Intentionally or not, we step away from reality when we enter the dark hall of the
cinema. We may need a hard slap in the face to wake up, so we can step back into the real world.
Action films are portals into new worlds. These worlds appear similar to ours, but
have had the everyday moments taken out. Regardless of whether the narrative
timeline comprises of a single day or many years, we experience it within a fast-
paced, eventful race to the finish, with no sign of slowing down. When it is all over,
we are left with a profound sense of triumph produced from the hero’s efforts. Our
hearts are pumping pure adrenaline through our bodies that have barely moved an
inch in the last two hours. We sit for a moment during the credits to reflect on the
satisfaction we felt when the bad guys were killed, even when there is an infinitely
small chance of anyone similar appearing in your life. We live vibrantly and
vicariously through another; live their life and feel as if we were the one who wielded
the knife or pulled the trigger. When the screen goes dark, we shut our laptops down,
turn our televisions off; leave the theatre. We get into bed that night, ready to wake up
in the morning and return to the office, back to our reality.
Expect the Unexpected
This is what people want when they go to see an action film. For a short period, we
can feel like we are breaking all of the laws without having to lift a finger. The
profoundly mystical element of this is that after we experience our cathartic purge of
violent desires, we can leave at the end as bodily innocent. There is no blood on our
hands. We have done nothing wrong. We have gotten away with murder. Having evil
thoughts is not punishable unless we act upon them.
Have you ever seen an action film that has affected your life in the real world? Have
you ever been prompted to reflect on the structures of control within society or to
consider the characters as emblematic of people who are very much alive and real?
That definitely is not what you would expect. It is not what we want. Despite our
wishes, Zachary Snyder’s Sucker Punch (2011) went there. It hits you hard when you
are not prepared. Ironically, despite the force of the blow, it has the opposite effect.
Genre has a significant power over how we approach our viewing and if the film
doesn’t hit the right buttons or if the film hits awkward and uncomfortable buttons,
it will be dismissed. This post will examine the deeper themes evident in the film when you allow yourself to look closer, by abandoning your genre expectations.
Unescapable Female Objectification
When we consider the physical transformation of Babydoll (Emily Browning) and her
friends from defenceless to almost inhumanly strong, Sucker Punch initially appears
to be a film of female empowerment. What we need to contemplate however is
whether Babydoll’s appearance is appealing to the female or male imagination. In
each of the worlds, the female images adhere to different male fantasies within the
media. In the first world or the so-called reality of 1950’s America, the women are
vulnerable mental patients hidden away from society. In the second world of the club,
they are sex slaves who are still locked up, but put on display. They are dolled up in a
burlesque style for the monetary benefit of their male captors. In these two realities,
the women are trapped and are physically subservient to the men. Women are also
shown cooking and cleaning laboriously, whilst their male supervisor sits idly. These
scenes act as visual metaphors for the ‘domestic goddess’ housewife and
problematises it by emphasising their similarly slave like treatment by their husbands.
In the third imagined world created by Babydoll, the women appear as superhero-like
warriors with special skills, capable of defeating their male enemies. Just like an
avatar in a video game, Babydoll never displays cuts or bruises when an enemy
strikes her. She remains a perfectly preserved and stylised figure. Her costume design
in this world is emblematic of the Japanese female hero as featured in manga and
anime. Her short skirted sailor uniform and pigtails fit in with Japan’s media
obsession with the high school girl. As they are neither children nor adults, they are a
figure in society with the potential to change the world. They hold this power
realistically as the grown-ups of tomorrow and, in popular media have great potential
as underdog heroes. While the women feel strong, they are however unaware of the
fact that their power is imaginary. Babydoll is not free but contained within a video
game-like world, which is a male dominated form of media. As she fights, her actions
have no real effect on reality. She is there for the entertainment of the unseen
audience. This invisibility allows us a voyeuristic pleasure.
As well as being a physically attractive figure to the male gaze, the audience is able to
experience violence without consequence. Video games do this perhaps even more
effectively, as the enemies are lifeless Non-Player-Characters (NPCs), there to
function as moving obstacles. In the WWII battle scene, the Wise Man (Scott Glenn)
tells the girls not to feel bad about killing the soldiers because “they are already
dead”. This proclamation mirrors what one of the girls, Rocket (Jena Malone) had
told the group: “We are already dead.” Here, the Wise man is additionally letting the
audience know that the girls are like NPCs and if they die, we should not care.
You may ask: Why is it necessary for the females to have an imagined power? For
example, if you reimagined the main characters as a group of young men, they would
fight their way out, as male action heroes are equipped with these abilities. The fact
that Babydoll is not strong outside of her mind confirms the natural weakness of the
female sex.
Escapism & Trauma
Just as Babydoll is unaware that she is powerless, even in her strongest form, she is
also oblivious to what is happening in the real world, during her time in the third
dimension. To enter this world, Babydoll simply needs to shut her eyes. When she
returns from her visions, she is met with thunderous applause in response to her
provocative dances, which we are shown none of. In the film, there is an entire layer
of activity that is off screen and occurring simultaneously to the adventure scenes.
