Jane Campion's preoccupation with vicious men

Jane Campion's filmography keeps revisiting a warped, volatile male archetype, so that masculinity itself becomes a meta-antagonist in her work.

[@avrivah1101]

Redundant and self indulgent. Boy, it'll be great once we've passed through this era of deeply militant, political activism. On the other hand, I'm also not looking forward to living in the wasteland that's often found on the other side. Interesting times indeed.

[@dirkmeatwhistle3552]

Power Of The Dog had fantastic scenery, NZ represent!

[@runarantila2183]

Jane campion looks like sean penn w a wig

[@tinchotincho9231]

Power of the Dog disappointed me a lot, when I read the synopsis I imagined something similar to There Will Be Blood, I was so wrong.

[@Vesnicie]

It's funny how you mentioned the Sam Neill character in The Piano, but completely failed to mention Harvey Keitel's. He is just as important to the story and a good deal less "toxic". What about the film Bright Star? That doesn't really fit with your schema here. The most toxic guy in the room is John Keats' friend, whose influence, while sometimes malign, is shown to be coming from a humane place. Keats himself is given an extremely sympathetic portrayal. Campion's women are not simple creatures. They are not Mary Sues. They're held up to scrutiny just as surely and unsparingly as the men. Is it really surprising that they find themselves in situations of unequal power in films that take place in the past? Of course that is going to be an important dynamic; but it's one that Campion has always treated with nuance and no easy answers. What you have done here is made a hasty judgment and then forced your examples to fit that judgment. I can only encourage anyone watching this to give the films a fair shot for themselves, as they are well worth the effort of watching.

[@tylerjames805]

Ok what about Power of the Dog? Cause every review I’ve heard of it echos that same plot synopses. Woman is being manipulated by an evil sexually repressed masculine manly man and the son who is “in touch with his feminine side” has to stop toxic masculinity I mean Benedict Cumberbatch. Edit: Also he says at the end that Bright Star is the exception to this running theme in her movies.

[@Vesnicie]

@@tylerjames805 he gave all of three seconds to Bright Star, saying it lacked her usual emotional intensity, which it absolutely does not. It's one of the most emotionally intense films I've ever seen. Also, if it is a significant exception, then that is an important counterexample, not a throwaway. I will be upfront and say that I haven't seen her most recent outing. However, judging her entire oeuvre by the standards of current-day politics is counterproductive and misleading. Let's talk about her best-known work: The Piano. It is a truly breathtaking film: the cinematography, the beautiful score, the complex and often mysterious story that can be interpreted in many different ways. The Sam Neill character is not a simple villain. I wouldn't really call him a villain at all. He is a very complicated man who does some very bad things, but he is not The Big Bad Man, full stop. Is that degree of complexity too much for cinema audiences to take these days? Retroactively applying ideas like "toxic masculinity" to a movie that is almost 30 years old is, as I already said, forcing a conclusion where it's not at all that simple.

[@darktenor4967]

Interesting that when a male writer, director or other creative consistantly portrays women negatively, he's damned as a misogynist, where when a woman repeatedly and constantly showcases her misandrist impulses, she's praised as a visionary feminist. Some elenets of feminism have always fallen pray to this double standard, but since the start of the me too hysteria, what was once seen as an unreasonable fringe attitude, has now become mainstream.

[@VixxKong2]

Her movies look good, but if she's going to be biased like that it's not interesting to me.

[@Vesnicie]

I wouldn't let this likewise biased review put you off her films. Every director has some prevailing themes and preoccupations. It's true that there are some very horrible men in her films, but there are some very good ones too. Her women are complicated and flawed, not propped up on a pedestal for admiration. I can only encourage you to give her work a chance, starting with The Piano, a truly extraordinary film.

[@VixxKong2]

I don't like how people who think that they're going against masculinity by portraying men as monsters, always forget that in exchange it makes the women look messed up as well. They make their women weak if they're feminine, or, if they're tomboys especially, they're MarySues. The absolute good at everything, can't do anything wrong, too pure for this world, only evil people could dislike her. At some point, it's gotta be a fettish*. I think they're in love with their "Boogeymen". They can't have their climax unless they see perfect little women getting @bused by big bad men. No wonder 50 Shades or Grey is so successful. Nobody care about the story or whatever. It's all about violent men desiring innocent women (or feminine creature) and making them suffer. This is what many shipping fanfictions do anyways. It's that Barbe Bleue. That Beauty and the Beast.

[@VixxKong2]

Now that I think about it, this plot is like 95% of what all Yaoi stories are made of. I'm not sure about Hentai, but Yaoi is very much for the female audience and it's erotica where a big [toxic] masculine man targets a weaker, sometimes feminine, man and torments him. And it keeps going until they fall in love with each other. I mean bruh 🤣🤣

[@Vesnicie]

Clearly you have never seen a Jane Campion film. And if you have seen one, you missed most of the point.

[@VixxKong2]

@@Vesnicie You're the same guy who responded to my comment earlier when I already said I wasn't going to watch her movies. So why are you wasting time with that reply when you already know the answer?

[@Vesnicie]

@@VixxKong2 and why do you waste your time actively disliking a director whose work you are vowing never to see, which means you will never have any means by which to judge said work? It seems a strange sort of preoccupation. I'm all over the comments. My general post, the one that wasn't directed at you, gives some very specific examples of how the creator of this video has made hasty and highly selective conclusions about Jane Campion's films. It's no skin off my back if you decide to irrationally dislike her and also to talk about how much you irrationally dislike her. But it is a loss to you. You're depriving yourself of some great, beautifully shot, scored and mind-expanding stuff.

[@VixxKong2]

@@Vesnicie Lol cope harder