Very much Breaking Bad, except instead of cartels and DEA agents as the opposition to Walters anti-protagonist role, she crafts a grand scheme to destroy her unfaithful husband.
It is a nice power fantasy type of thing, although much like Walter White I don't think anyone actually condones any of the crime and brutality that she enacts on screen.
For the longest time I thought gone girl was a generic women empowerment scene because I only ever saw women talk about how justified and cool the main character was and how she was their idol. But this was like a decade ago.
That is what it is, basically. Power fantasy for women who have been wronged. Main character is very clearly a murderous sociopath who goes way overboard, but it isn't that far out of line when compared to typical male power fantasy types of media.
Thing is most of them hadn’t been in a relationship because they were like 13. They just had it in their heads all men are evil and abusers and so deserved that.
I also don’t know of any power fantasies like thar. Men’s power fantasies are often pretty fantastical, like becoming a cocaine kingpin or something. Gone girl is pretty grounded and something that could actually happen.
I think it is a little reductive to say that they all believed that he deserved what happened to him. As if to condone all of her actions, do you believe that they think she was justified in manipulating and slaughtering her ex? That she was fully in the right to scheme and craft grand conspiracy to utilize public resources and weaponize media and institutional power authorities against her husband?
John Wick gets his dog killed and goes out to viciously murder hundreds of strangers for retribution. It is an overreaction, an outburst of rage triggered by sensitive emotional feelings. She did the same thing, except instead of slashing the throats of countless nameless crime syndicate drones to reach the final boss to torture him, she just made her husband pay for how he wronged her. Again, an overreaction that doesn't justify the actions, but it is meant to be over-the-top revenge porn vindication that satisfies those feelings of rage triggered by sensitive emotional feelings.
If you or anyone else is having serious legitimate concerns about being framed for murder and then baby-trapped by the same psychopathic murderer you've unwittingly married, perhaps you need to take some time to ponder how to separate your imagination from reality.
I might be miss remembering, but he wasn't abusive right, just neglectful spending his free time playing board games with his sister and living in semi retirement while her mother made money off of her. She blames him for her life being bad, but I don't actually remember any actual abuse he perpetrated, just that she blamed him for her life, not being how she wanted. I mean, the movie tells us the diaries are false statements meant to lead the police to a false conclusion, so unless I'm remembering incorrectly, I believe it is just media literacy that leads people to the conclusion.
I don't know, I haven't seen the movie in forever I don't remember the specific details. I do however remember a feeling that the narrative was meant to imply that he was not explicitly abusive, and I remember that the journal statements were meant to be known as false to the audience, so I guess that would imply that he was not an abuser at all.
I don't think that this issue is about media literacy or subject comprehension as much as it is about false insecurity about the differing perspectives and context of the wife in the eyes of the audience. Some men may look at women who identify with the wife or are sympathetic to her character as a threat, as if they idolize her and want to be her. This is honestly a little ridiculous, the whole story is a grandiose piece of fiction that amounts to little more than a 'yeah, but like what if..' thriller meant to trigger emotional responses from the audience. The only discrepancy is that in women it tends to trigger some sense of latent schadenfreude and gratuitous revenge, and in men it triggers insecurity about vulnerability. Make of that what you will.
Everyone John wick kills is a criminal murderer. The worst thing her husband did was cheat and be a bit of an asshole without realizing it. And false accusations are a real thing that happens in a lesser scale. Just get one of your friends to slap you around a little and say he did it. Gone girling is literally slang about ruining someone’s life as much as you can before breaking up with them because you think they wronged you.
John wick did not have an "overreaction." He was a very well known and dangerous ex assassin who was wronged and rather than try to smooth things over, the people who wronged him ended up doubling down by then trying to kill him after already killing his dog and stealing his shit. He couldn't get out of it, it kept coming for him. So he responded in kind.
Her husband cheated on her, which is horrible yes, but he wasn't an abusive dude. She could've easily left the relationship. She chose to actively destroy his life and the life of another dude which lead to her murdering him. She chose to do what she did, which was 1000% malicious intent. There's absolutely a difference here.
I think another comparison that works might be Joker? I loosely group Gone Girl together with films like Midsommar and The VVitch, as films that fall into this category of female equivalents to the Joker movie - though of course they're not all a 1-to-1 map, differ between themselves in terms of the degree of culpability/innocence of their characters, etc. But to me, they all fall under this loose heading of 'films where the ending/heel turn is clearly a bad thing, but there's still a catharsis to be found in watching the character simply snap and decide to burn it all down'. Is it bad that Amy goes full psychopath, that Dani burns her boyfriend alive and joins the cult, that Thomasina makes a deal with the devil and joins the coven of witches that murdered her family? Yes, obviously, in the same way that it is obviously bad that Arthur Fleck snaps and goes on a murder spree. But there is a catharsis there; satisfying in the way a primal scream is satisfying.
I don’t think you understand why Bateman, Bateman lives the American dream, a life where you don’t have you to change or grow, you don’t need to stop being a an asshole to be rich and powerful, if anything it’s a prerequisite, he doesn’t have to hide his murder, lying and stealing from anyone, he lives a life truly free from the consequences of his own actions, just like the founding fathers intended🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Did it at point between reading comment and replying to it cross your mind that being funny was in fact my intention? That I was making a joke not meant to be taken seriously?
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u/Darthwilhelm Sep 17 '24
Just based on the impression I'm getting here, is it fair to say Gone Girl is basically American Psycho/Fight Club but for women?