The Heroic Woman from Star Wars to G.I. Jane

The small glass screen set in a wooden box with diodes, chips, and wires converting signals of energy into light waves that then converge to form an image that is called, by some vague notion, entertainment. A new generation was formed: "The TV Generation." As the TVs grew in size and number, the world of film also expanded to cover topics of the grandest proportion. "The Big Screen," TVs predecessor, captured the Nation's hearts and minds with the suspense and excitement of the villain attempting to steal the girl. Yet, women's roles in cinema have evolved over the short span of the last few decades.

With the advent of Star Wars in 1977, the traditional role of the woman took a sharp turn. The character of Princess Leia, played wonderfully by Carrie Fisher, breaks the mold of the heroic male by facing the villainy on her own. In the first scenes of the movie, while her ship is being boarded by the Empire, Leia avoids submissive capture by fending off storm troopers. After being stunned to unconsciousness, she is taken prisoner to the large space station dubbed the Death Star where she displays a substantial amount of resistance to the interrogative forces of Governor Tarkin and Darth Vader. Governor Tarkin demands the whereabouts of the Rebel Alliance. In the face of the destruction of her home planet of Alderaan, Leia lies to Tarkin to conceal and protect the Rebel Alliance.

A short time later, during her own rescue, when Luke, Han, Chewbacca, and herself were pinned down by the storm troopers in the detention block, Leia takes Luke's blaster and fires a shot inches from Han's leg. Han's temper flared and he screamed, "What the hell are you doing?" Leia's reply: "Somebody has to save our skins." This brings about the reversal of roles: the woman is the rescuer, while the male is the rescued. Leia's actions in the Star Wars trilogy, especially Episode IV[1], paved the way for further heroic female characters in later films.

Appearing in the mid-eighties, Aliens, James Cameron's hit sequel to Alien, brought one of the greatest and toughest heroines back to the screen. With the original movie, Alien, Ripley is the sole surviving member of a crew that comes upon a distress beacon from a marooned space ship and is destroyed by a brute killing xenomorph. In Aliens, which takes place fifty-seven years after the first movie, Ripley is found by a salvage crew and is awakened from a kind of cryogenic sleep. She is coerced by the company she work for fifty-seven years before to go back to the planet where her crew first found the xenomorph. The reason for her return: the company lost contact with colonists that inhabited the planet since during her sleep.

Accompanied by tough military forces, Ripley and the team infiltrate the colony and find only one survivor: a small girl nicknamed Newt. As the military team is killed off quickly and only a few survive, Ripley's heroic nature shines through. She begins to lead the remaining members of the team, and on several occasions, saves them. But her maternal-heroic nature is shown when Newt is captured and taken to the xenomorph's hive to be impregnated (the xenomorph's reproduction cycle requires a host). With Twenty-six minutes to spare before a thermal-nuclear detonation destroys the compound, Ripley enters the hive with a few remaining weapons to find Newt. While trying to make it back to the elevators to meet her ship, Ripley finds herself amidst hundreds of xenomorph eggs. Ripley looks up and sees before her the queen alien laying the eggs. The queen calls in some of her drone workers but Ripley torches some of her eggs with the flame-thrower. This scene now comes down to maternal instinct versus maternal instinct: Ripley wants to save Newt, the queen wants to save her eggs. The queen allows Ripley to leave in peace, but before she and Newt run off, Ripley empties her guns on the eggs and destroys them all. She escapes the planet with Newt and two other members of the team and docks safely with the orbiting ship.

Yet, Ripley is not finished playing hero. The queen also escaped the planet by entering the escape ship before its departure. In the final battle, Ripley enters a loader, which is a metal extension of her own body, and confronts the queen. The large alien beast is looking for Newt under the metal floor grates when Ripley comes out and yells, "Get away from her you bitch!" The queen turns, hisses, and charges. Ripley defeats the alien after a few minute of intense battle by blowing her out of an air lock and into deep space. By defeating the alien, Ripley once again brings out the heroic woman's role.

In 1997, a new movie showed what earlier films paved the way for. In G.I. Jane, Demi Moore plays the part of Jordan O'Neil, a military officer chosen to be part of an experiment to place a female in the Navy SEALS. Since this is a political experiment there is bound to be scandal. Through her own determination, Jordan shaved her head and began to train with the same standards as the men. She worked on her physique in her own time; toning up and slimming down.

During the S.E.R.E Training, which simulates infiltration missions, Jordan was put in charge of one of the teams. Two of her troops went out from under her command to joke around. Their insubordination caused her entire team to be captured. After capture, the Master Chief (the head training officer) and his assistants, put Jordan's team in a simulation POW camp. The team was tortured and asked to reveal the location of the other team. They took soldiers into a room individually and questioned them. When Jordan was brought out of the room, the Master Chief was threatening to rape her unless someone revealed the other team's location. She head-butts him and kicks him a few times. He returns fire and knocks her down. Master Chief turns and talks to the troops still behind the wooden stakes. She stands up and addresses him. He rolls his eyes and says, "Lieutenant, seek life elsewhere." Jordan replies to him: "Suck my dick." From this point she was accepted by the rest of her team.

Weeks after officials planned for Jordan to drop out, they hired photographers to take pictures of her in compromising situations. Then she was asked to leave, which she reluctantly did. This scandal was supposed to look as if it was an anonymous ordeal, but when Jordan found out that this was a political scam, she decided to challenge the decision. She finds out that the anonymous letter came from the same printer as other official documents. She threatens to uncover the whole ordeal, but instead is reinstated in training.

On their way to their Operational Readiness Training in the Mediterranean, their submarine was ordered to break training and proceed to Libya. During the mission, the Master Chief shot a man that was about to discover Jordan. After the man was killed, the Master Chief was being chased by Libyan troops. Jordan made it back to her team and decided where the chief was going to end up. They set up a trap for any following Libyans and waited for the Master Chief. When they see him running, they fend off the Libyan troops. In the course of Master Chief trying to get away, he gets shot in the leg. To complete the role of the heroic woman, Jordan runs out, amidst the gunfire, and pulls the Master Chief to safety.

As seen here, the roles of women in cinema changed drastically over time. From being tied to railroad tracks to rescuing the rescuers, women have changed the world of films. Thus, the heroic woman is no longer in a minority.

Works Cited

Cameron, James, dir. Aliens. With Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, and Michael Biehn

Twentieth Century Fox, 1986.

Scott, Ridley, dir. G.I. Jane. With Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen, and Anne Bancroft.

Hollywood Pictures, 1997

Lucas, George, dir. Star Wars. With Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher.

Twentieth Century Fox, 1977.

[1] The Star Wars Episodes start with IV and end with VI.