What's the Problem With Hit-Girl?

[joshuaayt]

I loved the fact she actually got smacked around a bit; that the guys who made it decided that rigid social boundaries shouldn't get in the way of a tense, dramatic scene.
And, obviously, seeing her win in the end was a great rush.
EDIT: Also, is it wrong that I didn't feel sorry for her whole 'deprived of childhood' thing? I mean, she was one badass and, notably, happy kid.

 

[Cavouku]

I personally think Hit Girl fits her role, but she's weighing down the camel for me. It'll be a while before his back breaks, but I'm noticing a pattern that's getting bland.

It seems that whenever a girl plays a tough-girl in a movie, she always has to be on a whole other level than the male action stars. I didn't see Kick Ass, but I want to. I'm not going to assume she's the most proficient of all the characters, but she's definitely oddly overpowered. Of course there's a reasonable conclusion, with her dad and whatnot, but something just tells me I've seen it before.

I'm not the only one right? I think I need to hear some people tell me movies where the girl is on par with the guys in terms of ass-kicking. Not below them for certain. And being above them has since gotten stale. Well, both are. I need to hear of middle ground.

 

[Cavouku]

You know what would be awesome in a movie? A super-power fight between a little boy and a little girl where they just utterly kick the shit out of each other and no one wins. I'd watch that. I'd have no issue. If this exists and I don't know please tell me. I don't want to be ignorant.

 

[Trivun]

The problem with hit girl is that for some reason, children can't be violent. Especially girls. All little girls must be twee little angels, with hearts of gold.

Fuck that, children are just as fucked up as the rest of us. Perhaps more so in places.

Two words. James. Bulger.

For those of you who aren't from the UK or Ireland, or have lived under a rock for the past few months, James Bulger was a toddler in about 1992, just two years old, who was kidnapped, savagely beaten to death and left on train tracks by two kids. Kids. The boys responsible were both around 11 or 12 and in a surprising case of the UK justice system actually working for once, their asses were slung into the children's equivalent of prison. If they were old enough to be tried as adults they'd have been subject to thirty years of prison rape and threats on their lives.

Anyway, it all kicked off again recently when a few short years ago both kids were released, now adults, from prison and given completely new idnetities. No paper was allowed to tell anyone who they were now, what their new identities were, because of fears that the public would go for a good old-fashioned lynching. Which would be more than they deserve, really. Although it turns out the public have found out one of them anyway in the past few months. Hopefully he'll get his ass handed to him, but sadly in this country the 'justice' system cares more about criminals than victims.

Now, these two weren't even teenagers when they murdered that little boy. And the way they did it was beyond most adult murderers. There are fucked up adults too, but I agree with Furburt completely, kids can be much more fucked up than adults.

 

[sjarri]

-snip-

 

[mchoueiri]

I would agree and there is a book called a high wind in Jamaica you might enjoy. But Roger Ebert has the right to his own thoughts we shouldn't look down on him because he views are not our own.

It's not that I look down on him for holding a different view, it's that I don't respect his reviewing technique. From what I can tell, he gave Kick-Ass a low score for the sole reason he was offended by it, ignoring anything else about the film, the plot, the camerawork, the dialogue (mentioned, of course, but not contributing to his overall score). As a person who's opinions are followed by many, it's a bit unprofessional to mark down a film for the sole reason he was offended by it, ignoring all of the other elements of the film.

ok I can get behind that.

 

[dex-dex]

the movie was fantastic and afterwards i wanted to kick ass and have an awesome costume and everything!

but i have common sense and i hope that parents have common sense to not let a ten year old go and see a movie rated 18a
seeing female characters not being dumbasses is what i like in a movie and even though she was young i did not really see that

 

['-_-]

It's kinda simple:she is an 11 yr old girl. So she is not suppose to jump around kicking the f*** outta everyone and swearing Lee Ermy style. It's called "stereotypes".

 

[lacktheknack]

I don't have a problem with the character herself - if Kickass was animated, I'd be completely indifferent - but it's the fact that they used a REAL ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL that bothers me.

Seeing a little girl burst through a door and yell "COME ON, YOU C*NTS!" is... disquieting, to say the very least. It's all well and good (and funny) in animation, but makes me cringe in live action, knowing that a real little girl is probably going to be left less than balanced after starring in this movie.

