root@ncsc (07/24/85)
From: System Owner <root@ncsc> To Donald Rose's P.S. about a Sci Fi Western...Wasn't there a movie in the not to distant past about a guy on a motorcycle who somehow got sent back to the Wild West? (That's all I remember about it.) In reply to Peter Reiher's aside on sexism in Spielberg's movies...on my daughter's behalf I thank you. The children of today are the women and men of tomorrow. What influences them now in film, books and music will influence the world in 30 years. This has been the U.N. International Decade of the Woman, and though adult women now have as role models the many women prominent in the modern world, I am dismayed to find that role models for girls have reqressed to self-indulgent, "material" personalities like Madonna, Brooke Shields, and Cindi Lauper. When my daughter was 8 she wanted to be just like Princess Leia. Now that she is 13, there are no strong, brave and compassionate characters for her to want to emulate. This lack of strong, non-sterotypical female characters is not just Spielberg's disease. Everything that I have said about sexism may also be applied to racism and nationalism. It may be a responsiblity of science fiction, which has so often prediction the path society has taken, to show a future in which equality is a given facet of life. The best female character in a science fiction movie I have ever seen was the doctor in the High Noon rip-off (there's one, Donald!) starring Sean Connery, Outland,about a mining colony on the moon (or asteroid or whatever it was) of some big planet (I guess it was Jupiter, but please don't give me a thousand corrections if it is not; where is beside the point compared to what). (I apologize for the above digression.) Other good female characters were Sigourney Weaver in Alien and the Russian captain in 2010. I can only think of one black in a semi-lead role and that was in Ice Pirates. Minority leads who are leads for reasons other than their sex and the opportunity for the white male lead to show off are rare and devoutly to be desired. Many lead roles in science fiction movies could be played by anyone regardless race or sex. (Let us use our brains and realize that this is a generalization and not flame on endlessly listing the exceptions. Thank you.)The ideal is to cast a role with the best player (a non-sexist word). Jessie (ops@ncsc) lead for something besides her sex. -------