We’ve been keeping tabs on the Natalie Portman western, Jane Got a Gun, since back in 2012, when we first heard that she’d be starring in and producing the film. Back then, it had a female director attached. After several years of tumult and changes in the creative team, the film is now directed by Gavin O’Connor, and the trailer has finally been released. Check it out above!
I’m thrilled that Portman is starring in and producing a film with a female lead set in the Wild West. It’s rare that a Western focuses on a woman, and when it does, its usually a woman as part of a pair , like True Grit, for example.
Hovever, it’s disappointing that every other face in this trailer, with the exception of Jane’s daughter for a brief moment, is male. After looking at IMDB, there are no other female roles with names (it’s stuff like Brothel Girl, and Dead Gypsy Woman, and Woman 1), and all of them, other than Portman, are apparently, uncredited. Every single writer on the project is male. This film used to have a female director, but now doesn’t (the reasons for this are still unknown, though there was much drama prior to shooting, Ramsay didn’t show up on the first day of shooting, and there have been cast changes and lawsuits galore). And while this story seems to be about a protagonist named Jane, the story seems more focused on the men helping her or coming to hurt her – but there are a couple of shots of her holding a gun in a badass fashion for good measure, so I guess I’m not supposed to feel so bad about it?
That kind of affects my hopes for this film. Drama aside (so many films are plagued with drama during production), the fact that this project about a woman has evolved into something so palpably masculine in its sensibility is disappointing. I’m not saying I want a Western that looks like a freakin’ Hallmark Channel movie – that’s not the point. But it’s already so rare for a Western to be about a female character at all. To have the trailer pretty much be framed as a battle between Jane’s ex-boyfriend and the gang coming after her doesn’t seem promising. Yet, I want to support a female-led film that’s also being produced by a woman. *sigh*
What do you think? Will you be seeing Jane Got a Gun? It comes out next year.
(via The Playlist)
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Published: Dec 7, 2015 04:41 pm