Beautiful but sad movie
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Brave One
espsalita-995-22214 — 11 years ago(September 02, 2014 02:16 PM)
I don't really understand why people seem to think this movie is stupid. Anyone who falls into the margins of society (small, vulnerable, doesn't particularly like violence, non-white-redneck) can relate to this woman's experiences. I'm guessing that a lot of the negativity seems to be coming from teen to 20 something misogynist little bas*** who think it's always your fault if you're a woman or girl who gets beaten or raped while trying to live your life peacefully. The thing I love about this movie is how it humanizes such women, how it shows that even women and girls are capable of anger and a sense of loss. So often it seems like the quickest way to p*** off rednecks is to show a woman getting angry. Most of the time, they're supposed to be quiet, submissive little China dolls without emotions or thoughts of their own. The amazing thing about Erica is that she is a fully three-dimensional character. She can be happy, sad, angry, vengeful, hopeful and lonely. She is intelligent. The things going on around her affect her deeply. The loss of her fianc affects her deeply. She doesn't just go out and find a new man to pay her bills and knock her up so she can go live in a little house in the suburbs. This is the way most audiences demand to see female characters: they're either mothers or wives or else they're slu*s in need of violent correction. For this reason, I will always be glad this movie exists, even though it's likely than another one will not be made anytime soon if the most recent films featuring female "characters" are any indication of what we can expect. Jodie Foster once said in an interview that she didn't see her character in this film as being "brave" thus, the title is ironic in her view. What she didn't seem to notice however, is that any women who dares to be different, to show true emotion and continue to be herself even in the face of violence in today's America is extremely brave. For that reason, I feel the title will always be very literal.