Of Chicks and Flicks
June 23, 2002 | 12:00am
Whenever I get tired of all the special-effects summer flicks and the annual Kevin Costner sap that oozes from local cinemas around this time of year, I find myself turning to my personal video shelf, reaching for the comforting green-and-black box that contains possibly the best American film ever made; one that stands up to repeated viewings and endless imitations, but pretty much remains an unbeatable classic.
Yes, thats right: I reach for The Godfather.
Somehow, though, its never enough. After sitting through all 175 minutes of the first Corleone family saga, I find myself reaching for Godfather Part II, and its usually about 156 minutes into Francis Ford Coppolas deeper-and-darker sequel that my wife decides to take matters into her own hands and wrenches the VCR remote from my clutching paw.
"How many times can an adult male watch that movie?" she wants to know, flipping the channel to Fashion Emergency. Implied in her question is a sub-question, one familiar, Im sure, to countless other women out there:
Whats the deal with guys and The Godfather?
To this, I can only offer my own humble counter-question:
Whats the deal with chicks and chick flicks?
Im not trying to start a sex war here, certainly not about something as trivial as movie-viewing choices. But there are big differences between what women and men will watch repeatedly.
Women will watch le cinema de Meg Ryan over and over, whether or not this practice is healthy for them.
Women will watch films that explore relationships between mothers and daughters, whether or not Goldie Hawn, Barbara Hershey or Bette Midler are in the cast.
Women will watch movies about empowered women, or at least the illusion of empowerment, as long as there is some Carly Simon or Sarah MacLachlan music on the soundtrack.
And men? Men will watch The Godfather, or just about any Martin Scorsese film made before The Age of Innocence, or just about any Tom Cruise movie (even that whacked-out Vanilla Sky).
So what does this movie about an Italian-American crime family have to offer the average male? Well, set aside the outstanding acting by Brando, De Niro, Pacino, Caan, Cazale and Talia Shire. Never mind the beautiful Rembrandt-inspired lighting and composition of Coppolas film. Fugeddabout the brilliant spaghetti-cooking lesson during the "go to the mattresses" scene.
What this 1972 film offers is best summed up by Tom Hanks character in Youve Got Mail: "The Godfather provides the answer to every major question in life." Thats right, ladies: its the I-Ching of Mafia movies.
You need advice in managing your career? "Its not personal, its strictly business," says Michael Corleone before taking over Moe Greens casino.
Need fatherly wisdom? "A man who doesnt spend time with his family can never be a real man," observes Don Corleone.
Need a quick lesson in history? Listen to Michael again: "If history has taught us anything, its that anyone can be killed."
But what really fascinates males about the Godfather movies, I would suspect, is the power wielded by the Corleone family. That and the level of violence, which is about as American as baseball. In a way, the Corleones are comic-book superheroes for adult males. Kids may groove on Spider-man, X-Men, Batman or other action heroes, but who needs red tights when you can make a phone call and somebody wakes up with half a horse in their bed?
The Godfather and its sequel offer a fantasy of power, and what is Hollywood but a fantasy factory? Whether its the fantasy of power or the fantasy of romance, audiences want what generally eludes them in real life. At the very least, they want a connection. And maybe that begins to explain the spate of chick flicks out there these days.
How do you know youre watching a chick flick? One clue is that most of the cast is female, and theyre not wearing wet T-shirts. Another clue is that the film explores relationships between women between mothers and daughters, siblings and friends, generations and generations. Theres often a quilt, a beach, a fried green tomato, or some other metaphorical object at the heart of the movie, something to suggest interwoven lives, bonding and unity. And theres crying. Got to be crying, lots of crying.
Certainly one of the earliest specimens of chick flickdom was Steel Magnolias (1989), a film that had most of the staples of the genre, and then some. With names like Daryl, Dolly, Julia and Sally in the cast, you know this isnt a Tarantino film. To up the ante a bit, theres a lingering death scene at the end, and then its wet-hanky time.
