A while back I wrote about Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) of The Replacement Killers, the forgotten great action heroine. Now I’m spotlighting Maria Scholl, the overlooked great science fiction heroine. Scholl, played by Cox Habbema, is one of the main figures of Eolomea, a 1972 East German (i.e., Soviet-era Communist) SF film directed by Hermann Zschoche. In a nonspecific future, spaceships … Read More
Sword up vs. sword down
To general readers (i.e., those who don’t read one genre exclusively), “fantasy” means warriors, sorcerers, castles and dragons. The omnipresence of Joseph Campbell, in the wake of George Lucas, has added the core story idea of the naive young hero, sword raised as a beacon of everything that’s just and right, preparing to go into battle. You can see the … Read More
Underworld’s Hero
With the upcoming release of the latest vampire vs. werewolf film, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, I’ve been pondering my inexplicable affection for the first two Underworld films. By all rights I should hate them: at first glance they’re surface-intense, drama-light, filled with inconsistencies and missed dramatic opportunities. They use the tattered trope of sexy, leather-clad vampires and sexy, hairy-bodied … Read More
Heroes: the Dragon Hunter
I don’t have a lot of real-world heroes as an adult. There are people whose work I admire, and whose accomplishments I find impressive, but for me a hero is about being as much as doing. The late Steve Irwin and Charlton Heston were heroes; among the living, Bruce Springsteen and George A. Romero currently qualify. But no one is … Read More
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