The Wife and I watched the movie, Red Notice, tonight. It’s not going to win any Academy Awards, but within the genre of brain candy, it was entertaining enough. What inspired this post was not the movie per se but a scene that is representative of a trend becoming more apparent in movies today. It’s a trend too silly to take seriously but not too insignificant to ignore.
The movie stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot as . . . (spoiler alert) . . . three art thieves in search of a 2,000 year-old decorative egg that Marc Antony (the Roman not the singer) gave Cleopatra and was later was lost to history. I long ago grew bored with thinly veiled plots designed to support two-hour chase scenes. But this movie’s action scenes, twists, and turns, succeeded in holding my interest, even if it didn’t engage my intellect.
What I found most interesting though was one scene in which Gadot physically defeats the 6′ 5″ 260 lb Johnson and 6′ 2″ 190 lb Reynolds in a knock-down drag-out. Now, of course, Hollywood tried to made it all look realistic enough so viewers don’t call “B—S—“. But I am more interested in the message than the creative sleight-of-hand.
I get that most of the chase scenes and stunts portrayed in movies aren’t really possible. They stretch the possible while trying not to break it, knowing that excitement camps out on the border between reality and our imagination. Got it. But there was an obvious message in this scene, and it’s the effort to eradicate gender inequality by suggesting this woman could physically overpower these two men.
As I said, it’s silly. And when it’s exposed for what it is, even the most progressive, gender sensitive, post-modern will admit it’s silly. It is significant though because it shows where the gender-confusion of our generation is headed. In short, if we fail to recognize gender differences, we will be led into the land of make-believe, and we will all become fools.
I’m not too worried though. I give this trend a generation. The many who have joined the parade being led by the few haven’t thought out what awaits them at the end of the road; like most people, they are just going along. But eventually it will become clear, and they will recognize this road for the dead end it is.
The hippies of 1960’s eventually had to get jobs and give up their drugs. Their dreams didn’t even last a generation. The hippies of the 60s became the Reagan conservatives of the 80s. Communism survived two generations, but only because tyrannical governments continued to impose it long after its citizens rejected it.
I put the current gender eradication movement somewhere on the spectrum between hippyism and communism in terms of its half-life. Like the hippies who discovered the benefits of work and sobriety, and the communists who discovered the benefits of private property and economic self-determination, men and woman will rediscover the benefits of masculinity and femininity.
Until then, be prepared for The Rock to lose a few more knock-down drag-outs to a few more knockouts. Sorry, Dwayne. GS
Cleverly written