--- In [email protected], wrote: > > Re : Think about "Alien." > > Yes, I'm a big fan of all the films in that series and Sigourney Weaver really made the Ripley role her own. But you've missed my point - because I didn't explain myself very well. The Alien films were scripted *from the get-go* to highlight the central female lead.
Not true. From the IMDB: "All of the names of the main characters were changed by Walter Hill <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001353/> and David Giler <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0318429/> during the revision of the original script by Dan O'Bannon <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0639321/> and Ronald Shusett <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0795953/> . The script by O'Bannon and Shusett also had a clause indicating that all of the characters are "unisex", meaning they could be cast with male or female actors. However, Shusett and O'Bannon never thought of casting Ripley as a female character." > 20,000 Leagues was written and then first filmed as an adventure yarn in an all-male world and worked just fine if you like that kind of thing. Adding a woman alters the chemistry of the set-up; it doesn't have to be as crude as you suggest but why meddle with the original classic story? Because the producers were cretins who represent the very thing the Bechdel Test was invented to protest. They were asshole guys who wanted to add some eye candy to their movie to hopefully up the box office. > Re my query: Aha! I see now. The Bechdel Test is for detecting gender bias. I thought you were just taking a pot shot at films that had all-male casts. *Of course* there are cases to be made for all-male casts. And all-female casts. The Bechdel Test was proposed to point out that the *men* who run Hollywood have a tendency to throw a few token, often unnamed women into the cast, just *for* their eye candy factor. What they do with casting and writing is often shameful, and the idea was to raise awareness of it. > Yes, bias is an issue. (Race bias is probably more prevalent, no?) As Hollywood producers decide what films get made on the basis of their expected profit, I assume they think movies that pass the Bechdel Test will have less mass appeal. Is it the audience that is prejudiced rather than the film makers? It is both, but the change has to come from the side of the equation that *creates* the "role models" onscreen. It's never going to come from the side of the audience.
