A picture truly can paint a thousand words.
Ever wonder how women get erased from history?
Blue Ray's the 'hot' 'new' thing these days. And instead of just releasing new titles (a very small piece of the economic pie), they also want to release "classics."
Seven films billed as "Blue Ray Essentials." Notice anything? Women aren't the leads and aren't really important in any of those films.
Well, you say, those are the big hits.
Are they?
Okay, Ghostbusters was a big hit.
However . . .
The Patriot was a big disappointment -- all the more so when the studio was caught crafting reviews. Though Snatch did okay by Guy Richie standards, by Guy Richie standards Juno is a summer blockbuster franchise. The Fifth Element? It only made $63.5 million in the US. And it cost $95 million to make the film.
That reminds us of another Bruce Willis film that made about that much at the box office (with a much smaller production budget), Death Becomes Her. Starring Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep and Bruce, the film was directed by Robert Zemeckis who is known for his visual style.
But that's not an "essential." No film where women are anything more than 'the girl' or the third lead makes it as an 'essential.'
It's funny because we could see "essential" being based upon box office. We could see it being based on critics. But what we're seeing is a line that zig zags, a line that is jerry-mandered to keep women out. 'Oh, it's about box office!' you can hear them insist as they feature Spiderman. 'Well Fifth Element has been criticially reconsidered!' you can hear them insist to explain that bomb's inclusion as an 'essential.' But the reality is the only criteria remains: Do you have a penis?
All non-penises are non-essentials.
This despite the fact that top 5 DVD sales for last year weren't dominated by these 'action boyz' films. No, a children's movie (Toy Story 3), two tween-geared films (The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), Avatar and Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side were the top five best selling DVDs of 2010.
