We played a movie trivia game at work today - a chance for us to get together for 15-20 minutes to have some fun...And afterwards, i was talking with a friend about what movie quotes were in the game, and she mentioned that if there had been any quotes from Mary Poppins that she would have known them right away...And I love that movie....I love it when Katie Nana, the kids' first nanny, stands at the front door and says, "I've had my say, and that's all I'll say. I'm done with this house forever." And Mrs. Banks knows that there's no keeping here there...
And it made me think about women in movies who i see as powerful. Katie Nana is in control of her destiny. It wasn't going how she wanted. She decided to go. She went. End of story. And i realized that decisiveness in women in the movies is something i admire, no matter the method.
Take Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She is rich, spoiled, a brat...All that entitlement. She treats people terribly, and in the end, gets what she deserves. Mostly, people think she is awful. I, however, see her as fiercely determined, goal oriented, and unwilling to let anyone stand in her way. And i can admire that on many levels. I can appreciate so much that Veruca Salt will never, ever, take no for an answer. I bet she climbed out of that garbage chute, started some rival candy company, and made Wonka regret that he had told her no. And if she didn't do that, I am sure that her soul cankered at the thought of him telling her no. Just cankered and festered.
And then let's look at my favorite Disney heroine of all time - Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Now, that woman is driven. She didn't get invited to Princess Aurora's christening (by accident, they claimed), but she is gracious enough to come anyway, in a party-crashy sort of way, and bestows the gift of death on a baby. Not a woman to be trifled with, you see...(And she was the first Disney character to say 'hell' in a movie i think....) And then, when the death spell is changed to just sleeping, she spends 16 years looking for Aurora to make sure she will prick her finger on the spindle. And then, she finds Prince Phillip (Aurora's true love and betrothed), and chains him up in the dungeon. And she has minions, and that's awesome. And when he escapes, she turns into a dragon, and tries like hell to kill him before meeting her fiery end.
But damn...16 years of determination. She's dedicated, and absolutely committed to her own success, you know? In a very Machiavellian way of course. So, do the ends justify the means? How much did Veruca and Maleficent want to succeed? How much were they willing to do?
How much ambition is too much? How much are you willing to do to get what you want? How can you approach a 16 year evil mission, when making through an 8 hour day leaves you bored, empty, soulless in the cube world?
How much do you want what you want?
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