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Maya Vs. Carrie − Comparing The Feminism of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ & ‘Homeland’

Do you remember when J.J. Abrams ‘  ABC series  Alias was the greatest female spy story of its time? Premiering in 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it starred an apple-cheeked newcomer with just the right combination of hardness and softness. For five seasons and through hundreds of costume changes — does the CIA really spend thousands of dollars on neon wigs? — Sydney Bristow ( Jennifer Garner ) showed the world that a female spy could be just as clever, alluring, and badass as James Bond , even on a TV budget. Since the premiere of Showtime’s spy thriller,  Homeland , last year, however, Sydney has been retroactively exposed as Spy Barbie, a product of the girl-power fad of the 1990s. Homeland and the upcoming film,  Zero Dark Thirty , which chronicles the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, make a more serious case for feminism — or a more serious kind of feminism — by pulling their female CIA-agent protagonists from the field and eschewing gold-lamé bikinis for sensible pantsuits. The ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ ‘Homeland’ Comparison Zero Dark Thirty ’s Maya ( Jessica Chastain) and Homeland ’s Carrie Mathison ( Claire Danes) are certainly cut from the same cotton-polyester blend cloth. They’re both young, willowy, fair-haired women hell-bent on finding a man: Maya is after bin Laden and Carrie after Abu Nazir, OBL’s fictional counterpart. They’re no-nonsense women with passion and indignation to spare, and more often than not, the smartest person in the room. They’re frequently the only women in a man’s world, but they’re not the type to make a big deal about it. Their hunches are usually ignored by exasperated higher-ups, but that has less to do with their gender than political convenience and grandstanding. Zero Dark Thirty and Homeland ’s rejection of honeypots in favor of intelligence analysts is instrumental in the reception of the film and the TV show as feminist works. That rejection reflects changing demographics within the espionage community, where female superstar data-crunchers are quickly becoming the norm. Both Maya and Carrie are famously based on real-life women in CIA.. The head of the spy bureau’s Al-Qaeda tracking team recently stated , “If I could have put out a sign on the door [after 9/11] that said ‘No men need apply,’ I would have done it.” But what’s most interesting about the feminisms — that’s feminism with an ‘s’ — of ZDT and Homeland are their different, but equally compelling, approaches to female heroism. The feminism in ZDT follows the “anything a man can do, I can do better” school of thought. It’s impossible not to project that attitude onto ZDT director Kathryn Bigelow , whose filmography strongly suggests a “guys’ girl,” and who received the first-ever Best Director Oscar awarded to a woman for making a macho military movie,  The Hurt Locker . It’s difficult not to see Bigelow’s brand of feminism in Chastain’s Maya. Girlish ponytail and pouty lips aside, Chastain’s Maya  is essentially a gender-neutral character.  When she’s asked about her thoughts on office romance, her response is the closest she ever gets to femininity: “I’m not that girl that fucks.” In other words, the sexless, workaholic Maya briefly dons the mean-girl mask to define herself against all those other “girls” who men might see as sexual partners, instead of colleagues. In a later scene, she takes credit for her discovery of bin Laden’s hideout in a room full of military brass by declaring, “I’m the motherfucker that found this place.” With that short statement, Maya draws attention to her gender by pointedly not drawing attention to it. Anyone can be a motherfucker, man or woman — just like anyone can find bin Laden. Like Zero Dark Thirty , Homeland is rarely about Carrie’s gender. But the character begs to be read as a fervent defense of female hysteria and hyper-emotionality. It’s not PMS that makes Carrie a puppet to her emotions, but her bipolar disorder, a condition that’s spottily and sporadically treated in the show’s first season. Even after a bout of electro-convulsive therapy and a regular regimen of lithium to stabilize her mood swings, Carrie isn’t balanced enough for spycraft. When she helps capture Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), the ex-P.O.W. she alone — and correctly — believed to be a terrorist (and whom she later has an affair with), she screams, “I LOVED YOU!” at him while her embarrassed colleagues handcuff and cart him away. But the reason  Homeland is a feminist — rather than misogynist — show, even with a caricature of female emotional instability at its center, is that it transforms a trait that has traditionally been used to denigrate women into a professional advantage. This isn’t the kind of gender-neutral feminism that congratulates female CEOs for shattering the glass ceiling. Rather, it questions the value of gender-neutrality and asks why women should want things that men have designated as desirable. Why should a little girl crash toy trucks together, for example, when playing with dolls will improve her verbal and empathy skills more quickly? Or in the case of Homeland , why should Carrie’s emotional instability be counted against her when it’s her perilous leaps of logic and mania-induced zealotry that enables her to see what nobody else can ? Even her ill-advised affair with Brody, fueled by loneliness and uncontrollable desire, helps her collect evidence of his extremism. The different approaches to feminism that Homeland and ZDT  embody   prove that there isn’t just one correct approach to gender equity: women (and progressive men) can have their feminism both ways. Now if only we could get a female CIA director, or even just a movie about one, already. Bonus note: Do Homeland and Zero Dark Thirty pass the Bechdel test ? Although the central cast of Homeland is basically Claire Danes and a bunch of dudes, it passes with flying colors. ZDT is a bit more complicated. Maya and a female colleague (Jennifer Ehle) discuss work a lot, but work for them is killing and torturing a bunch of men. It doesn’t pass on technical grounds, but it does in spirit. Whether the banner of feminism should be used to ignore, soften, or justify the brutality of torture, well, that’s a discussion for another day . Inkoo Kang is a film critic and investigative journalist in Boston. She has been published in Salon, Indiewire, Boxoffice, Yahoo! Movies, Pop Matters, Screen Junkies, and MuckRock. Her great dream in life is to direct a remake of  All About Eve  with an all-dog cast.” I Follow Inkoo Kang on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter. 

