MetaChat - They don't make 'em like they used to ...

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24 July 2008

They don't make 'em like they used to ... →[More:]So I just watched Lawrence of Arabia. I can't think of too many big budget Hollywood films (especially biopics) that's come out since I've been watching movies that didn't have some sort of romantic storyline, or subplot, or something. Lawrence doesn't even have a single female speaking part! There must be more recent films that avoid giving the protagonist a love interest, right?

post by: Joe Invisible at: 11:08 | 12 comments

I always thought Omar Sharif was the love interest.

posted by Atom Eyes 24 July | 11:16

How about Rescue Dawn?

posted by Hugh Janus 24 July | 11:31

Given what I've read about T.E. Lawrence, Atom Eyes might be right ...

posted by lleachie 24 July | 11:36

There Will Be Blood.

posted by LoriFLA 24 July | 11:40

I asked my husband this question. He thought of Bat 21.

posted by LoriFLA 24 July | 11:52

Hadn't looked at it that way, Atom Eyes, but that fits pretty well.

posted by Joe Invisible 24 July | 11:53

I asked my husband this question. He thought of Bat 21.

OMG, I read that post and at first thought that this had been made into a movie.

That would have been strange.

posted by danf 24 July | 12:29

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World didn't have any female speaking parts (IIRC).

Oddly, because in the book of "The Far Side of the World" Aubrey and Maturin spend some time on a raft crewed entirely by topless, female Pacific islanders.

posted by TheophileEscargot 24 July | 13:10

I always thought Omar Sharif was the love interest.

LOL. But in real life, the two Arab servant boys, Farraj and Daud, were the love interest. Apparently. (And in those days, nobody in the Middle East would have batted an eye.)

Another Alec Guinness film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, was adapted from a novel in which no women appeared. A few got shoehorned into the beginning and end of the movie.

I'm sure there are many recent examples as well, but the one that springs to mind is The Lord of the Rings. Sure, Aragorn has a love interest, but the protagonist is Frodo.* Well, maybe the Ring (which was a "character" in the conception of the screenwriters) had a love interest -- Sauron -- as well as someone interested in it -- Gollum.

* Unless you count Sam.

posted by stilicho 24 July | 13:23

Oddly, because in the book of "The Far Side of the World" Aubrey and Maturin spend some time on a raft crewed entirely by topless, female Pacific islanders.

Yup, the book's always better.

posted by box 24 July | 13:57

Glengarry Glenn Ross
Aguirre
Stalker
2001
Be Kind, Rewind
This is England

posted by Hellbient 24 July | 16:34

And, conversely, I believe The Women was actually the only movie ever made without a male speaking part. It's being remade.

I'm not sure if the remake will go to the extent the original did- in the original all the animals in the film were females, and there were no depictions of men in the artwork on the sets, either.

posted by kellydamnit 24 July | 23:00

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