Now, I have nothing against movies that shamelessly have women reaching for the Kleenex box, but I feel enough is enough. Theres been a virtual explosion of chick films of late, with a noticeable drop in quality. From pioneer chick fests such as Terms of Endearment (1983) and Thelma and Louise (1991), to recent market-driven tearjerkers such as Stepmom and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, there seems no end in sight. The genre has even split along racial lines, with movies like Soul Food and Waiting to Exhale appealing primarily to African-Americans, The Joy Luck Club exploring Asian sisterhood, and other ethnic groups following behind. (Some wonder if films like When Harry Met Sally or Sleepless in Seattle qualify as chick flicks. My answer is, while they do star Meg Ryan, and both scripts were written by a woman, these two are primarily "date movies" for heterosexuals.)
Another main feature of the chick flick is an absence of sympathetic male characters. I call it the "Men Bad, Women Good" syndrome. While you are apt to find at least one nice guy in a chick film, he is likely to be long-suffering and genial beyond the normal capacity of human males.
The main thing a chick film wants to elicit is empathy. Female audiences can identify with female characters problems. Its not rocket science, really. And this gets to the heart of a major difference between men and women. Psychologists say what women usually want is empathy or understanding from guys, while what guys usually want is to find a quick solution to the womans problem. Thus, guys are more likely to enjoy a film where problems have concrete solutions, such as Mission Impossible, as opposed to something like Steel Magnolias, where everybody stands around a bed weeping for a long time. Again, its not rocket science.
But wait a minute, I hear some women objecting at this point: Doesnt The Godfather feature intergenerational relationships, sibling rivalry, weddings, and even gasp! a whole lot of male weeping during its three-hour length? What about that, Mr. Man?
Well, yes, its true. Who can forget Fredo, blubbering like a baby after Don Corleone is gunned down in the street? Or Cousin Johnny crying like a little girl because he doesnt get the big Hollywood part? And what about the Don himself, weeping openly over Sonnys bullet-riddled body? ("Look what they did They massacred my boy!") Hell, astute chicks will point out, The Godfather is nothing but a three-hanky soap opera, Mafia-style.
Except with one crucial difference.
Its about guys.
And does this observation qualify me for caveman-status, huddled away in some dark hole by the flickering firelight? Fine by me, I say. Just as long as theres a VCR hookup and a copy of my favorite movie nearby.
Yes, there are still copies of my short-story collection, The Way Things Work, available out there. Just contact Ruth Pison of UP Press at 928-2558 for info.
Yes, thats right: I reach for The Godfather.
Somehow, though, its never enough. After sitting through all 175 minutes of the first Corleone family saga, I find myself reaching for Godfather Part II, and its usually about 156 minutes into Francis Ford Coppolas deeper-and-darker sequel that my wife decides to take matters into her own hands and wrenches the VCR remote from my clutching paw.
"How many times can an adult male watch that movie?" she wants to know, flipping the channel to Fashion Emergency. Implied in her question is a sub-question, one familiar, Im sure, to countless other women out there:
Whats the deal with guys and The Godfather?
To this, I can only offer my own humble counter-question:
Whats the deal with chicks and chick flicks?
Im not trying to start a sex war here, certainly not about something as trivial as movie-viewing choices. But there are big differences between what women and men will watch repeatedly.
Women will watch le cinema de Meg Ryan over and over, whether or not this practice is healthy for them.
Women will watch films that explore relationships between mothers and daughters, whether or not Goldie Hawn, Barbara Hershey or Bette Midler are in the cast.
Women will watch movies about empowered women, or at least the illusion of empowerment, as long as there is some Carly Simon or Sarah MacLachlan music on the soundtrack.
And men? Men will watch The Godfather, or just about any Martin Scorsese film made before The Age of Innocence, or just about any Tom Cruise movie (even that whacked-out Vanilla Sky).
So what does this movie about an Italian-American crime family have to offer the average male? Well, set aside the outstanding acting by Brando, De Niro, Pacino, Caan, Cazale and Talia Shire. Never mind the beautiful Rembrandt-inspired lighting and composition of Coppolas film. Fugeddabout the brilliant spaghetti-cooking lesson during the "go to the mattresses" scene.
