Perpetuating “The Big Lie”
85
opposite, one cannot help but conclude that person is either consciously or
subconsciously helping perpetuate an age-old problem in the majority of
Western cinema.
With all of this in mind, what are we to make of how Sommers crafts
his major female characters? On one hand we might excuse him, for, after all, he
has decided to work within genre material whose conventions originated long
before cinema technology was even envisioned. On the other hand, Sommers
may be faulted for authoring scripts that fail to contribute anything new to
established generic norms by taking the easy way out. Rather than challenging
his audience or cast members with female characters who are tRily original,
strong, and independent, Sommers has chosen to take the path of least
resistance. As this discussion suggests, the writer-director’s most recent works
give little for his audience’s female cohort to identify with, and much to suggest
that men perpetuate the “big lie” by viewing women as little more than
companions to be undermined whenever possible.
Central Michigan University
John R. Craig
Works Cited
Bywater, Tim and Thomas Sobchack. Introduction to Film Criticism: Major Critical
Approaches to Narrative Film. New York: Longman, 1989.
Cadigan, Pat. Resurrecting The Mummy: The Making o f the Movie. London: Ebury Press,
1999.
Fry, Carrol L. “Primal Screams: Evolutionary Imperatives in the Horror Genre.” Paper
presented at the 2 T ‘ International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts,
March 22-26, 2000, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Haskell, Molly. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment o f Women in the Movies. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973.
The Mummy. Stephen Sommers, director, 1999.
The Mummy Returns. Stephen Sommers, director, 2001.
Sunshine, Linda (Ed.) Van Helsing: The Making o f the Legend. New York: Newmarket
Press, 2004.
Van Helsing. Stephen Sommers, director, 2004.