What's the Problem With Hit-Girl?

[Doug]

Oh, and The Patriot was just a vehicle for Mel Gibson's fantasy of mass murdering Englishmen - and maybe a few Scots. I mean, Braveheart and The Patriot from one guy? Both of which paint the side he's on as almostly saintly and the English/Brits as being one step short of demon spawn.

 

[A random person]

Oh, and The Patriot was just a vehicle for Mel Gibson's fantasy of mass murdering Englishmen - and maybe a few Scots. I mean, Braveheart and The Patriot from one guy? Both of which paint the side he's on as almostly saintly and the English/Brits as being one step short of demon spawn.

My thoughts when I saw The Patriot in my JROTC class during a certain scene towards the beginning: sweet holy hell our founding fathers were ninjas!

On topic: maybe it's because I have a degree of experience with what's supposedly upsetting about Hit Girl (*points to avatar*), but my reaction was less "creeped out" and more "holy shit she's fucking awesome!"

 

[Darmani]

Moviebob I got to admit I'm just not feeling you enthusiasm for "bring Robin to the Nolanverse"

I mean you loved BB and TDK. You praised the innovations and take on the character. so I'm failing to see with all the attitude and feel of the movie that you think we need to bring in Robin, Batgirl, and Ace. Okay admittedly all of those were from you preprofessional wishlist and for the Losers you only suggested Robin.

But Nolanverse Robin, unless you cast around O'Donnelly range again, especially after a whole movie of "no one else can or SHOULD do this." will instantly make Bruce... well I mean Big Daddy is nuts and almost entirely evil without his comic book origin (hint: how'd he'd get to be such a good artist?).

Why'd you'd want them to fit in all the stuff with the Bat family when you seemed to have loved and want more of what Nolan has been doing with Batman.

 

[the December King]

My problem with HitGirl was two-fold:

Watching a young girl get beaten to a pulp by a man in his 40s makes you (the audience) feel uncomfortable. But they didn't do anything with it. If you're going to make the audience uncomfortable, at least do it with a message or *some* kind.

Second, her level of cursing went from "Adult language to illustrate that her childhood has been stolen" to (in many parts) the writer saying "I have an 11-yr-old girl saying 'cu**' 4 times in 5 minutes. Look at how edgy I am!"

Pointless cussing and violence isn't anything even remotely new, I can understand finding that offensive and tasteless, but many people aren't complaining when other so many other characters do it, just Hit-Girl. This smacks of a double standard that I don't really care for.

I'm sorry if I find violence against young children to be disgusting. But I don't see it as a double standard. Violence against adults is more acceptable because they can recognize the consequences of their choices and understand what they're getting into.

Watching a child who thinks that being a superhero is a game because that's what her dad made it for her get beaten up made me feel sick to my stomach, and then the writer barely acknowledged it. Some call it good, but I found it short-sighted writing.

And therein lies the rub, really. Suddenly she's just an 11 year old girl again, after murdering people with preternatural and superhuman skill, and cursing horribly.

I try not to think of such characters, male or female, adult or child, as 'human'. The notion of violence against anyone as being more acceptable, to me, is self- deceptive, in this context. If this weren't a comic based superhero romp, I'd agree with you.

But it is!

An excellent example of this same effect is in 'The Last Action Hero', when the main character's daughter, who was also very young and seemingly innocent, violently kills a thug with her bare hands. It was meant to shock us, and it did. But it's in a superhero context- I expect inplausible scenarios, and some look forward to it- it's part of the formula. I see it all as an equal playing field, where gender, size, etc. all take a back seat to the battle of good vs. evil, heroes vs. villains.

In short, I sympathize with your sentiment- but I try not to bring it to such fare.

I avoid bringing it in to such movies as well. And overall, I got a real kick out of the movie. It was fun, decently acted (except for Nicholas Cage who went from decent to just flat out great).

My problems with Hit Girl were not enough to really damage my opinion of the movie, I just think it could have been done better.

Understood and well met.

...

To be fair, I haven't seen it yet!

I hope this hasn't totally invalidated my position to you.

Not at all. And I do suggest going to see it. It is worth the ticket price, and despite from my problems with Hit-Girl and a couple other minor points, they weren't big enough problems to make me dislike the movie. It's funny, it's a little different from the standard super-hero fare, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Just saw it this weekend. It was thoroughly entertaining!