While Babydoll brushes off this praise and feels that she has outwitted her captors,
thinking about this closely, you may ask: What was happening to her when her mind
was elsewhere? Later in the film, when a task fails and the cook goes to stab her
friend Rocket, Babydoll quickly shuts her eyes in order to re-enter the third
dimension. Here, it is made evident that she uses her fantasies as a ritual of escapism.
The exciting action scenes are what you get in place of the traumatic truth. The urge to escape reality reflects the audience’s desire, as they experience action films in order to get away from the real world for a short time. The film problematises this desire and asks the audience to reflect on what is happening in their lives while they are immersed in the simulated worlds of Hollywood cinema. Babydoll is an extreme example of the dangers that can arise from refusing to face issues in society by retreating into ideal narrative universes.
Religious References
The combination of Japanese and Western tropes within the film is also exemplified
in the religious references to both Shintoism and Christianity. After Babydoll
transitions into the second world, the wicked Stepfather (Gerald Plunkett) appears as a
Christian priest who has brought her to Blue’s club from ‘the orphanage’. While he
smiles and appears to be kind, telling Babydoll: “Goodbye, my dear,” he is fully
aware and in on Blue Jones’ (Oscar Isaac) plan of selling her virginity to ‘The High
Roller’, which in the real world represents the financial deal regarding her lobotomy.
When she spits on him in disgust, he reveals his true colours by yelling after her
angrily that she will get what she deserves. Contrastingly, when she first enters the
third world, she finds herself in Feudal Japan. She walks through a traditional ‘Torri’,
which is the gateway into Shinto temples. This arch structure symbolises the
transition from the regular world into a sacred space. In the temple, she finds the
Wiseman, who acts as her father figure guide in her journey towards freedom. Despite
being an American man, he is dressed as a Shinto priest and provides her with
weapons in a ritualistic way.
On the outset, the Wiseman appears to represent the West abandoning their spiritual ways in favour of Eastern tradition, for the purpose of achieving enlightenment and purpose. However, what becomes problematic to this idea is the discovery that Babydoll’s life is the fifth item needed to be free. In the second world, this means she must distract the dangerous men in front of the gate so her friend Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) can escape. In reality, the sacrifice is her submission to the lobotomy process. In this sense, religion functions as a masking of the patriarchy and as it is the driving force behind all of these religious manifestations. While the Wise Man said it “will be a deep sacrifice and a perfect victory”, Babydoll ultimately loses her battle physically as she is reduced to a vegetative state.
A Janus Faced Conclusion
On the other hand, there are two distinct ways to read the ending and Babydoll’s fate.
After being lobotomised, the head orderly in the asylum has her taken into a room so
he can rape her, a violent metaphor for his triumph over her strong spirit. When he
kisses her, he begins crying and says, “That’s not right”. He becomes angry, demands
for her to come back to him and grasps her throat. At that moment, the police burst
through the door and arrest him. As he is dragged away, he also professes that they
need to punish the Stepfather, not him. At this point, it seems that Babydoll has won.
Blue never is able to “have her” and the Stepfather will be punished for his crime. We
then see a beautiful scene of Sweet Pea escaping on a bus with the aid of the Wiseman
as the bus driver. As the bus drives away into the distance, we hear Sweet Pea
finishing her monologue that began the film. She says that we, the individual viewers
are capable of winning all of our battles. In a strong and imperative voice, she tells us
“You have all the weapons you need, now fight!” This proclamation is followed by
the credits that are accompanied with an alternative version of a rock song from the
film.
The final scene is framed as a conventional happy ending. This sense of satisfaction
however, is quickly inverted when you acknowledge that the happy escape scene is a
third world vision produced in Babydoll’s mind. We know this because the transition
to this moment is Babydoll closing her eyes, the motif which opens the door to the
alternate reality. The fact that the bus driver and also the boy getting on the bus in
front of her are characters that were purely imagined by Babydoll and have no
existence in reality also proves this. Even though the psychiatrist informs us after the
lobotomy that Babydoll did indeed help another patient to escape, we never find out
what really happens to her. The expectations of the audience are the factors that compound the tragedy. It is important for the viewer to look deeper and realise that the ending is a façade; otherwise Babydoll’s death is justified rather than problematised.
Why Did You Punch Me?
At this point you must be wondering: Why on Earth was this film made in the first
place? Clearly, it addresses a great deal of important issues but, due to its form as an
action film, it is targeting an audience that is not interested in thinking about them.
They want nothing more than a few hours of continuous, sensationalised movement.
However, in order to understand this film at all, we need to open ourselves to the
sucker punch. We must feel the full sting of the jab, for it marks the birth of wisdom.
This film may not be what you expected or wanted but, like real life hardships, they
arrive out of the blue and are completely unwarranted. While they are far from
pleasant, they will make us stronger and prepare us for challenges in the future. We
don’t always learn important things with full consent, but we must. Sometimes we
need a hard slap in the face to wake up to the truth that lies right in front of us.
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