{"id":136376,"date":"2018-03-27T18:46:55","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T22:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=136376"},"modified":"2023-03-06T08:49:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T13:49:33","slug":"a-strange-and-perfect-double-bill-sucker-punch-2011-and-the-gold-diggers-of-1933-1933","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=136376","title":{"rendered":"A Perfect Double Bill: Sucker Punch<\/i> (2011) and The Gold Diggers of 1933<\/i> (1933)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nI have been wanting to write this essay for 7 years (ever since I saw Sucker Punch<\/i>, 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<\/i> and Mervyn Le Roy’s The Gold Diggers of 1933<\/i> – complete with Busby Berkeley choreography – was at the top of the list. It was a huge topic, and the critical response to Sucker Punch<\/i> was (for the most part, there were outliers) vehemently negative, and I felt I had something to say about how Sucker Punch<\/i> was trying – and sometimes failing – but still – to operate. There were bread crumbs along the way. Right in your face bread crumbs.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

It’s up. Go check it out. People really really hate Sucker Punch<\/i> … 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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Here’s the essay: <\/p>\n

Remember My Forgotten Women: The Dire Worlds of \u201cSucker Punch\u201d and \u201cGold Diggers of 1933\u2033<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, and if you need a refresher course after reading the essay, here’s the final number of Gold Diggers of 1933<\/i>, the astonishing “Remember My Forgotten Man.”<\/p>\n

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