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Passengers, for all its plot twists disappoints with its poor exploration of women and their autonomy.
I went to see the new space movie in town, Passengers, last night, anticipating a decent space-thriller-drama-fest on the lines of The Martian, even if not quite achieving the high of Gravity.
What I did not expect? To find a potentially interesting space movie overtaken by its creepy-stalker-dudebro protagonist whose actions (and the movie’s silence on them) entirely ruined it for me.
Some spoilers ahead
It would be difficult to discuss the problematic aspects of this movie without revealing anything about the plot, so here it goes. A spacecraft is taking 5000 people in hibernation to a newly colonised planet; except, one passenger (‘Jim Preston’, played by Chris Pratt) wakes up 90 years before the allotted hour to discover that something has malfunctioned, and he is all alone, doomed to spend out his remaining years on a lonely journey, dying before he will ever reach the new homeland.
Going almost crazy in his subsequent isolation, he takes the morally problematic decision to wake up one other passenger (‘Aurora Lane’ played by Jennifer Lawrence), knowing fully well that he is roping her to his own doomed fate.
It is not of course difficult to empathise with the plight of a man left to spend the rest of a (potentially long) life alone on a journey going nowhere for him. I could fully understand why Jim makes the terrible choice to wake up Aurora, even though it is ‘murder’ as she puts it later.
Here is what is deeply troubling though. Jim does not wake up ‘a passenger’ out of sheer loneliness. He chooses Aurora after fetishing her young and attractive body lying in her hibernation pod, and subsequently viewing her creative work (she is a writer) while she is still asleep. Moreover, after she emerges from hibernation and goes through many of the bewildering emotions that he went through himself, he chooses not to reveal his actions.
Instead, he allows (in fact, cultivates) a deeply emotional as well as sexual relationship with her.
Watching this relationship play out on screen, I found it highly violative, and was not surprised that Aurora’s first reaction when she learns of the deception, is to feel like throwing up. What is surprising is that the rest of the movie devotes very little attention to this.
Aurora is angry, yes, but while she is furious at her life having been drastically altered in this manner, there is no exploration of the fact that her consent was gained under entirely false pretences. Jim Preston continues to be shown as a ‘decent fella’ who made a terrible choice under terrible circumstances. While I can understand a terribly lonely person making the choice to get along another person for the ride, what kind of person sleeps with another under such false pretenses? A creepy-dudebro-rapist, that’s who. And seriously, do a single man and woman on a spaceship necessarily have to get it on? There are so many other ways this story could have been explored interestingly, than to devolve into a mushy love story where not only is consent violated, but the violation of consent is not even referred to in any meaningful manner.
Despite some good plot twists, excellent gravity defying sequences and competent acting from the cast, I came away with a bad taste in my mouth after watching Passengers.
It is not my case that movies must show only stellar protagonists who make the best choices at all times. As in life, so on screen, there is surely place for all kinds of people, including those who make bad choices in bad situations.
However, the movie’s exploration of what a woman’s distress in such a situation might be, is very superficial. If you are stranded with your creepy stalker on a deserted island, you may build a raft together to row to safety, but do you also have to fall in love with him again?
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
In some cases, women do not feel the need to make any decisions. They are taught to obey the patriarchal system, which makes them believe that they are right. In my family, I was never taught to make decisions on my own. It was always my parents who bought dresses and all that I needed.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
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