HANNA Director Calls SUCKER PUNCH’s Female Empowerment “Bullshit”
Even after its second week in theaters, Sucker Punch clearly has its fans and enemies. The video-game aesthetic that director Zack Snyder gave the film has clearly divided fan-boys and was hated by most critics. One aspect that many did discuss about the film was the way women were portrayed in the film. With the short skirts and tight leather, the female heroes surely showed the audience a sexual side while also “fighting for their freedom” from the oppressive male figures in the film. Well, Joe Wright, director of the upcoming teen female assassin film Hanna, clearly has made up his mind on the film and preceded to let people know at the recent WonderCon in San Francisco.
In front of a packed house, Wright talked to the crowd about his new film Hanna. The tale of a teen trained to kill while also learning about herself, is Wright’s first stab at the action genre. Though not focusing entirely on the action, Wright wanted to touch on broader issues as well, such as female empowerment. This is the subject where he lets his mouth fly. The Hollywood Reporter was able to get the scoop.
What the two ( Wright and star Saoirse Ronan) liked about the character, they said, is that she doesn’t use her sexuality, instead relying on a hunter’s instinct, “in this age of gross sexualization of young people,” Wright said.
Then, while not naming names, he attacked a recent movie with young female characters in crop tops and short skirts, scoffing that the movie’s makers were “calling it ‘female empowerment.'”
“I think that’s bullshit,” Wright said.
While the rest of the panel wasn’t nearly as controversial as those comments, Wright did go on and talk about some interesting choices he made regarding the editing of the film.
The movie features a large number of one-take sequences, a deliberate attempt by Wright to veer away from the fast-cut action scenes made popular by movies such as Paul Greengrass’ Bourne films. Wright acknowledged the Bourne movies made it possible to make action movies that question morality and ethics, but said he “wanted to avoid those comparisons” in the fight sequences.
To read the whole article, you can head over to The Hollywood Reporter to check out it in its entirety.
Hanna comes out in theaters this Friday.
Michael Haffner
Somewhere between growing up on a steady diet of Saturday morning trips to the local comic-book shop, collecting an unhealthy amount of action figures, and frequent viewings of Ray Harryhausen and Hammer Horror films, came forth a nerdy boy that was torn between journalism and the arts. In high school, Michael found himself writing a movie column for the school newspaper. Yet, he went on to get a BFA in Studio Art at Webster University. When not writing about films, you can still find him discussing classic horror, collecting action figures, and reading Batman. Clearly, not much has changed.