Hello dear readers. To celebrate 100 posts on this blog, it seems appropriate to feature the film clip that was the major inspiration for it. I will never forget seeing this in the cinema for the first time. This visualisation of girl power had a huge impact on me. To see women fighting with men and beating them so comprehensively in a mainstream movie was both shocking and exhilarating at the same time. My heart was pounding as we watched an army of scantily clad women totally destroy the male palace guards. We'd never seen anything like this before. The fact they were wearing sexy, revealing outfits made the whole thing that much more exciting and pleasing to watch. There was no doubt that these fighters were female, but they were stronger and better at fighting than the men. Their skill grace and power was overwhelming, the men had no answer for it and were crushed easily. Despite the devastating display of physical dominance, the women looked beautiful and feminine throughout. This of course went totally against the grain of what we were used to seeing. This time women were in a different role and although initially surprising, it felt good, it felt right to me. For the first time I was fully engaged in an action sequence in a film.
As we left the cinema, me and my friends were all buzzing and energised by what we had just seen. As girls our collective egos had just been boosted through the roof, I felt invincible, superior and in a strange way like I had been freed. I also had a wonderful feeling that the truth had just been revealed, not only to me and my friends, but to all the boys and men in the audience too. They would now have to accept the idea, that women CAN beat men up and they must be hating it ha ha. I was so inspired by the effectiveness of the graceful acrobatics that I just could't wait for my next gymnastics lesson...I also started fantasising about using some of the moves I had just seen on certain nasty boys at school and maybe one or two male teachers...
For years this scene has stayed with me as a genius bit of film making. There has not really been anything quite so effective since and although it was just one scene in just one film, I always had the strong conviction that there was way more milage in the concept....
Please share your thoughts and memories of Octopussy....
