“I like the freedom inherent in being on my own, and I like the growth and learning processes that develop from taking chances … I am well aware of the hardship I will be facing. And the first to admit, I’m remarkably unqualified for such a hazardous undertaking. But this is precisely the point of my journey.”
Robyn Davidson (from her book Tracks)
Very effective, tough, influential, powerful, aggressive, exciting, can also be applied to the more abstract, or mental, aspects of a character. It could reflect their life status, impact on someone else, the grand affection of love, survival, independence. Learn from these remarkable females on International Women’s Day, as life takes its toll you can still have the lust for dancing across the streets of New York to Bowie’s “Modern Love”. These characters, these women, whatever it is they do, however great or grim, their actions change what you feel about them. The following 40 film characters over four glorious pages rock the world of cinema, all in their own unique, brilliant way. It’s not a definitive list, and is in no particular order. Feel free to scream your own from the rooftops.
Robyn Davidson – Tracks (2014)
In 1977, Robyn Davidson set off on a nine-month trek across the Australian desert wilderness. Amounting to something close to 2,700 kilometers covered in distance. Tagged The Camel Lady, Robyn took with her Diggity, her dog, and four camels: Dookie, Bub, Zeleika, Goliath. She did not initially want anyone to talk to, nor did she want photos taken, or any verbal account for that matter.
Robyn just wanted to be by herself – “I can deal with pigs really easily, but nice people confound me.” Adapted from the book by Davidson of the same name, John Curran directed a very fine film, with Mia Wasikowska providing a stunning portrayal (as Davidson herself declared) of the woman on the vast walkabout.
With minimal assistance, and a seemingly dynamic strength, Robyn achieves her goal, reaching the finish line of a race not many of us would ever challenge in our own lives. There is plenty of pain and anguish in the journey for Robyn, but also an unfathomable determination, and a heart-strong will to literally stand on her own two feet.
Frances Halladay – Frances Ha (2013)
Noah Baumbach’s muse Greta Gerwig gives it her all in possibly their finest collaboration. Frances is a New York dancer, whose best friend Sophie is about to embark on a new life, forcing Frances to reconsider her own life status. A little bit hopeless, a little bit vulnerable, Frances is all guns blazing with free spirit and a zest for life.
In the wake of struggling as a dancer, no money, no permanent residence, and a friction in her tight friendship with Sophie, the sprightly Frances stands tall, on her own two restless feet, and pursues a change in fortunes. Via Chinatown, Sacramento, Poughkeepsie, even Paris, before returning to New York City. Her magnetic personality and big smile withstand the social turbulence she encounters. And we can’t help but wish her all the best.
Scarlett O’Hara – Gone with the Wind (1939)
As a mere child watching movies, and God as my witness, I first found Scarlett O’Hara to be a little self-centered and stubborn, something of a feisty brat. I still loved her though. I discovered of course that Scarlett is much, much more than that. An iconic, important, epic character, full of depth and strength, from a likewise motion picture experience. Given the time the film depicts she is without racial agenda, has an unabashed resilience, she is a strong-willed woman, a fool for love and carrying a natural survival instinct.
In Gone with the Wind, a grand movie set in the American South during the civil war, Scarlett has to endure the conflict and tragedy around her. Determined to maintain the family cotton plantation following the death of her mother, and then eventually her father, Scarlett experiences a seemingly unrequited love, is widowed at a young age, helps deliver a baby, later suffers her own miscarriage, and then the death of her young daughter Bonnie Blue. Not to mention the turbulent romance with Rhett Butler, which is misunderstood by audiences as the be-all and end-all of the movie. It is not.
Scarlett O’Hara (the outstanding, mesmerizing, incomparable Vivien Leigh) is a platform for female characters of the past, the future, and today, her fist clenched vows and undefeatable spirit make her one of the strongest, most influential characters in cinematic history. Frankly my dears, we do give a damn.
Ma / Joy – Room (2015)
Seven years is a long time to be away from your parents, your friends, the world you once knew. It’s a far more unimaginable experience when you’re kidnapped as a teenager, kept in a shed, and routinely raped. Joy (a remarkable, Oscar-winning Brie Larson) somehow maintains a wondrous spirit, developing and maintaining her role as a mother, a protector, in the most dour, horrific of circumstances, to the now 5-year-old Jack (a spirited turn from Jacob Tremblay). They share the enclosed space, the skylight keeping them from total darkness – a bed, a bathtub, a toilet, a cupboard, make-shift kitchen, a TV.
Ma’s optimism goes beyond heavenly, building a make-belief world for her boy’s sanity. And when she has had enough and plans the escape, she has to somehow give comprehension about the real world that exists outside the room. When eventually free, the struggles in re-adapting are tough for Joy too, even in her former family home. A challenge to the senses nobody can understand – even for a mother of such true devotion and strength.
María Álvarez – Maria Full Of Grace (2004)
What a refreshing discovery Catalina Sandino Moreno – winning Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival and earning an Oscar nod with AMPAS for her terrific turn in Maria Full of Grace. The Colombian actress plays a teenager, Maria Álvarez, struggling to support family, working a shitty job, and then falling pregnant to a boy she knows there is no future with. Pushed to the edge, Maria takes on the risky task of a drug mule. Having to swallow down tens upon tens of drug capsules and flying to New York City with another girl.
