It has gotten to the point that saying “woke” in any context somehow now comes off as ironic or at least sarcastic. And when engaged in an argument about not liking “strong female characters” (the subject of this episode – which you can watch embedded above), the titles of Kill Bill, Terminator 2 and Aliens are always tossed around as examples of movies that have a strong female lead and are beloved by all. I am gonna share those same examples. Those films have never really been labelled “woke” due to being layered, believable intriguing entertaining characters, role model heroines, and well you know …“cool”.
Gender politics or social justice never enter your mind because you want this character to overcome the obstacles they are given and not preach about how “girls get it done”. We already know girls get it done or women can accomplish great tasks. We cheered when Ripley killed the alien on the big screen, we jumped for joy when Sarah Connor killed the robot and we all felt avenged when The Bride killed the Bill. SHE has been doing it for decades – you just might have to look in places that might be HIDDEN from your eyes… look at The Hidden Fortress for one. In the late 50s, Kurosawa gave us a powerful princess who commands and holds her own around the bravest of samurai. As many nerds (such as us) know, Hidden Fortress was a major influence on Star Wars, and this warrior princess would pave the way for another named Leia. Speaking of Leia… nobody called her “woke” until they made her “lame.” Right?
Now you may say that because all of my examples were released in the “before times” – there are no more cool female heroines. But right now I am watching Blue Eye Samurai , and I have no idea if it is woke or not because the story is so compelling. Blue Eye Samurai actually does check off quite a few of those precious boxes, but it never panders, never brags about inclusion… which feels authentic and crosses political lines for a large audience that one can say is actually authentically diverse (the recent Alien: Romulus always notably avoids pandering – and that comes from Walt Disney!).
The strong female boss girl is nothing new. In fact, it has become the norm. Yet, there’s been some blowback in recent years, much of it directed at Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy. A powerful human being who boldly assumed The Forces’ gender by proclaiming that “The Force is Female,” unofficially turning her into the scapegoat of all things wrong with all things Disney/Star Wars. Also controversial, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s exhausting Helena in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which also hails from Lucasfilm.
But what about the X-Men? X-Men were always woke, you say? Sure… maybe… that origin is debatable, but yes, eventually, the story of these outcast mutants naturally evolved into an allegory for civil rights, but it was never lame. Cool, good wokeness is key. X-Men ’97 may be “woke” but it’s also “good.”
The same goes for our friends from Wakanda. The Black Panther movie is pretty dang “woke,” but it ain’t lame. So when Black Panther is called “woke,” it is not necessarily done as an insult or at least has a logical reason to be “woke”…ya know, for the story.
Same goes for the Spider-Verse. It’s cool. And Madame Web is not cool… so it’s woke.
But when Black Panther 2 was labelled as “woke,” it was done as an insult…cuz that movie was lame, and I don’t even remember the story. Context is key when a film is labelled “woke,” and it depends on who is doing the labelling and if the movie is good or not. Lame Wokeness is very forgivable when the film offers other “cool” cinematic aspects. You got Good Woke, Bad Woke and Ugly Woke and somehow, the Good Woke is overshadowed by the abundance of Bad Ugly Woke… which is lame.
Dig more into this debate via the video above, and our previous video on the Good vs Bad of “Woke” Cinema and let us know below what you think.