I loved it.
As a chic flick it has it all: an impossibly good looking guy who is impossibly attracted to an impossibly good looking girl with whom a relationship is impossible. Add an impossible amount of smoulder - vampire lust as well as regular sexual lust, heroic selflessness, superman-type rescues, great scenery and very nice camera work and you have the perfect movie.
(Why am I writing this? I think I'll go and watch it again.)
A few thoughts.
It's okay for this to be a great movie for girls to watch. It's not necessarily bad just because it's fun and girls get into it. (But it might be.)
The reasons why Twilight sucks us in are legitimate*. It taps into what we really want and what we should want.
- We want a guy who is painfully in love with us. Who loves us so much that he'll deny himself for us and suffer on our account. Of course we want that. We should want that.
- We want to be able to say 'I'm not afraid' and 'I trust you completely' as Bella did. And that's right.
- With Bella we long for something more. Another world where the impossible is possible. Now is the time of waiting. We groan with her and we should.
So what of the claim that Twilight is tacky and harmful girl porn?
Maybe the books are tacky - over adjectivised, gushy, sentimental (I don't know, I haven't read them) - but I don't think the movie was. I'm no film critic but I really enjoyed it. Girl porn? Maybe. In the same league as Austen and Bronte and Sea-change. Presents an ideal male for us to lust after, with whom our spouses cannot compete. Harmful? Depends on how you take it and what you do with it. My current thinking is this: Don't deny that you want Edward Cullen. Admit it, but learn to see that lust as an expression for a much deeper longing. And moderation.
I might go watch it again.
* Last year I had a few posts on why Mills and Boon novels work for women. Similar stuff.
at least we are making a little bit of progress. At least your heros now at least have fangs and some good vampire skills. Your precious Darcy was very lacking in these crucial areas.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much agree with you about why people would be drawn to the movie, but I do deny that I don't want Edward Cullen- I thought he looked weird and acted too serious and creepy. But there you go. It appears I'm in the minority with that opinion!
ReplyDeleteI sort of agree with you - but I do wonder how you would apply this rationale to guys and porn. Is it is good longing for them to want a woman who is beautiful and always available to them, thus looking at porn is OK, depending on what they do with it?
ReplyDelete(That isn't meant to sound like it's dripping with sarcasm - I really am just thinking out loud and wondering what the equivalent would be? Does male porn have more real harm in it that female porn of this sort? I suspect it does, but am not always sure .... )
Hey Ali. I don't think there are the same. Will think about why.
ReplyDelete