After a dodgy moment at U.S customs, complications arise during the “passing” of the drugs, and Maria makes life-changing choices that were never part of this desperate plan – though are will-intended and noble. Her last minute decision to stay in America and not return to her home in Colombia may be the hugest, bravest she has to make.
Michelle – 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
A huge dilemma for Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and the audience watching the movie 10 Cloverfield Lane, is whether or not the suspicious, paranoid Howard (John Goodman) is protecting her from an apocalyptic, hostile environment, or holding her captive in the daunting underground bunker. Having been in a car accident, Michelle wakes up in a concrete cell, unable to get free. The introduction of Howard and his informing her that the Earth is in fact uninhabitable after it was attacked only adds to her anxiety.
Michelle has her eye on the ball though, attempting to escape, playing along with the habitational routine, discovering a missing girl was kept here, manages to avoid death by perchloric acid, and assembles her own biohazard outfit. When Michelle does wriggle free, she finds she can breath the air, only to be tracked by an extraterrestrial ship that omits a deadly gas. And her human survival instinct help her fight back. As open-ended as the finale is, our heroine earns the title as she turns her car toward further alien activity on the horizon.
Selina Kyle / Catwoman – Batman Returns (1992)
Michelle Pfeiffer has sunk her teeth into some juicy roles. One of her most memorable was to join Tim Burton as he returned to his own revival of the Batman franchise as none other than Catwoman – and the somewhat bipolar secretary Selina Kyle. A small debt is owed to Annette Bening, who was originally set for the part but fell pregnant. Pfeiffer was just meant to be.
When Selina is pushed through a window by her corrupt boss, a bunch of cats seemingly gather around her. And the rest is comic book history. Latex-suited-up, she may lose a couple of squabbles with enemies or allies alike, and become unmasked at the story’s close, but Catwoman remains the phenomenon with the biggest, shiniest balls. And a catty attitude to boot.
The Christmas setting only adds to Catwoman’s allure it seems. Even with the bold, brash characters of Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), Penguin (Danny DeVito), and also Batman / Bruce Wayne (a thankfully recurring Michael Keaton), it has always felt like Catwoman’s movie. Batman returns, sure, but the delicious Catwoman reigns supreme. The final shot of her illustrious silhouette only exemplifies this.
Ellen Peterson / “The Gamin” – Modern Times (1936)
Perhaps there is nothing like the defiance of out-witting the law to stand, head held high, and eat the banana you have just stolen. Ellen, the poor, penniless young woman in Charlie Chaplin’s immense Modern Times does not endorse crime or wrong-doing, but rather shaking a fist at society’s shackles and lives life with a smile and spirited determination. Paulette Goddard, even dressed in her rags and splashed with dirt, as Ellen (or The Gamin’) brings with her a warm glow of optimism wherever she goes.
Like Chaplin, she is mischievous and spontaneous. Her spirited aura of adventure goes a long way in teaching the Little Tramp a thing or two – a perfect alliance forms quickly. Ellen, in all her down-to-Earth wisdom, survival instinct, and willing to make the world a better place, could certainly teach us a thing or two on how to live today, not just 1936.
Rosetta – Rosetta (1999)
On paper, a teenage girl from a trailer park, with barely a pot to piss in, and a drunken mother, might not seem to be the most exhilarating of movie experiences. This is the Dardenne brothers though, a remarkable film-making duo who bring the realism of social struggles to cinema with consummate perception and depth.
What also makes Rosetta a gem is Cannes Best Actress winner Émilie Dequenne as the title heroine. Rosetta, down-trodden, but extremely determined – ruthlessly so – has both survival and escape on her mind. Struggling to hold down a job so she can earn a living and look after her useless mother, Rosetta fights (quite literally) her way through her tough day-to-day routine. Running (quite literally) from dilemma to new job to wherever she can find salvation or personal fulfillment.
Finding work at a waffle stand, a co-worker, Riquet (Fabrizio Rongione), never quite makes friend material – in fact Rosetta hesitates to save him when he falls into water, and later rats him out to the boss when she discovers he is conning him. Cruel, but a dog eats a dog if it has to. Rosetta is hard as nails, gutsy as hell, she can tend to period pains with a hairdryer, and carry heavy gas canisters all by herself. But she is human, a young girl, close to breaking, but mentally stronger than most. When she falls to the ground at the film’s close and sobs, frustrated by it all, she’ll get back up and on her feet again, we just know it.
Erin – You’re Next (2011)
Erin appears to be merely along for the ride when invited and arriving at the parental house of her boyfriend Crispian. The social occasion caters for many, the mother, father, and their grown up sons and daughters, and their respective partners. As a brotherly squabble breaks out at the dinner table, the infliction of shocking violence begins as one brother is killed via a crossbow fired from outside. As all bedlam and terror breaks lose the family are plucked and killed one by one.
In the middle of the flutters of utter anguish, Erin appears to be the most clued up. Alert, assertive, quickly taking action, and holding off her own personal panic that devours the house. As people trapped in the house are slaughtered, Erin is stabbed, finds glass shard in leg, is shot, hurls herself through a window, is bitten, but brutally fights back.
Much of Erin’s heroic, inventive instincts makes this film, with all its gutsy gore and ferocious manner, feed into the human longing for vengeful violence against unimaginable evil doers. Thanks largely to Sharni Vinson’s tenacious performance, the movie certainly showcases the kick-ass female character to its fullest, essentially executing a story-line with that premise directly in mind.
