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Over the years Hollywood has experienced significant social changes especially in the perception and depiction of women in the film industry. Most American films including the Wild West films presented women as sexual objects to be used by men. During the 1960s when Hollywood films became extremely violent women were always depicted as weak victims (Horton, 2009). Consequently, films with a strong depiction of feminism began to emerge as a way to ensure that women actors were represented fairly. In addition, there was the need to reach out to the female audience especially after developments in the film industry that allowed private viewing (Newton, p. 271). Girlfriends manage to bring about social change not through outright demand of equal rights, but by reaching out to women audiences and by emphasizing the need to be sensitive and mindful of women characters (Lahiji, 2012).
Alison Butler observes Claudia Weill’s movie Girlfriends as one of the small groups of films that “revisit the women’s picture from the perspective of 1970s feminism” (p.36). Claudia Weill alongside such Jewish women filmmakers as Susan Seidelman, Jill Godmilow, Mirra Bank and Donna Deitch is the pioneer in women’s realistic portrayal in filmmaking (Hyman and Moore, p.446). Patricia Erens takes into account the achievements of Jewish women in the film industry. The struggle of Jewish women for recognition is one of the burning issues nowadays. It should be noted that the screen script for Girlfriends was written by the Jewish writer Polan. Claudia Weill was one of the most famous Jewish women directors who has made a great contribution to the realistic depiction of women in modern movies (Erens, 2012).
Girlfriends are considered to be both “woman-directed and an overtly feminist film” (“New Women’s Cinema and the Buddy Movie”). The success of this film is obliged to the realistic technique of Claudia Weill on the one hand and the good performance of Melanie Mayron on the other hand (Anderson, 2012). There are a lot of other films which are called by Haskell as “trickle of feminist-inspired movies”: A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorcese, 1975), The Turning Point (Herbert Ross, 1977), An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky, 1978) and others (Nash, p.17). Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends may be the subject for the separate research as far as this is one of the first films touched upon a feminist problem and depicts women from a realistic point of view.
Weill covers three burning issues in her realistic movie: the problems of relationships with men, the importance of friendships between women and the difficulties of combining these things with holding down a job (Butler, p. 37). The sincere display of all sides of the relationships, both good and bad allows the female audience to relate with the movie’s characters. On the other hand, the movie also evokes sympathy from the male audience. The realism in this sense allows the female to identify with the characters in the film on the one hand and helps to avoid criticism that would emerge from the male audience (Rosa, 2010). There is no confrontation and the movie allows the male audience to follow the narrative without feeling condemned. In essence, the film diverts from the conventional acts of feminism portrayed in films directed by women. In giving the male audience the chance to participate in the film without condemnation, the film creates an opportunity to bring out some gender concerns in the film industry.
According to Kuhn the credibility of Hollywood female films in portraying realism depends on the ability of the audience to identify with the films through the texts (133). Weill manages in using narration as a way of inviting the audience to identify with the characters of the film (Rosa, 2010). The incorporation of a woman’s narrative voice improves the credibility of the film and allows the audience to look at the film more objectively, and free of prejudice and emotional influence. By identifying with the spectator, Weill intended to emphasize the need to be sensitive and mindful of the female audience. On the other hand, the female spectator is also able to affirm the victory shared by the female characters as a way of promoting feminism subtly.
Although the film manages to draw empathy from the audience to the characters, Weill avoids portraying the characters as perfect. The women are portrayed as being powerful but they are not without fault. According to Kuhn, the film’s portrayal of female characters can be compared to the film 1977 Julia directed by Fred Zinneman’s (p. 134). The openness portrayed in both films allows the audience to witness the contradictions in the woman’s life and make their judgements. Kuhn continues to explain that whether the openness was deliberate or not, the effect it had on the social institutions in Hollywood were profound (p. 135). However, one does not fail to appreciate the use of realism by the director to bring out the personalities of the women in the film in an unbiased way.
Although most analysts have termed the film Girlfriends as a non-feminist film, in my opinion, the film has subtle feminist attributes aimed at bringing about institutional social change in a non-confrontational way. The way the author approaches female friendship is accommodating and even fun for the male audience. The inclusion of relationship conflicts also allows for the audience to look at the film in an unbiased way. In addition, the author also allows the female audience to identify with the characters and the narrators and finally characters’ portrayal is sincere. The film portrays the need for female characters to be mindful and inspires the audience to be unbiased from a social and commercial perspective (Tibbets,1978).
Works Cited
- Anderson, George. “Girlfriends a Candid, Refreshing, Realistic Film”. Pittsburg Post-Gazette. 27. 9 (1978): 13.
- Butler, Alison. Women’s Cinema: The Contested Screen, Willshire: Wallflower Press, 2002. Print.
- Erens, Patricia 2012, Film Industry in the United States Web.
- Horton, Jillita 2009. Women in Movies and TV: Why Does Hollywood Always Portray Women as Weak and Helpless? HTML file.
- Hyman, Paula and D. Moore. Jewish Women in America, New York: Routledge, 1998. Print.
- Kuhn, Annette. Women’s Pictures: Feminism and Cinema. London: Routledge, 1982. Print.
- Lahiji, Shahla n.d. The portrayal of Women in Iranian Cinema. HTML file. 2012.
- Nash, Melanie 1994, The Women’s Film, the New Women’s Cinema, and the Women’s Buddy Film. PDF file.
- “New Women’s Cinema and the Buddy Movie” n.d. HTML file. 2012.
- Newton, Judith Lowder. Feminist Criticism and Social Change: Sex, Class and Race in Literature and Culture. New York: Methuen, 1985. Print.
- Rosa, Simone 2010. “Realistic” Portrayals of Women in Media. 2012.
- Tibbetts, John. A matter of Definition: Out of Bounds in the Girlfriends. Kansas: University of Kansas, 1978. Print.
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