Evolution of Women's Roles in Filmmaking

Film making has gone through quite the substantial change since it’s initial coining just before the turn of the 19th century, and one would tend argue that the largest amount of this change has come quite recently or more so in the latter part of film’s history as a whole. One of the more prominent changes having taken place being the role of women in film. Once upon a time having a very set role in the industry, such as editing for example. To mention briefly the likes of Dede Allen, Verna Fields, Thelma Schoonmaker and so forth. Our female counterparts now occupy virtually every aspect of the film making industry that males do; and in many instances excel past us. Quite clearly this change has taken place behind the lens, but has it taken

However the manner of how women in Mad Max are portrayed visually is still somewhat evocative, given their initial circumstance being that of sex objects for the tyrannical Immortan Joe and the touching upon Laura Mulvay’s writings on the male gaze. Again, this contrasts to the prim and proper tie and suit attire of Anastasia. However the manner in which director Miller depicts these females towards the end of the film being key players in large action set pieces wherein they are actively fighting for their liberation is the film’s redemption. To conclude, it is ultimately a film not of objectification, but of the struggle and fight against it, where as Fifty Shades is a narrative of a woman’s curiosity in an S&M life-style. As put forth by Gallagher in Old Hands, New Breed,

“The triumph of Mad Max: Fury Road doesn’t necessarily lie in its championing of women – it is, ultimately, hardly bringing any revolutionary ideas to contemporary gender politics, but rather in the packaging of these ideas. Miller

has succeeded in making a multi-layered statement regarding the