 

[sszebra]

Maybe it speaks to a lack of proper socialization on my part, but I never felt uncomfortable while watching the hit-girl fight scenes. I was bothered more by seeing the recurring and brutal beatings the titular character endured in the film.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

My problem with HitGirl was two-fold:

Watching a young girl get beaten to a pulp by a man in his 40s makes you (the audience) feel uncomfortable. But they didn't do anything with it. If you're going to make the audience uncomfortable, at least do it with a message or *some* kind.

Second, her level of cursing went from "Adult language to illustrate that her childhood has been stolen" to (in many parts) the writer saying "I have an 11-yr-old girl saying 'cu**' 4 times in 5 minutes. Look at how edgy I am!"

Pointless cussing and violence isn't anything even remotely new, I can understand finding that offensive and tasteless, but many people aren't complaining when other so many other characters do it, just Hit-Girl. This smacks of a double standard that I don't really care for.

I'm sorry if I find violence against young children to be disgusting. But I don't see it as a double standard. Violence against adults is more acceptable because they can recognize the consequences of their choices and understand what they're getting into.

Watching a child who thinks that being a superhero is a game because that's what her dad made it for her get beaten up made me feel sick to my stomach, and then the writer barely acknowledged it. Some call it good, but I found it short-sighted writing.

And therein lies the rub, really. Suddenly she's just an 11 year old girl again, after murdering people with preternatural and superhuman skill, and cursing horribly.

I try not to think of such characters, male or female, adult or child, as 'human'. The notion of violence against anyone as being more acceptable, to me, is self- deceptive, in this context. If this weren't a comic based superhero romp, I'd agree with you.

But it is!

An excellent example of this same effect is in 'The Last Action Hero', when the main character's daughter, who was also very young and seemingly innocent, violently kills a thug with her bare hands. It was meant to shock us, and it did. But it's in a superhero context- I expect inplausible scenarios, and some look forward to it- it's part of the formula. I see it all as an equal playing field, where gender, size, etc. all take a back seat to the battle of good vs. evil, heroes vs. villains.

In short, I sympathize with your sentiment- but I try not to bring it to such fare.

I avoid bringing it in to such movies as well. And overall, I got a real kick out of the movie. It was fun, decently acted (except for Nicholas Cage who went from decent to just flat out great).

My problems with Hit Girl were not enough to really damage my opinion of the movie, I just think it could have been done better.

Understood and well met.

...

To be fair, I haven't seen it yet!

I hope this hasn't totally invalidated my position to you.

Not at all. And I do suggest going to see it. It is worth the ticket price, and despite from my problems with Hit-Girl and a couple other minor points, they weren't big enough problems to make me dislike the movie. It's funny, it's a little different from the standard super-hero fare, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Just saw it this weekend. It was thoroughly entertaining!

Glad you liked

 

[masher]

I definitely outright Loved this movie, but I'm happy to see that I wasn't the only one unnerved by an 11 year old girl saying "Fuck" every other line, but that's about the only thing I have against her. Also, while the action was plain awesome, and the violence during action was great, I couldn't help but cringe when heads are popping due to car-compactors and industrial sized microwaves... But again, my issues with the movie pale in comparison to the rest of it. At the end of the day, "Kick-ass" was a great movie, in my opinion.

 

[VanityGirl]

I agree MovieBob. I think a lot of it does boil down to the fact that she's a child and a lady.
If she acted like a girl and said "I'm going to play with my barbies" instead of "I want a butterfly knife for my birthday" then I think she wouldn't have been such a controversial character.

Hit-Girl is a extreme step in the right direction and I will elaborate on what I've said.

In 90% of movies, women are the victims who need someone to save them, be it a little lady or a full grown adult. Very few women can break out of this mold.

You must be hot and vulnerable to be a perfect female character.
Even in the Resident Evil movies, Alice has had her ass saved by other people several times, and while she's badass, she's not entirely self sufficient. Also, Alice has the classy "OMG she's so hot" thing going on. While she lacks the qualities of a lady, we often see her either naked or in a dress in order to prove "This is a woman, she's got bewbs".

But, I digress.

I'm not one for women's right, nor am I stupid and blind to the fact that one of the big reasons HitGirl is so controversial is because she's a woman.

The fact that HitGirl is a child brings to light the true fact that there are many violent children. Look on the news, kids kill kids, kids beat up kids, and kids even harm adults. Mind you, not all kids do this, but the fact that the movie shows a little kids dishing out some punishment to adults is a dark, yet true, statement.

 

[Clunks]

She is a victim, though. She's got a psychotic father who has, for the sake of his own insane revenge plot, turned her into a monster.

The only moment that made me particularly uncomfortable was also, I think, the most praise-worthy moment in the film, when the tables are finally turned on Hit Girl and she finally finds herself in real danger.