favorite movie #29: black widow

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #29 - Black Widow (1987) - This is a very stylish thriller, with two fantastic female leads - Theresa Russell and Debra Winger. A cat and mouse game, Black Widow is not a murder mystery - we know from its opening shots who is the hunter and what sort of prey she prefers - very rich, very talented men. The true mystery at the core of the film is not how, or if she will be caught, but why she feels compelled to do what she does. The supporting cast is full of fine actors, too: Dennis Hopper, Diane Ladd, Nicol Williamson, Lois Smith, Sami Frey, Terry O'Quinn, James Hong, Mary Woronov, and D. W. Moffett. Highlights include the yin/yang relationship between the women and gorgeous locations, including some breathtaking Hawaiian scenery. I wrote about this film in more depth in 2011.

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avengers assemble and mash-up

The kid and I went to see the latest Avengers movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron, last weekend. It was ... O.K. I am starting to wonder if Joss Whedon can't help but pastiche his own work, no matter what he does.

I was a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and an even bigger fan of Angel, so when I hear the name Joss Whedon I tend to have positive associations. But I am not a super fan girl. There are also plenty of things he has done that leave me cold (Dollhouse, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), or that I just could never connect with (Firefly). I found the first Avengers movie a little on the ho-hum side. I love the casting and the banter of the main super heroes, but when you've seen one CGI robot blow up and a major city explode, you've seen them all, right?

The Avengers — and lots and lots of robots ...

Apparently not. Because the second time around with Ultron the Avengers were up against tons and tons of CGI robots and tried to save more than one city on the brink of destruction. Iron Man and his pals plowed through city streets and buildings, leaving broken glass and devastation in their wake, all in the name of saving the world. Again. And sadly, there was no witty, bratty villain like Tom Hiddleston's Loki, but another CGI super robot, Ultron, who wanted to destroy the world because ... I really don't know. It was in the script?

As I watched all of this computer-generated mayhem, which seemed to go on forever at its two and a half hour-plus running time, I couldn't help think of another Whedon project, Cabin in the Woods. The movie references in The Avengers may not have been as blatant or funny as the horror tropes that Cabin in the Woods served up, but movie buffs may still have had a déjà vu feeling in certain scenes:

A bunch of robots streaming up the side of a building — hey, that is reminiscent of I, Robot.  

Black Widow and the Hulk have a Beauty and the Beast thing going.  

Naughty Ultron isn't your friendly neighborhood artificial intelligence — from 2001 to A.I. and beyond.  

All that morphing metal was also very Terminator-y.  

Robert Downey Jr.'s sassy Tony Stark/Iron Man is suddenly a bit of a Victor Frankenstein in his desire to use Ultron to save the world.

The best scene in the movie is a moment of relative quiet near the start of the film. The Avengers have all been hanging out at a party, celebrating their latest victory. They start teasing Thor about his hammer, and he declares that only he is worthy to wield such a weapon. Each Avenger, except the wise Black Widow, takes a turn trying to lift it, unsuccessfully, a la The Sword in the Stone.

Hawkeye [after quite a few drinks], "'Whosoever, be he worthy, shall have the power'" — Whatever man! It's a trick!"

Thor, "It is more than that, my friend!" 

Captain America, "But if you put the hammer in an elevator?" 

Iron Man, "It'll still go up." 

Captain America, "Elevator's not worthy."

It's fun, and silly, and showcases each character's and actor's strengths. There are other fun moments of clever dialog, which can be attributed to the Whedon touch, but unfortunately they are few and far between too many long, long battle scenes with robots. Sorry, Joss, but as far as these Marvel movies go, Guardians of the Galaxy is still the most entertaining, and knows how to perfectly balance fun and adventure.

p.s. And one more not-so-minor beef: With all the mega-merchandising that goes on with a film of this kind, why is it only the male characters that get action figures? Where is Black Widow?

black widow

Article first published as Movie Review: Black Widow on Blogcritics.


