27 Dresses (2008) and The African Queen (1951)

Lately I have begun making odd pairings of movies to analyse, for example: The African Queen (1951), starring Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, followed by 27 Dresses (2008), starring Katherine Heigl. The difference 50-odd years makes in cinema is incredible. In The African Queen the main characters are consistently polite. When Hepburn throws all Bogart's gin overboard--they are alone on a barge--he says, "Oh miss! I'll perish without a hair of the dog." When she gives him the silent treatment he asks her, "What you being so mean for, miss?" In 27 Dresses, however, the characters are not quite well raised. For instance, bridesmaid Judy Greer says of the bride's wish for her hair not to hang loosely, "The b*tch said up. It's up." In another scene Katherine Heigl says to her sister, "Today you're just some b*tch who broke my heart and cut up my mother's wedding dress." I'm beginning to think what I like most about old movies is the fact that women are not constantly being called b*tches.   

 © 2017 Alline Cormier

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