(And before anyone says anything about voice actors in animation, I'd like to point out that Angelica from "Rugrats" is voiced by a woman in her thirties and forties.)

 

[Viciousmf]

I saw Kick-Ass last weekend and I'm saying, right now, MOVIE OF THE YEAR. But to comment on the question at hand, I think we need more of these movies, not only a sequel(s) to Kick-Ass, but more movies that give a big middle finger to all those fucks who are worried about people getting offended, if there is one thing I hate it's political correctness, stuff like Die Hard, Black Rain(dougless), Blazing Saddles, Gran Torino, Kentucky Fried Movie, we need stuff like this to make it so we don't have to check what to call every combination of every ethnicity and to make it so physical contact between two human beings has to be regulated.

 

[BKtheKITTY]

Children have been spurting profanities in movies for years, the problem with the supposed 'skewed perception of reality' comes when mental illness is involved. Some mentally ill people cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction, and THIS is where the problem arises. Note that it is rarely completely regular people who murder folks. The problem is absolutely not violent films. Anyway, watch Kick Ass again and try to pay attention to the fact that in Hit Girl's main action scene in the dealer's den, the blood is an after effect, and not present at the time of filming.

To suggest that Chloe Moretz has been socially disfigured by the movie is absolutely absurd. She was already in the Amityville horror for gods' sake, do you think Julianna Mauriello wakes up in the night screaming "ROBBIE ROTTEN! GIVE BACK OUR FRUIT!"?
No.

 

[Copter400]

Excellent character analysis, Bob my man. I'd read more of these.

 

[Video Gone]

I think you need to look at Hit Girl on a bare-bones story level, especially in respects to the comic.

Knowing that Big Daddy has chosen to sate his ego by wanting to fight against injustice, and his inability to trust anyone other than his daughter, he felt it necessary to train her to be able to defend herself. It's not as though with the people he was after all she'd need was a bottle of mace and a mobile phone, he wanted her to be relentless; a force to be reckoned with, and of course, a heir to his beliefs.

If you look at it, it's just a very alternative approach to parenting. Macabre, yes, but necessary. Big Daddy made a selfish choice, but it cost him, but at least he left his daughter with the necessary tools to survive.

On a side note, I was not a fan of the movie. A lot of the changes were completely unnecessary, and Hit-Girl didn't come across as well as she did in the comic. Also, where was Dave's relationship with his father? And how can a character who narrates the story be left so unexplored? Why turn around the origin of Red Mist? It's confusing overall because considering the length of the film, they could've fit the original story into this, instead they chose to make Dave an all around winner, and Big Daddy's actions just.

F*cking Hollywood...

To quote Bob himself, you can make a good movie out of anything, but sometimes to do so, you'll have to rip its fucking guts out.
I personally don't think the would have made a very good movie if left alone, but that's just an educated guess.

 

[Nomanslander]

There's a difference between a little girl in this type of portrayal and a grown women. Hit girl is awesome just because she's a little girl, an underdog with uncanny abilities to kick so much ass. If you were to show a grown women, per say Xena Warrior Princess beating up tons of dudes, you're generally going to get a different reaction.

To start off Hit girl unlike a lot of female characters (Xena, Lara Croft, GI Jane) is actually a likable character, she'll act like a prick but only because that's all she knows, being a homicidal maniac killing people in the name of justice is what she's been raised to be, but deep down she's a very sweet and caring person.

You take Ridley Scotts GI Jane and I'll call that movie a complete and utter waste of time, why? Because the movie is about a women spending 2 hours straight screaming "I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!" into the camera. Another unlikeable female heroine doing everything she does in the name of overcoming her insecurities of being butch in a man's world..lol

Can't understand how Ridley Scott would think such a movie would be a good idea, probably made the movie out of of community service for being born male before women's lib the damn babyboomer...-_-

I mean there's a point in the movie a female doctor asks her why she wants to be a Navy SEAL in the first place, and the funny thing is it's never answered, because she has no good reason.

Xena Warrior Princess was another complete and utter waste of time I couldn't stand for, a lot like Lara Croft where all she did was beat up tons of males for the sake of beating up tons of males. Both completely unlikable characters who were just as much a pair of pricks as their male antagonistic counterparts.