Black Widow, which came out in 1987 was controversial at the time for a few reasons. The movie wasn't a standard thriller or procedural, since there was no longer any suspense about whodunnit. Theresa Russell's femme fatale antagonist was undoubtedly the villain of the piece, revealed at the get-go. There was still plenty of suspense in the film, just of an interpersonal nature. Debra Winger, the hero and FBI agent on Russell's trail, was, atypically for a big budget Hollywood production, also a woman — still pretty much unheard of in the movies.

But Winger's character not only had to fight for the right to pursue the case of multiple murders of rich men, but convince her boss that the perpetrator was female, as his attitude is clear, "A complex series of seductions and murders. That's not something you see a woman do." She is convinced even obssessed, that her suspect is a Black Widow, "Which part do you figure a woman isn't up to, the seduction or the murder?"

The much-vaunted lesbian subtext was just that. There are definitely some girl/girl moments. But the film never commits to a full-on romance between the two women. Winger's character Alex may be attracted to her quarry, but more importantly to the story, Alex is attracted to a deeper, female-ness about Russell's character Catharine. Catharine uses her power, femininity, and sexuality to attract and entrap men (including Dennis Hopper and Nicol Williamson). Like the black widow spider (and the movie's tagline) she mates and she kills. Catharine tries to explain her attraction to her prey, "I loved them all." It's what she knows. Alex, until she meets Catharine, uses her femininity not at all.

As accomplished as serial killer Catharine is at her deadly work and Alex is at her job, they are both struggling to assert their true identities. Catahrine keeps changing hairstyles and husbands and getting richer and richer — and more and more bored. The time passing in the movie isn't clear, but apparently living is jet-set lifestyle isn't enough for Catharine. It's the selection of her next victim and the hunt that keeps her going.

As frustrated as some viewers might be at the cloudy depiction of the women's growing relationship, today it would have been probably presented merely as sex scenes. By keeping Catharine's motives ambiguous and Alex's confused, we actually get a more complex, intellectual cat and mouse game. It is left open-ended, for the viewer to decide how deeply their affections lie.

Usually two women set against each other in a movie are just vying for the leading man's attention. Roger Ebert, in his review at the time, wanted the film to follow the lesbian love story more openly, but I think that would have resulted in just a weaker version of Diabolique. He wrote in his review, "Why not follow a more cynical, truly diabolical course — something inspired by the soul of film noir? Why not have Winger fall completely under the spell of the black widow and stand by while the tycoon is murdered so the two women can live happily ever after? And then end on an eerie note as Winger begins to wonder if Russell can trust her with the secret?" Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Basic Instinct was still five years away.

But through time spent with Catharine, and Catharine's latest potential victim, a rich Hawaiian entrepreneur played by Sami Frey, Alex is finally able to find her true female power. Catharine even helps her along the way. At the end of the film Alex may have got her woman (incarcerated), but what she really gets is her own womanly self. She can now move forward, still a good investigator, but also a stronger woman. The sexual-politics question is of course, has she discovered or acknowledged her lesbian identity, or just her female sexual power? Or both?

Black Widow is a sexy movie, but not just for the obvious reasons of Theresa Russell looking fabulous in her various incarnations, and some close encounters for the two women in the water. The kiss scene is more Judas than soft-core. It is a movie that highlights how women role-play in their sexual relationships. Catharine is a master at becoming the right woman for the right man, and possibly woman. The Black Widow is great to look at, but she is also smart, and if it suits her, funny, as she tells an acquisitive  private investigator, "Mr. Shin, I'll tell you two things about me: I'm very rich. And I'm very wealthy."

There are echoes of Hitchcock's Vertigo, with Alex and Catharine as two aspects of the same woman, a la Madeleine and Judy in that film. In Black Widow Winger also gets to be the Jimmy Stewart part, unraveling Catharine's web. According to imdb, "Debra Winger was given the choice of the two roles in Black Widow; she chose the role of the FBI agent, because she didn't understand the motivation as to why the Black Widow kills, so the title role went to Theresa Russell." Thank goodness for that. I can't even imagine Winger in the Black Widow role. Russell has an aloof sexiness that works perfectly. What makes the movie interesting to watch is the team — the two women are great together. That is what the movie hinges on, the push-pull of their relationship. Two female stars getting to spar off one another, something men get to do in the movies every day.