Who is your favorite Tough Chick in film history?

[Zookeeper Gabe]

God I love you, one of my geckos name is GoGo

 

[Phlog]

I love the story behind this.

EXEC​

Back so soon? You already
finished the movie...?

WACHOS​

We spent the entire film
budget on this one scene.​

Apparently it was just that Warner Bros were getting nervous about the production taking so long, so the brothers finished up the trinity scene and sent it to them, they loved it and backed off.

 

[wonderbread]

The way she destroys that licorice.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

 

[moreorless87]

It seems like you're conflating your own reaction with the film's intention, and you've said stuff before about "unintended effects" of story like that's somehow the fault of someone other than yourself. But it's not like I want to argue with any of ....that.

The two points I want to make about your notion of politically charged movies are these:

Politically charged gender roles are used to further story, not further politics. Movies creating a negative political backlash are silly and it's a complete shit show chiefly because if you're learning life lessons from a movie what you need is more life, fucker. Fucker being a BLADE RUNNER reference and not a pejorative.

Second point is while shoehorning in women is a political move, the politics stop there. All they want is more representation on screen. Assigning value to those representations as being lessons we must swallow is again needing more out of life than movies. We were not ever saying Indiana Jones is what it means to be a man, gimme a break. Give yourselves a break.

Not really sure what position your trying to put across here but I would point out that art across human history has been one of the prime ways in which moral ideas and questions are gotten across. Limiting yourself entirely to cinema for your world view would be questionable but taking some influence from it isn't and I'd guess pretty much everyone does.

I would agree that unfortunately some "politically charged gender roles" have been used as a stand in for a well written story or character, basically tokenism. I would say generally these films aren't so much interested in pushing politics as they are exploting it, the Ghostbusters remake didn't really have much to say politically but it did I think clearly look to exploit the idea that representation alone was a political positive.

That is I think is different to claiming that anything that isn't overtly political must be tokenism, its obviously possible to have good cinema that isn't very political but again I do think a lot of these films are exploiting politics as a stand in for well made cinema.

 

[neverwas]

tough women? hahahahahahahah!

 

[Peteyandjia]

My wife is 100% gay for her in that costume.

I Pfucked her

 

[minute bull]

... pretty much everyone does.

We're way past the level of establishing that people respond to cinema, my dude -- I'm talking about how people respond to film, and how their response informs them of themselves not the film. How their verbal feedback makes no difference to the direction of cinema in the least, and that it's not just a waste of time but moreover a humiliating representation of oneself. People laugh at people who are proud of being so ugly.

My point is this: trying to politicize gender representation doesn't work on any level other than dollars, which isn't to say anything about financial success.

I would agree that unfortunately some "politically charged gender roles" have been used as a stand in for a well written story or character, basically tokenism. I would say generally these films aren't so much interested in pushing politics as they are exploting it, the Ghostbusters remake didn't really have much to say politically but it did I think clearly look to exploit the idea that representation alone was a political positive.

That is I think is different to claiming that anything that isn't overtly political must be tokenism, its obviously possible to have good cinema that isn't very political but again I do think a lot of these films are exploiting politics as a stand in for well made cinema.

Originally I was speaking only toward story, affirming that yes it was the verisimilitude of being a woman that propels Ripley into GOAT status of Character.

 

[badascan]

Ellen Page in hard candy...

 

[TeTe]

Reese Witherspoon in Freeway entertained me.

I liked that movie. I remember seeing it in the 90s and was the first time I had ever seen Reese.

 

[My2Cents]

Patricia arquette in true romance

 

[tonysmasseuse]

Not the 'tough chick' per se but goddamn Angela Basset is formidable in this scene

 

[Peteyandjia]

Some great ones in here so far, thanks for making the thread fly y’all.

On the ‘off the beaten path’ tip: Ms. 45 is an underrated early flick from director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, King Of New York) wherein Thana, a mute, is raped twice on her way home from work in Manhattan, goes understandably nuts, & then tears off on a revenge/murder spree.

 

[D Train]

Most movies that try to do this don’t pull it off at all, but some do. The ‘female kicking ass’ thing is usually cringey on film, but when it works, it’s gold.

So what worked for you?

Me, I’d have to say Linda Hamilton’s portrayal of Sarah Connor probably tops my list. They made her gritty in attitude, but she mostly defeated her enemies both man & machine via guns, or by being cunning & cutthroat, rather than having her unrealistically throwing a bunch of spinning kicks or something.

Who are yours?

Tops for me too. She looked the part and she wasn’t beating down big dudes with her hands.

 

[Bob Gray]

Gonna try going for one that maybe hasn’t been mentioned.

Blood of Heroes is one of my all time underrated flicks.

 

[Bob Gray]

I also remember Lena Olin being a fantastic Femme Fatale in Romeo is Bleeding. Although I haven’t seen the movie since it was released, I wonder if it holds up. I just remember having watched it saying “Shit, that’s a bad bitch right there.”

 

[Loiosh]

Literally the toughest chick in this thread.

Aaaaaaaaaand not any more.

Cate Blanchett as Hela from Thor Ragnarok

 

[Loiosh]

No honourable mention about it. Sandahl Bergman should be top of the list. Along with Brigitte Nielsen.

Loved Bergman in Conan. Sexy as hell and really sold the role.

 

[Langstarr]

Spoiler

Are you aware that this is the same chick that played john connors foster mom in T2?

 

[minute bull]

Are you aware that this is the same chick that played john connors foster mom in T2?

Oh is she?

Spoiler