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Maya Vs. Carrie − Comparing The Feminism of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ & ‘Homeland’

‘The Hobbit’ Sprints To December Record At The Box Office

No surprise, it was a Hobbit weekend with the title, accounting for over half of the overall box office and even setting a December record. It did not match the highest estimates of some box office prognosticators, but nevertheless a solid showing considering its expectations. The top 10 grossed over $122.6 million. 1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Gross: $84,775,000 Screens: 4,045 (PSA: $20,958) Week: 1 As expected, Middle Earth proved highly lucrative at the box office, even setting a December record. With 4,045 theaters, The Hobbit ‘s gross outpaced the previous December record-holder, I Am Legend with $77.2 million. It also performed above the start of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at $73.3 million. Still, the Lord of the Rings prequel did not match the lofty expectations of $100 million some had predicted. The feature accounted for over half of the b.o. over the weekend. 2. Rise of the Guardians Gross: $7,420,000 (Cume: $71,361,823) Screens: 3,387 (PSA: $2,191) Week: 4 (Change: – 28.7%) Rise of the Guardians placed second again and the title only fell about 29% maintaining momentum that should continue with its holiday theme. The pic will have to contend with a number of new releases headed to theaters between now and Christmas, so reaching the $100 million mark may still be tough. 3. Lincoln Gross: $7,244,000 (Cume: $107,898,000) Screens: 2,285 (PSA: 3,170) Week: 6 (Change: – 18.8%) After its big Golden Globe nomination haul, Steven Spielberg’s pic on the 16th U.S. President held strong, only dropping under 19% as the title added 271 theaters. Among the Oscar contenders, it is the highest grossing, at nearly $107.9 million, ahead of Argo ‘s $104.9 million. 4. Skyfall Gross: $7 million (Cume: $272,366,000) Screens: 2,924 (PSA: $2,394) Week: 6 (Change: – 35.1%) The latest Bond hit number one last weekend in a generally slow box office, but displayed bravado nonetheless. The pic continued to show strength over the weekend, placing fourth in its sixth week with only a 35% drop despite losing 477 theaters from the previous week. 5. Life of Pi Gross: $5.4 million (Cume: $69,559,406) Screens: 2,548 (PSA: $2,119) Week: 4 (Change: – 35.2%) Ang Lee’s 3-D spectacle held decently with a 35% drop as it lost 398 theaters over the previous weekend. Life of Pi again placed 5th in the box office rankings and it continues to be a tiger at the box office overseas where it has grossed an additional $128.5 million. Still it will have a tough time hitting $100 million domestically. 6. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Gross: $5,175,000 (Cume: $276,865,000) Screens: 3,042 (PSA: $1,701) Week: 5 (Change: – 43.5%) The Twilight finale lost 604 theaters in its 5th weekend, placing sixth on the chart, dropping three spots from the previous weekend. Worldwide it has grossed a cool $778,265,000 worldwide. 7. Wreck-It Ralph Gross: $3,273,000 (Cume: $168,779,000) Screens: 2,249 (PSA: $1,455) Week: 7 (Change: – 32.6%) In its seventh weekend of release, the animated Disney pic only dropped 32.6 per cent after losing 497 theaters. It again placed seventh in the chart. Abroad the pic has cumed $57.7 million. 8. Playing for Keeps Gross: $3,247,000 (Cume: $10,838,092) Screens: 2,840 (PSA: $1,143) Week: 2 (Change: – 43.5%) Opening in sixth place, the pic added three venues and dropped two slots to eighth. The pic will struggle to stay in the top 10 and will likely not stay in theaters in a significant way as new offerings open. 9. Red Dawn Gross: $2,394,000 (Cume: $40,889,423) Screens: 2,250 (PSA: $1,064) Week: 4 (Change: – 43.5%) One month out, Red Dawn lost 504 theaters and dropped one spot to 9th place. The pic will struggle to pass $45 million domestically which marks a likely loss considering its $65 million production budget. 10. Silver Linings Playbook Gross: $2,084,000 (Cume: $16,954,049 Screens: 371 (PSA: $5,617) Week: 5 (Change: – 4%) The Oscar hopeful broke the top 10 after flirting with it for a number of weeks. The feature is in comparatively far fewer theaters than its other top 10 brethren and its $5,617 per screen average is only outpaced by The Hobbit , which bowed this weekend. After dropping nearly 30% in each of the last couple weeks, the film only fell a very slight 4% this weekend, showing the title has some solid footing as it heads into the thick of the holidays and a wider expansion likely in the New Year.

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‘The Hobbit’ Sprints To December Record At The Box Office