Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970-2006 - Softcover

"All too seldom, in reading about film, I have the experience of picking up a book that proves to be a revelation. [This book] is precisely that--a groundbreaking work that not only sheds new light on a trend in films, but also provides a fresh theoretical framework in which to situate its argument. Indeed, it is the richness of the author's perspectives, the elegant writing, and the willingness to challenge orthodoxy that makes this such a rewarding book [and] is a vital, important contribution to film studies. I picked up this volume along with a half-dozen others through a subject search at the Library of Congress, not familiar with the authors of any of them, and this one was simply head-and-shoulders above the others. I expect this book will have a wider audience, and more permanent place in film studies, than many a more touted volume...a sophisticated tool"--Journal of Film and Video; "entertaining"--Film Review.

With actress Pam Grier's breakthroughs in Coffy and Foxy Brown, women entered action, science fiction, war, westerns and martial arts films - genres that had previously been considered the domain of male protagonists. This ground-breaking cinema, however, was - and still is - viewed with ambivalence. While women were cast in new and exciting roles, they did not always arrive with their femininity intact, often functioning more as a pseudo-male rather than female character. This volume contains an in-depth critical analysis and study of the female hero in popular film from 1970 to 2005. It examines five female archetypes: the dominatrix, the Amazon, the daughter, the mother and the rapeavenger. The entrance of the female into films written by, produced by and made for men is viewed through the lens of feminism and post-feminism arguments. Analyzed works include the ""Alien"" films, the Lara Croft franchise, ""Charlie's Angels"", and television productions such as ""Xena: Warrior Princess"" and ""La Femme Nikita"".