Women have been an integral part of narrative cinema since it's inception in 1903. In very early films women usually played background characters who were typically unimportant to the story. As film evolved, so did the roles offered to women. The 1930's saw a large influx of women in cinema with actresses like Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow and many others taking much larger parts in many of the films they starred in. Since then we've been given a plethora of amazing actresses and fantastic characters that have made the films we love so memorable. Imagine 'Star Wars' without Princess Leia or 'The Wizard Of Oz' without Dorothy.
Recently I was watching a variety of movies I enjoyed and wasn't surprised by the amount of lead female characters. But what did surprise me was the amount of lead female characters who were total bad-asses. So I've decided to round up my personal favorites and throw them into one article. I hope you enjoy what you are about to read. These, are my personal favorite “Bad-ass Women Of Film”. (Please keep in mind that these are in no particular order.)
Buffy Summers – Buffy The Vampire Slayer I know, I know...I said this list was about “Women in FILM” and yes, this version of Buffy was on TV. But, c'mon! I can't make a list about bad-ass women without including Buffy. 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' was a TV series that ran from 1997-2003. The show was created by Joss Whedon (Serenity, Firefly, The Avengers) and was based on his 1992 film of the same name. The series follows a young girl named Buffy Summers, who recently discovered she is The Slayer (Into every generation a slayer is born: one girl who must fight the vampires and demons and blah, blah, blah...you know what a Slayer is.) Anyway, the series basically follows Buffy, her friends: Willow and Xander, her Watcher: Giles and of course her fanged-crush: Angel. Typically each episode of the series will consist a villain that is trying to do something evil and will, more often than not, endanger one of Buffy's many friends. She then spends the entire episode kicking tons of supernatural ass. She's fought Vampires, Demons, Werewolves...A giant snake...and she's done it all without smudging her make-up.
Ellen Ripley – 'Aliens' Franchise Ellen Ripley is the main protagonist of the 'Alien' franchise. She makes her first appearance as a warrant officer aboard the Nostromo in the 1979 film 'Alien'. Ripley also appears as the main character in the films 'Aliens', 'Alien 3' and 'Alien: Resurrection'. She doesn't really come into her bad-ass-ness until the second film in the series. James Cameron's 'Aliens' was the film that turn Ripley into a full blown ass-kicker. She's using flame throwers, she's shooting aliens, she's fighting Queen Aliens in a Power-loader, she's delivering awesome quotes (“Get away from her, you bitch!”). I mean...she's awesome in this movie. Then she gets less awesome in 'Alien 3' and then she gets just awful in 'Alien: Resurrection'. But hey, being awesome in one movie is better than never having been awesome at all.
Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride – Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 Here comes The Bride. The Bride was a character that I wasn't really that fond of. Her story is slow and sometimes a bit of a bore. It's really just another revenge story. But when she actually gets her revenge, it's so good. The fights are great, the violence is awesome. She's kicking ass throughout both films. She also has a pretty awesome Bruce Lee jumpsuit with a matching motorcycle, so yeah. She lacks a bit of character (especially when compared to Tarantino's other characters) but she makes up for it with her many, many bad-ass moments.
Roxy – God Bless America Probably the most obscure character in this entire list. I loved 'God Bless America'. The opening scene is one of my favorite sequences in many years. Roxy was a great character. She's a high school girl who witnesses, the protagonist of the story, Frank murder a really mean girl who attends her school. She intervenes when Frank attempts to kill himself. She convinces him that, if they continue to kill bad people, they can make the world a better place. The proceed to kill anyone and everyone who pisses them off. She was a neat character in a really neat film that was a huge surprise for me.
Ramona Flowers – Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Ramona Flowers is an American who has recently moved to Canada to escape her past. Her past being 7 exes who have recently banded together to form the 'League Of Evil Exes”. She eventually meets the slacker (and the hero of the film) Scott Pilgrim. Scott does most of the fighting in the movie until he meets Roxy, Ramona's exe from her “Sexy Phase”. Unable to hit a girl since they're soft, Ramona does the fighting in Scott's place. She kicks the crap out of her exe and shows off her truly fantastic fighting ability. Later in the film she does battle with Knives Chau in a really well-done 4 way fight. It takes nearly the entire film before we get to see Ramona in action, but it's worth the wait.
