A Little Wisdom: Recasting the mold

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In her weekly column “A Little Wisdom”, staff reporter Abby Dasgupta shares the insights she’s gained through the years.

I feel like it is high time that women go to the movies and see women in the hero’s role–they may be taller and more glamorous versions of the day-to-day female, but they inspire a sort of confidence that male heroes usually can’t. So if I had to stomach Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and still managed to find myself daydreaming about the adventures I could have as an explorer, boys can do the same with Indiana Joan

In a recent interview discussing the imminent reboot of the Indiana Jones franchise, Steven Spielberg expressed interest in making quite a notable change to the traditional storyline; namely, Spielberg insinuated that he felt it was time for a woman to take on the prestigious mantel of the intrepid explorer.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone except the hordes of meninist fanboys on the internet who lament the passing of “real entertainment” whenever Hollywood decides to retell certain classics through a feminist lens. It happened with Ghostbusters and Star Wars. It’s happening with Ocean’s Eight. And if Spielberg does decide to make a film starring Indiana Joan, it will inevitably happen again.

Now, I don’t want to sound too polarized because I will admit that I didn’t like the new Ghostbusters as much as the original, but it is an indisputable fact that the originals are better than the remakes. That’s why people make remakes–to make new profits off of films that already did well in the box office or stood the test of time without fading into obsolescence!

Furthermore, remaking classic films or rebooting a franchise is an opportunity to make new generations fall in love with the same characters and story that domineered past affection. Making Daisy Ridley the new face of the Star Wars franchise doesn’t take away from the contributions of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher or Harrison Ford. In fact, it lengthens the longevity of their own characters–who also appear at length in the new films–creating a whole new fanbase that only adds to the status they already held.

But going back to Ghostbusters, because we aren’t just talking about reaping the benefits of massive new blockbusters in the box office–we’re talking about society. Even though I didn’t enjoy Ghostbusters that much, I walked out of the theater with my sister and my cousins feeling like I too could take on a giant marshmallow monster threatening to destroy a whole city. Walking out of Wonder Woman, I felt like I too could be an Amazon warrior; albeit a shorter, slower, less athletic Amazon–but an Amazon nonetheless! And after watching Star Wars, I immediately rewatched both of the previous trilogies and imagined myself as a long lost Jedi, flying through space and wreaking all sorts of havoc on the Empire.

Yes, there’s been plenty of women who have watched films like Indiana Jones or Ocean’s Insert Integer Here or Captain America or James Bond or Jason Bourne or Batman or the plethora of western films centered around an inexplicably complicated (but not really that complicated) hero and managed to envision themselves as heroes too. The legions of fangirls that adore these films prove that and then some. But I feel like it is high time that women go to the movies and see women in the hero’s role–they may be taller and more glamorous versions of the day-to-day female, but they inspire a sort of confidence that male heroes usually can’t.

So if I had to stomach Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and still managed to find myself daydreaming about the adventures I could have as an explorer, boys can do the same with Indiana Joan.