Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn’s Cry for Girl Power Turns Into Groan Power
by Chris Churilla
SPOILERS INCLUDED
OVERVIEW
Suicide Squad (2016) was widely considered a failure. The attempt to bring a super-powered version of the Dirty Dozen (1967) to the big screen had few bright spots among them. One of those bright spots was the performance of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, girlfriend of the arch-villain, Joker.
Warner Brothers decided to take a chance on giving Harley her own film, and I thought it worse than its predecessor.
SYNOPSIS
This film takes place after the events of Suicide Squad and focuses on Harley after she breaks up with Joker. During their time together, apparently, she upset quite a few people. Once word gets out about their breakup, a lot of them start gunning after her now that there is no longer any fear of reprisal from the Clown Prince of Crime. To save her own neck, she gets mixed up in the search for a diamond that has worth beyond its cash value and teams up with several other women to help her achieve this goal.
BIBLICAL ANALYSIS
One of the running gags in this film is when Harley is attacked, a profile pops onscreen, listing the attacker’s grievance with her—and she gets attacked quite a bit.
Galatians 6:7 comes to mind, which states:
…for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
In one scene, crime boss Roman Sionis captures Harley and is set to kill her, but she manages to convince him to let her help him get an important item: a gem that somehow contains codes to access a massive fortune. Before her capture, she has no interest in getting that gem. In essence, the whole film is her attempt to avoid reaping the consequences of her actions committed during her relationship with Joker.
Wouldn’t all the running from trying to avoid the consequences be exhausting? Wouldn’t one’s neck get sore from looking over their shoulder all the time?
It is admittedly scary taking responsibility for our mistakes, but then again, once they are dealt with, we’re free to move on in life.
CINEMATIC ANALYSIS
To me, the point of this movie was clearly female empowerment, but I found it very boring as I realized every single man in this movie was portrayed in a negative light. They are sexist, patronizing jerks; they take credit for women’s work and sell them out when the going gets tough.
Even the film’s antagonist is weak, Crime boss Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) aka, Black Mask. He is just as ineffectual as all the other men in this movie.
He is a character who struts, preens, and shouts but does absolutely nothing to show he is a match for her. All of his violence is carried out by a psychopathic henchman named Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), so why should he be feared? In one scene, he was grossed out by the sight of a “snot bubble,” so how is he supposed to be taken seriously?
Even in their final confrontation, he shows weakness. Rather than fighting Harley directly, Roman hides behind a human shield.
I believe in a movie such as this; a woman would only get a sense of empowerment if she overcame a male opponent who was her equal or even her superior. I think if she really wanted to show Joker she was over him, she should’ve gone after him rather than this peacock.
A movie can only be as good as its antagonist. If they are weaker than the protagonist, then there is no real sense of accomplishment or victory.
I think what drives this point home was The Dark Knight (2008). Joker proved he was just as smart as Batman, building contingencies into his plans, but even more ruthless, killing people to achieve his goals, whereas Batman was not. So it was a genuine relief when Batman did beat him; the greater the challenge, the greater the joy when victory is achieved despite the odds.
Another aspect that could be problematic was Harley herself. At the beginning of the film, she gives us a quick autobiography, and she claims she was behind some of Joker’s greatest capers, yet he took credit for them before kicking her out.
On the surface, it all seems well and good; it justifies her desire to establish herself as an independent woman. However, one must take into account she is mentally ill, so just how reliable is her version of events?
FEMINISM & SUPERHERO MOVIES
There has been a growing call for more representation of women as leads in superhero movies for several years, and Hollywood has responded by giving us Captain Marvel (2019) and Wonder Woman (2017), both of which have been well-received.
I share the same high opinion of these movies and of the ability of the women in them to hold their own with their male colleagues; however, I think an earlier entry in this recent spate of superhero movies served just as powerfully—perhaps even more so—with the message of female empowerment: Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow, as played by Scarlett Johansson.
While she may have been the only member of the Avengers without any special abilities or items, she demonstrated time and again her ability to get things done, often against odds that appeared stacked against her.
Avengers (2012): She manipulates Loki (Tom Hiddleston), a master deceiver himself, into revealing part of his plan. In my opinion, it was one of the best scenes in the movie. The look on his face as he realizes she played him is priceless.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015): She approaches Hulk and puts her hand on his as a means to help him calm down and revert to Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).
Avengers: Endgame (2019): She sacrifices her life to acquire an item essential to reversing the damage done by Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
Harley Quinn image courtesy of Marcus Bellamy on Unsplash.
I also noticed that in these films, is that none of her male counterparts talk down to her, treat her as inferior or tell her to not join in on a mission; she had proven herself to them, and as a result, she is treated as a valuable member of the team.
Finally, she is getting her own movie later this year, and frankly, I think it is long overdue.
Resources
We’ve created a free downloadable PDF to explore the article deeper. It contains discussion questions about the topic in general terms that will give you a jumping-off point for beginning a conversation.
The second page contains a way to see the topic from a biblical perspective.
And finally, to go deeper into the subject, we have chosen a few curated resources to explore from other authors’ and thinkers’ research or perspectives.
Read. Engage. Enjoy!
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