Wonder Woman

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Wonder Woman

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

I was going to watch this movie but now that I have heard it's historically inaccurate I don't think I can!

# ¿ May 27, 2017 22:16

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# ¿ May 7, 2024 00:13

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

This movie gets all the credit in the world for doing the whole no man's land scene where people are saying "it's called no man's land because no man can cross it" without having to be the sort of garbage movie that has wonder woman say "good thing I'm no man" (even if that still was the implication of the scene)

# ¿ Jun 4, 2017 23:00

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

Corrosion posted:

Yeah, the film makes all these bizarre implications about an island of only women making progress. It tries to present it as idyllic, but then you see stuff like "I know modern languages, but we seem to not know what fire arms are." "I know Biology, but what is this "time" you speak of?" I think there's a sense of pastoral fantasy that gets ascribed to the women of Themyscira, but I think it unwittingly raises a lot of questions that aren't favorable to the film. I DID like how some of it was used to show how unaware Diana was of the world, but then what does that say of her upbringing? I really feel like the film's use of Milton-esque temptation and Grecian imagery are used well.

Have you ever met someone who is sheltered and homeschooled? How weird and patchy their knowledge seems? She read the 12 books about loving but if the book about watches got dropped in the ocean accidently she just wouldn't know what a watch is.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2017 01:04

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

Corrosion posted:

But I wasn't referencing a watch, I was referencing the fact that she asked about the concept of "time" in relation to "the watch." I actually think that in the third act of the film and parts of the first act, Diana's ignorance to the world is as you describe and even sort of endearing given the opening scene and Diana's admission about her past self.

Like, that line about "Where I come from, we call that slavery" sounds really dumb in the trailer, but in the context of the film it's actually quite insightful. Etta says as the audio drowns into the crowd that "I actually get paid rather well though." Or makes a reference to pay. I think Diana's naivete when it is conveyed clearly and effectively is what you're asking me, but we're not talking about a watch here, we're talking about an island of women that knows biology but the concept of "Time", its passage, the notion of it, somehow that isn't there. Sure this is a gripe about motivation/naturalization, but Diana knows hundreds of languages, many of which my linguist friend pointed out were modern. That would mean there's a swiss cheese of knowledge going on. Sometimes I think that works, sometimes it makes the Themyscarians convey something not just antiquated about gods, but something about the intelligence of their culture.

Diana being sheltered works for me in some areas of the film and not in others. The third act was quite good at making this, in general, convey quite strongly. I think referencing Milton, even though that goes over some people's heads, was a good choice.

I absolutely don't think you were meant to take her not knowing about "time" to mean some beep boop literal thing where she literally didn't know what time is. Go read about like when railroads came with railway clocks in like 1850. It's an unthinkable thing today but people had protests at the idea. People got religious about it, claiming it was against god. That there was a century you just set your clock as solar noon and everywhere had slightly different times and it was a helpful guide, not some standard everyone lived by. People got initially really freaked out at the idea of time keeping being a real thing people kept to instead of just a loose helpful estimate. Like it was a huge change to society when work started at 7:15 instead of "A bit past dawn". For a long time time was just "there is around 5 hours till sundown" not "it is 2:15 and 42 seconds".

# ¿ Jun 5, 2017 03:47

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