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1940s: Amidst a cold and bloodied World War Two, an American psychologist named William Moulton Marston, with the help of his wife Elizabeth, created a new comic book hero to enter the DC Universe. It was a woman who fought war with love, compassion and empathy, a sheer contrast to the violence our men were experiencing on the frontlines across Europe.
In blue feminist stars, Wonder Woman became a representation of a female’s (calm) entrance into the war whether that be contributing to the war effort at home or via joining the armed services.
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Flash forward to 2017 and what a time for Wonder Woman to be given the Hollywood greenlight. Just like she inspired generations of women 77 years ago during WW2 with the belief they too were as important, as strong and as useful as their male counterparts, the film’s core messaging reflects sentiments shared in today’s attitudes to threats of war. Opening with Gal Gadot’s voice-over, Diana Prince talks about how the world is a place of wonder but upon closer inspection, you do see darkness. Before the credits roll, the movie ends where it begins; repeating this dialogue only to add there’s always love and darkness inside everyone. “People choose,” Diana says. “Only love can save the world. It’s not what people deserve, it’s what you believe. And I choose love.”
Choosing love, uniting in love and loving one another in a time of great hate and terror has been the common rhetoric circulating the internet of late. Ironically, with this notion in mind, the London film premiere of Wonder Woman was scheduled the same week a suicide bomber killed 22 people – many young women – at Manchester Arena post an Ariana Grande concert. As a precaution – and as the U.K. raised the terror threat from “severe” to “critical”– the film studio cancelled the premiere. Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and director Patty Jenkins were all scheduled to walk the carpet. Consequentially, security were wanding even the smallest handbags at last night’s Sydney’s premiere.
But away from the film’s innate timing of its release, I sat back and relished in sheer excitement of watching a superhero movie with a female at its helm. I almost felt like a child again, watching in awe as Gadot – strong, beautiful, powerful and completely determined – furiously fought to end the fighting in war-torn London and Belgium. She wasn’t a princess waiting in a tower to be saved by a prince – she was Diana Prince who saved Captain Steve Trevor (Chris Pine.)
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Free of a tortured past like many of her DC stablemates, Diana – an Amazonian princess who grew up on the female-only hidden island of Themyscira – is first introduced to us as a child, the scenes shot in the small, picturesque, lush towns of Salerno, Campania, and the likes, in Italy. Against her mother’s wishes, Diana longs to be a warrior and is trained by her aunt Antiope (House Of Card‘s Robin Wright). When Captain Trevor – a British spy who is being chased down by German aircrafts for stealing intelligence from a German chemist known as Doctor Poison – crashes his light plane on Themyscira, its Diana who saves him from drowning. Then, an epic battle scene between the Amazons and the Germans ensues but unlike many fight scenes in movies, this one is mostly free of blood-shed. Bodies lie in the sand, bullets are fired but there’s little gory details or testosterone-fuelled violence. As Captain Trevor informs Diana of the war happening outside her idyllic world, she makes it her mission to hunt down and kill Ares – an ancient god who the Amazons believe is responsible for humans fighting one another. (Comically, the Amazons also believe man is essential for procreation but when it comes to pleasure, they are not necessary. Maybe not so naive after all.)
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Arriving in a dark and gloomy Britain, Diana is confronted with several men who dismiss her as “just a woman”, question her ability and laugh at her ambition to stop the fighting on the frontline. Each time, she deftly proves them wrong but with little aim to do just that. To Diana, being a woman doesn’t spell inequality. As Diana has never seen or encountered a man before now, there is no imbalance of power between she and Captain Trevor shedding light on the notion that we are all born equal, and as shown when Diana enters the real world, it’s society who bestows gender-based worthiness upon us. Together, Captain Trevor, Diana and one motley looking crew enter the German-occupied land of Belgium to fight in the trenches, save the townspeople from Doctor Poison’s lethal mustard gas and defeat Ares.
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Gadot’s portrayal of Diana’s vulnerability and unwavering strength is perfection. Knowing her background as an Israeli soldier helps you believe in her character, you believe the combat scenes – it’s empowering, it’s thrilling. But by film’s end (and at two hours and 20 minutes, it’s a long one), there really is nothing more inspiring than walking away thinking that Wonder Woman isn’t just a great superhero because she’s a woman: She’s a really great superhero who happens to be a woman. And one with impeccable timing.
Wonder Woman is in Australian cinemas June 1.