What this 1972 film offers is best summed up by Tom Hanks character in Youve Got Mail: "The Godfather provides the answer to every major question in life." Thats right, ladies: its the I-Ching of Mafia movies.
You need advice in managing your career? "Its not personal, its strictly business," says Michael Corleone before taking over Moe Greens casino.
Need fatherly wisdom? "A man who doesnt spend time with his family can never be a real man," observes Don Corleone.
Need a quick lesson in history? Listen to Michael again: "If history has taught us anything, its that anyone can be killed."
But what really fascinates males about the Godfather movies, I would suspect, is the power wielded by the Corleone family. That and the level of violence, which is about as American as baseball. In a way, the Corleones are comic-book superheroes for adult males. Kids may groove on Spider-man, X-Men, Batman or other action heroes, but who needs red tights when you can make a phone call and somebody wakes up with half a horse in their bed?
The Godfather and its sequel offer a fantasy of power, and what is Hollywood but a fantasy factory? Whether its the fantasy of power or the fantasy of romance, audiences want what generally eludes them in real life. At the very least, they want a connection. And maybe that begins to explain the spate of chick flicks out there these days.
How do you know youre watching a chick flick? One clue is that most of the cast is female, and theyre not wearing wet T-shirts. Another clue is that the film explores relationships between women between mothers and daughters, siblings and friends, generations and generations. Theres often a quilt, a beach, a fried green tomato, or some other metaphorical object at the heart of the movie, something to suggest interwoven lives, bonding and unity. And theres crying. Got to be crying, lots of crying.
Certainly one of the earliest specimens of chick flickdom was Steel Magnolias (1989), a film that had most of the staples of the genre, and then some. With names like Daryl, Dolly, Julia and Sally in the cast, you know this isnt a Tarantino film. To up the ante a bit, theres a lingering death scene at the end, and then its wet-hanky time.
Now, I have nothing against movies that shamelessly have women reaching for the Kleenex box, but I feel enough is enough. Theres been a virtual explosion of chick films of late, with a noticeable drop in quality. From pioneer chick fests such as Terms of Endearment (1983) and Thelma and Louise (1991), to recent market-driven tearjerkers such as Stepmom and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, there seems no end in sight. The genre has even split along racial lines, with movies like Soul Food and Waiting to Exhale appealing primarily to African-Americans, The Joy Luck Club exploring Asian sisterhood, and other ethnic groups following behind. (Some wonder if films like When Harry Met Sally or Sleepless in Seattle qualify as chick flicks. My answer is, while they do star Meg Ryan, and both scripts were written by a woman, these two are primarily "date movies" for heterosexuals.)
Another main feature of the chick flick is an absence of sympathetic male characters. I call it the "Men Bad, Women Good" syndrome. While you are apt to find at least one nice guy in a chick film, he is likely to be long-suffering and genial beyond the normal capacity of human males.
The main thing a chick film wants to elicit is empathy. Female audiences can identify with female characters problems. Its not rocket science, really. And this gets to the heart of a major difference between men and women. Psychologists say what women usually want is empathy or understanding from guys, while what guys usually want is to find a quick solution to the womans problem. Thus, guys are more likely to enjoy a film where problems have concrete solutions, such as Mission Impossible, as opposed to something like Steel Magnolias, where everybody stands around a bed weeping for a long time. Again, its not rocket science.
But wait a minute, I hear some women objecting at this point: Doesnt The Godfather feature intergenerational relationships, sibling rivalry, weddings, and even gasp! a whole lot of male weeping during its three-hour length? What about that, Mr. Man?
Well, yes, its true. Who can forget Fredo, blubbering like a baby after Don Corleone is gunned down in the street? Or Cousin Johnny crying like a little girl because he doesnt get the big Hollywood part? And what about the Don himself, weeping openly over Sonnys bullet-riddled body? ("Look what they did They massacred my boy!") Hell, astute chicks will point out, The Godfather is nothing but a three-hanky soap opera, Mafia-style.
Except with one crucial difference.
Its about guys.
And does this observation qualify me for caveman-status, huddled away in some dark hole by the flickering firelight? Fine by me, I say. Just as long as theres a VCR hookup and a copy of my favorite movie nearby.
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