[net.women] comments on Desperately Seeking Susan

cs1@oddjob.UUCP (Cheryl Stewart) (04/27/85)

>>  See Desparately Seeking Susan, it's so-o funny!  Rosanna
>>  Arquette is such an airhead...by the way, I really like
>>  that jacket with the pyramid on it that causes the whole
>>  confusion.  Madonna was great!  
>>  
>>   Clare 
>
> A friend persuaded me to go and see this film. It resembled an extended
> episode of Threes Company. The films' name is a misnomer, it should have
> been called 'Desperately Seeking Stupidity'.
>
> Steve Grice
>
Granted, no character in this film has much of an education (but honestly,
I'm bored to tears by polished little college bright brats who think  
Harris tweeds are an outward sign of inward grace).  What I like about 
Desperately Seeking Susan is that, for two hours, it costs half as much
as a single 45 minute lecture at <your favorite prestigious private college>, 
and is at least ten times as instructive (cost-benefit analysis--can you
say that? Sure, I knew you could).  Rather than some fool droning on about
the Pelopponesian War, you get MADONNA displaying (among other things)
cunning, nerves, shrewdness and independence--all in counterpoint to 
Arquette's naivete, nervousness and dependence.  Madonna does the teaching.
Arquette learns to be more agressive, and in the end, leaves her beautiful
house and her respectable husband for a young New York filmmaker with
stunning blue eyes. Riddle me this, Steve:  what man WOULDN'T feel threatened
by this story?    The whole point of this film is that every woman has  
the right to self-determination, no matter how airheaded or dependent she may
have chosen to be in the past, no matter what kind of mistakes she may make  
along the way, and no matter what she may do to obtain and defend it.  This  
film does not quibble about equality or rights or capabilities; it directly
deconstructs a lifestyle.  Face it: there is no excuse for being a bird
in a plastic cage.  

Cheryl Stewart

P.S.  What people see in films most is themselves.