Black Widow – The Marvel Cinematic Universe Black Widow made her first appearance in 'Iron Man 2' and stole the show. She lays low for almost the entire duration of the film, but when she finally starts doing her things, it's great. She takes out an entire halfway of goons without breaking a sweat. She's got some killer gadget too, like her tazer gloves. She's fought Russians, Americans, Aliens and I'm sure she'll soon be fighting robots if Ultron has anything to do with it. She's an awesome character who packs an equally awesome punch.
Cherry Darling – Grindhouse: Planet Terror I love me some Robert Rodriguez. I don't know what it is. I originally saw Grindhouse in 2007 (Before they split the movies apart and started showing them separately) and I loved it. I went to see the film because I'm a huge Tarantino fan and I wasn't gonna pass up two movies for the price of one. I left the theater disappointed with what Tarantino had to offer but was thrilled with what I got from Rodriguez. Planet Terror was wacky, stupid and a bunch of fun. The main character of the story is a go-go (not cry-cry) dancer in Texas, named Cherry Darling. When the film starts she quits her job, runs into an old flame and, to make matters worse, the town she lives in has just been exposed to a toxic gas that turns many of the inhabitants into deformed, blood-thirsty psychos (Zombies). She gets into a car wreck and loses her leg to the zombies. By the end of the film she has replaced her missing leg with a machine gun. Yeah. A machine gun. She uses it to blow stuff up and kill zombies, as one does when their leg is a machine gun. I'm not sure why this girl isn't on more people's list of female movie characters. SHE HAS A MACHINE GUN FOR A LEG.
Sarah Conner – Terminator Franchise Sarah Conner was basically just a generic horror movie heroine in the original 1984 film 'The Terminator'. She spent the entire film running away from things and being in fear. She was the Sidney Prescott, Laurie Strode, etc. of the Terminator universe. She didn't start kicking ass until 1991 when 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' was released. When we finally get to see Sarah in T2, she's locked in a mental ward, spending her days doing pulls-ups and turning her body into a refined killing machine. She has no problem escaping the facility and teaming up with her son, John Conner and his cyborg buddy to stop Skynet before it even starts. She's a little on the crazy side though, which often causes conflicts with her 'do-gooder' son, who insists she doesn't kill anyone. She's a really great, troubled character with a terrific set of skills that would make even the most skilled merc jealous.
Boltie – Super James Gunn's 'Super' is one of my favorite superhero films of all time. It has a terrific blend of humor, violence and heartfelt moments. The film follows Frank Darbo, a short order cook with a drug addict for a wife. She leaves him and after having a nice conversation with God, Frank decides to become 'The Crimson Bolt' and rid his city of crime. Along the way he meets a girl named Libby who works at a comic shop. She eventually convinces Frank to let her be his sidekick. She chooses the name 'Boltie'. Frank quickly realizes his sidekick is a little...nuts when she nearly beats a man to death because he key'd her friend's new car. She's a funny character with a lot of heart and a great taste for the blood of evil-doers.
Hit-Girl – Kick-Ass & Kick-Ass 2 Mindy Macready is a very young girl who has been raised by her father to be a skilled killing machine. She spends her nights killing members of Frank D'Amico's crew and she spends her days bowling, eating ice cream, playing with her knives and learning what it feels like to be shot at close range by her Father. She's got the mouth of a sailor and the fighting skills of The Punisher. She's not only one of my favorite female characters to ever appear in film, she's one of my favorite characters in general.
There you have it. Some of (but not all) my favorite bad-ass ladies of the silver screen. I know I'm probably forgetting someone super obvious that I completely let slip my mind and I'm sure many of you disagree with my current choices, I understand that. I'd love to hear your opinions below. Let me know what you thought of the article, who I might have missed or who you would put into a list like this. Also, if you can, make sure to thumb the article so others can see it too.
Thanks.