Greetings Movie Advocate regulars! Today we continue off our special Christmas present to you, a series of 12 lists for the 12 days of Christmas. We're continuing today with lists of our 6 favorite badass ladies of action. Agree? Disagree? Either way we'd love to hear about it!
Justin's List
6. Tamara Dobson
For putting evil Shelly Winters in her place in Cleopatra Jones.
5. Sigourney Weaver
For Ripley
4. Jane Fonda
For her role as the sexy space adventurer in Barbarella
3. Grace Jones
As the badass Bond villain, May Day
2. Uma Thurman
For her role as The Bride in Kill Bill
1. Pam Grier
For being more badass than all the boys.
Ben's List:
6. Linda Hamilton
If there were a "Most Frightening Ladies of Action" list, Linda Hamilton would be #1. At BNAT last weekend, several of us had a long, inconclusive conversation about whether Linda Hamilton counts as strong feminist figure, or if her lack of traditional feminine characteristics is meant to be perceived in a negative light. Regardless, she is almost more of a pure action machine in Terminator 2 than Arnold is. Her psychological damage is our gain.
5. Meiko Kaji
In the cold blooded killer category, we have Meiko Kaji as Matsu AKA Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion! Matsu is betrayed, framed for murder, raped, tortured, and left for dead rotting in prison. Her vengeance is cold, calculated, and patient. She is Uma Thurman's The Bride 30 years before The Bride. She's also very good in Lady Snowblood.
4. Pam Grier
Pam Grier is super sexy, super smart, super quick witted, and she could kick the shit out of me!
3. Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh out-stunts Jackie Chan in his own movie in Super Cop. Yeoh is easily the best female martial artists in cinema history. And you know what? I would put her in the running for best martial artist in cinema history period! So there!
2. Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is another of those James Cameron "is she or isn't she a feminist role model" figures. We can hash that out all day long, but there's no denying that the Alien franchise would be half of what it is without Sigourney Weaver. She's one of the most commanding stars of action cinema, male or female. "Get away from her, you bitch," indeed.
1. Zoe Bell
I've tried to be as honest as possible on these lists. At first I placed Zoe Bell at #6 because I thought picking someone who's best known as a Tarantino heroine would be obvious and predictable. The more I think about it, however, I realize that Zoe Bell embodies everything I want to see in a badass lady of action. She is strong and in control, without sacrificing her humorous and wild sides. She's sexy but she is absolutely not valued in relation to men. She is a spectacular stuntwoman. Kudos to Tarantino for realizing that she has a strong enough personality to command audience attention in a lead role. He gave her the role of a lifetime playing... herself. Bell capitalized on her her new status as a badass lady of action by landing the role of Bloody Holly in Drew Barrymore's criminally under-appreciated Whip It. My hope is that this is just the beginning of Bell's career as a leading lady and not an anomaly.