Life Before Atomic Blonde - Female Action Leads in Mainstream Hollywood

[One Armed Boxer]

A few weeks ago, I was unfortunate enough to read yet another sloppily put together article on the net declaring how fantastic it was that Hollywood had "finally cast a female as the lead of an action movie!"  The movie in question of course was 'Atomic Blonde', or as it seems to just as commonly be called, 'The Female John Wick'.

Thankfully, my anger management therapist (played by Jennifer Irwin - some will get it) suggested I purge myself of my frustrations, by putting together a compilation of other female led action flicks that Hollywood has graced us with over the last 25 years.  

That's exactly what I did, so please feel welcome to check it out through the link below, posted to coincide with the US release of 'Atomic Blonde' on Blu-ray and DVD today.  If you can think of any other ass kicking female led action movies that fit the criteria, please join the discussion here or by commenting on the feature, and hope it makes for an enjoyable read!

http://cityonfire.com/life-before-atomic-blonde-female-action-leads-in-mainstream-hollywood/

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Schooled those morons with their goldfish-like memories.

[DragonClaws]

I also posted a link to this article yesterday, in the Women in Martial Arts Cinema thread.

[SamSeed]

Great article, and that's without going into the Cynthia Rothrock films, or Sigourney Weaver in the Alien series, or Michelle Rodriguez in Girlfight, Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby (OK a drama but centered around action!)

[Omni Dragon]

I remember being a bit confused when similar sensationalist, rhetoric was used earlier this year to describe the Wonder Woman movie, that was heralded in as an unique movie to empower women.

I also remember seeing things declaring (in response to Wonder Woman) that female leads in action movies are a recent trend. This made me think it's a shame that a lot of martial art cinemas, heroines are not well remembered or known about. Unfortunately pre-Bruce Lee Chinese cinema is not that well known to me, but I have read about 1920s heroines in Shanghainese cinema and I've even seen a few of the 1960s female leads in Hong Kong martial art movies.

[kingofkungfu2002]

I wasn't aware of 'Doomsday' before, but have just ordered the bluray, after watching the trailer.

[DragonClaws]

49 minutes ago, kingofkungfu2002 said:

I wasn't aware of 'Doomsday' before, but have just ordered the bluray, after watching the trailer.

It's worth a watch, plenty of influence from John Carpenter and George Miller. I think the movie was mostly shot in the North of England/Scotland?.

 

16 hours ago, Silver and Gold Dragon said:

I remember being a bit confused when similar sensationalist, rhetoric was used earlier this year to describe the Wonder Woman movie, that was heralded in as an unique movie to empower women.

Just Hollywood trying to flog the movie to the public I guess. Either that, or some people genuenely don't watch films that are more than a couple of years old.

Many U.S horror movies would have a strong female leads, or sole female survivors, if it was a grup of teens getting hacked to bits, or what ever. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre being one example. The British horror movie The Descent(2005), is a great example of this. Yet Hollywood completely ignored the fact, it featured a female only cast. Cant comment on the sequels, as I've never watched those. But the first film features a strong female character, played by Shauna Macdonald, who takes on some predatory creatures in brutal close quarters fights.