Women On the Screen—Then and Now

The competition for Oscar nominations among women actors was extraordinarily competitive this year, as it has been so for some time now. And that's happy news, because it wasn't always so. Not that long ago, the number of screen roles for men versus women was nearly five to one.

There were several reasons for this. One was the crisis among screenwriters about how to treat female characters in an era that was challenging long-standing Hollywood stereotyping. For example, the popular adult romance in which the screen heroine finds Mr. Right and walks away with him into a supposed life of domestic bliss had come under intense attack in the 1970s.

Many critics and lots of women's-movement advocates lashed out at ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANY MORE (1974) because the newly independent Alice (Ellen Burstyn) agreed to walk off into the sunset with suitor Kris Kristofferson—a decision greeted with loud applause by the café patrons in Mel's Diner where Alice worked.

Alice's intention—following the death of her husband—had been to take on a waitress job and save enough money to be able to continue her journey west, where she would restart the singing career she'd abandoned for marriage. Now she was giving this up for another man, and that's what rankled the film's critics (including Ellen Burstyn who had opposed the "happy" ending).

A few years later Paul Mazursky wanted a similar upbeat ending for AN UNMARRIED WOMAN (1978), but remembering the outrage at Alice's decision, he opted to end his film by having Jill Clayburgh—a recently divorced woman now working in an art gallery—reject her charming suitor (Alan Bates) as she had done with others before him. The adult-romance formula film was on hold.

What WAS acceptable at this time and through most of the 1980s were male-oriented action films, films with rogue cops and law-and-order heroes, and male "buddy" pictures in which women were usually minor background characters, if present at all. In that era of change and uncertainty big-name male stars (Bronson, DeNiro, Eastwood, McQueen, Newman, Pacino, Redford, Stallone, Wayne) were deemed bankable commodities at the box-office; most women actors were not, and as a consequence memorable roles for American film actresses became scarce.

I think back to 1975 and Louise Fletcher's Best Actress Oscar for Nurse Ratchet in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST—an award in a year in which there was little competition, and one for a role that today would be relegated to the Supporting Actress category.

But that was then and now is now and women are everywhere on the screen, not just as actresses in great roles, but in the credits as writers, directors and producers (and sometimes all three). They include: writer-directors (Patty Jenkins, MONSTER, Sofia Coppola, LOST IN TRANSLATION); producers (Kathleen Kennedy, SEABISCUIT, Nancy Myers, MONSTER and Judie G. Hoyt, MYSTIC RIVER), and writer-producer-directors (Nancy Myers, SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE and Audrey Wells, UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN).

Best Actress nominations range from 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes (WHALE RIDER) to 57-year-old Diane Keaton (SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE, an adult romance, by the way, where in the end the man and the woman are able to walk away together).

The differences between then and now can be explained in the proliferation of "indies," of more "little," low-budget pictures, of distribution companies willing to take chances on films with challenging stories, and, of course, in the increase in women film artists with vision and opportunity.

Film historian and critic Frank Beaver is professor of film and video studies and professor of communication.

P.S. (Pride-of-School)—University of Michigan grad Lucy Ouyang '80 was an assistant director of MASTER AND COMMANDER.

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