Female Portrayals in 80s Blockbusters

The 1980s was a revolutionary decade for Hollywood. Masterful directors such George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and James Cameron saw the potential for making massive blockbusters with the new technology that became available during the time. Genres such as science fiction, horror and action greatly benefited from the new film techniques, and now they are common place in the movie business. Many of the films that were released during time have become engrained in American popular culture, and are now mentioned in all facets of society. One of the lesser known changes that resulted from these new high budget films was the portrayal of females. Previously woman had been seen deuteragonists in the narrative. They were either love interest or foils for the main male character. The women embodied all the traditional traits that society deemed appropriate for them such as being loving family members or deceptive femme fatales. However, many of the new action-packed thrillers took a different approach in portraying their female leads. Beginning with Princess Leia in Star Wars, the heroines of the story began to take more assertive and active role in helping resolve the conflict. Princess Leia was portrayed as a warrior princess, who could assist in the action and take care of herself, with little to no limitations compared to men. As the decade moved on, more and more female characters were made leads in popular films, such as Ellen Ripley in Alien, Sarah Connor in The Terminator and Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Many of them were portrayed with distinct male movie characteristics such as being able to fight, survive and protect on their own. Not only did the women become more masculine in films, they become much more diverse in their personalities by not sticking to stereotypes that dominated Hollywood for the previous decades.