares if people dance? That's the most ridiculous.. but whatever. My MOMS group is supposedly going to see it. However, they mentioned a drive in. Since no one ever rides together, it seems kind of an odd mom's night out. I don't really want to drive 45 minutes to sit in my car by myself to watch a movie. ROFL. I'd rather just hide in my room and read.
Yeah, I'm mostly 'meh' about the whole thing until I remember that long-ago teenaged girl who LOVED HIM SO MUCH. It makes me sad, he wasted her life, his life. Was not able to be a father to his children. Broke his mom's heart. "But he was really a sweet guy!"
DeleteI overthink. I know this.
Wait, you still have drive in movies? I really loved the drive in movies as a child. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to go sit in a car alone and watch a movie.
You're right, too, about the kids not seeing Disney movies as a measure of relationships.
The gay 'scene' is about 8 seconds of two guys dancing. And Le Fou is French for 'the fool' which also has some people pissed off.
I don't know if I will ever see the movie. I doubt I'll mind missing it.