I have been wanting to write this essay for 7 years (ever since I saw Sucker Punch, basically). Why didn’t I? Because I was busy writing reviews and getting writing jobs and taking assignments. I do have a little folder of “Things I Must Write About Some Day” and the connections/conversation between Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch and Mervyn Le Roy’s The Gold Diggers of 1933 – complete with Busby Berkeley choreography – was at the top of the list. It was a huge topic, and the critical response to Sucker Punch was (for the most part, there were outliers) vehemently negative, and I felt I had something to say about how Sucker Punch was trying – and sometimes failing – but still – to operate. There were bread crumbs along the way. Right in your face bread crumbs.
At any rate, Scott Tobias – who used to be my editor at The Dissolve – reached out and asked me for pitches for the “Musings” blog over at the Oscilloscope Laboratories site. They only run a couple of pieces a month and the essays are eclectic in the extreme. Esoteric, deep dives, coming in at things from the side, etc. So I bit the bullet, and pitched this “perfect double bill.” His response was, “Well, you know I can’t pass THAT up.” Thank you, Scott!
It’s up. Go check it out. People really really hate Sucker Punch … and I really really love it. I can’t convince you obviously if you hate it with the passion of 1000 suns, and I won’t even try. What I am trying to do is lay out how I think it operates, and the realm in which it wants to work. It tells you upfront what it wants to be. All you have to do is look at the posters on the wall in the girls’ dressing room.
If you do choose to see it, make sure you see the Extended Cut. I saw the original theatrical release, and it still packed a huge sucker-punch, but it was butchered by very dumb people for that release and a lot of great things were lost, including a musical duet-dance number between Oscar Isaac and Carla Gugino.
Here’s the essay:
Remember My Forgotten Women: The Dire Worlds of “Sucker Punch” and “Gold Diggers of 1933″
Oh, and if you need a refresher course after reading the essay, here’s the final number of Gold Diggers of 1933, the astonishing “Remember My Forgotten Man.”
UPDATE:
Richard Harland Smith, a film critic who writes for Filmstruck, said on Twitter: “Gold Diggers of 1933 is the cradle of civilization” (hahaha) and provided a link to a piece he wrote, detailing the visual similarities between Gold Diggers of 1933 and The Exorcist. Here’s his essay, it’s so great: E’reway in-hay the Oney-may… or the Exorcist as a Sequel to Gold Diggers of 1933. AND, he has not seen Sucker Punch (I don’t think many did, after the critical drubbing it got), but said he will now check it out. AND, even better, look what he created for me.
Words cannot express how much I love that Bergman-esque mashup.
I’ve been looking forward to your essay on Sucker Punch ever since you mentioned wanting to write it a few years ago. It didn’t grab me when it came out and I wanted to hear what it did for you. I’ll have to watch it again at some point with Gold Diggers of 1933 in mind.
Also, I didn’t know that Oscilloscope Laboratories had a website with articles – I only knew them from their cool logo at the start of The Love Witch and The Fits.
Speaking of TLW, I agree with your comment about Anna Biller’s post on the labeling films as feminist. Excellent. I’m looking forward to her Bluebeard film.
Thanks so much!!
Sucker Punch was butchered for its theatrical release – by dummy-dumbs – it’s the version I saw, and it’s the version I fell in love with – but Snyder’s director’s cut was released a bit later, and it is well worth your time. There are more shadings to the story – Jon Hamm’s lobotomist is more fleshed out – plus a song-and-dance number by Oscar Isaac which … come on.
Oscilloscope is such a cool company – I mean, it was founded by a Beastie Boy after all!
and definitely come back after you’ve seen so we can discuss!
I’m used to disagreement on Sucker Punch, so if I haven’t made my case then okay, I can deal – but it’s fun to discuss anyway! :)
Will do. And I’ll look for the director’s cut. I recall how annoyed I was with the theatrical release of Blade Runner, but loved the director’s cut when I saw it.
Phantom Thread became available on Tuesday, so that gets first place in the queue. I absolutely want to see that again!
Yes! Phantom Thread’s out!! Very exciting.
The difference between the two versions of Sucker Punch is RADICAL. Emily Browning actually complained about it publicly at the time, pretty ballsy. A scene was cut involving tenderness, and … although I hate the word … “lovemaking” … and she was like, “Why on earth does my character making love have to be cut, when violence and oversexualization is everywhere – it’s okay to see me thrown against a wall, but somehow THAT is offensive??”
Good for her.
The scene throws a wrench in the works – a wrench involving sex – that I think is the “missing piece” – and something people still have a hard time talking about. I’ve talked about it here. Saying “no” is one thing: women know how to say “no”. Or, if they don’t, they can learn. It’s all about saying “no no no” and feeling free to say “no” and set your boundaries and blah blah blah. All very important. But saying “yes” – and meaning “yes” is true liberation. People think it comes naturally. But it doesn’t, the socialization is too strong. that’s what that scene is all about.
Cutting this scene really changes the film. I still grooved to the original though!