Another example of tough girls gone wrong that comes to mind is the girls from the Charlie Angel movies, a threesome of unlikeable characters whose major flaw was trying too hard to be tough, yet likable, and yet cute, and instead coming across as being fake and as plastic as an American Express Platinum card. In the end managing to be even more despicable than the female characters I've mentioned before.


It's funny, I gotta say I loved that video of Marlene Dietrich dressing up as a man and kissing a girl more than a lot of the trash you see today. When you see that video, you don't see a women doing something like that to prove a point and or strike back in a cold masculine world. She does it naturally like that's who she is, no more no less.

I liked Hit girl a lot because she came across as a natural bad ass but still a kid, she is who she is.

 

[pneuma08]

I personally don't think the would have made a very good movie if left alone, but that's just an educated guess.

Oh, definitely, for instance the whole bringing in of the secondary characters into the drama was very much a Hollywood-ization, but it works. Even Kick-Ass's restraint in the final acts of the movie shows much more maturity than the modicum of responsibility he takes in the comic. (Although at least in the comic he's punished for his mistakes instead of being rewarded.)

Anyway, some of the scenes are quite interesting. The car-crushing scene (which is practically identical in both the movie and the comic) really shows how messed up Hit Girl and Big Daddy are (the comic even moreso since Big Daddy doesn't have any grandiose motivations or higher cause, but I digress). Even with their victories, the comic makes it clear that these people are sick, and that aspiring to be like them is a terrible idea.

If anything the breaking of the invincible kids taboo should be a strong counterpoint to the monkey-see monkey-do argument.

Actually, although I cannot in good conscience suggest it, I do wonder what a child (~10) would think of the movie. I would imagine the finale would be downright frightening, a far cry from being a fantasy. Seriously, get some experts in here, I am eager for their opinions.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

The problem with hit girl is that for some reason, children can't be violent. Especially girls. All little girls must be twee little angels, with hearts of gold.

Fuck that, children are just as fucked up as the rest of us. Perhaps more so in places.

I'm glad that Hit Girl exists, it's another taboo to be broken down, and that's nothing but a good thing. Rest assured, no sane 11 year old is going to go and kill someone because they saw Hit Girl do it, that's not how people work, the more taboos get broken, the more people can actually just accept the world as it is and stop deluding themselves.

I enjoyed seeing her kick the shit out of people, especially because those she did kill were horrible murderers themselves. Sure, it made me uncomfortable, but it's a bloody movie, and I'm glad I've gotten over it. It's nice to see empowered women in films, and it's nice to see empowered children (not just "save the children" moralising), like in Home Alone, but put them together, and somehow it offends? I have a suspicious feeling that if it was a little girl in Home Alone, someone would complain about it.

I have no respect when Roger Ebert marks down Kick Ass totally just because he's offended by one element of it.

Great article, though.

This, only I was never offended. Yeah, it was messed up that her father is basically using her and ruining her childhood just so he can have revenge, but a.) It's realistic in the sense of how the characters act, b.) there's something funny about a little girl flipping a knife around professionally and c.) as soon as I saw Hit-Girl in action I was blown away. I think that first action sequence might be one of my favorite movie scenes ever.

And in regards to Hit-Girl getting the crap kicked out of her by a grown man, what did people expect? Did they think he would just throw down his gun and say "Never mind she ruined my operation, I'm not going to do anything because she's just a kid."? Get real. If a mob boss's entire organization got ruined by a single person in real life, they wouldn't care if it was a baby who did it. They would gut them just the same as they would a grown man.

 

[Doug]

*ponders abit* There hasn't been any media attention about Hit Girl over herein the UK, as far as I know. I think Jonathan Ross interviewed her on his show, but he's hardly the most..erm... indepth interviewer, heh.

Anywho, interesting to see the difference between the comic and the movie - and I think they where wise to change it really - I mean, dark, gory, etc, I can cope with easily enough, but this whole pyschological abuse thing sounds like one step beyond into the grim territory of 'Grim and Gritty' - which isn't necessarily bad, I just like that we have a superhero movie that doesn't go for Grim and Gritty.

 

[Carlston]

Don't forget the 3 ninja's movie, that summed up to 3 nine year old kicking bald old me in crotch for 2 hours.

Go Disney...