This movie made it onto the Netflix queue because I was considering the books for trashy summer reading (along with Anne McCaffery and some Ian Fleming) and I thought the movie might give me an idea of how bad the books might be.
And let me tell you, it was bad. Not so much bad dialogue, or a bad plot (well…), but bad for teen girls all over America: How did a book that teaches you that it’s ok to throw all your love at someone who will hurt you–who might even kill you–become a worldwide bestselling romance? Because in real life the person you’re throwing your love at isn’t a sparkly vampire; he’s just going to give you a broken arm. Or worse.
So I don’t think I need to read the books–I’ll spare myself that frustration (and spare Mr. Isbell the rants about women perpetuating these behavior patterns). (Seriously, Woman Author and Women Director and Producers? You think that because a secondary character asks a boy to prom that this makes your book/movie modern and empowering? Wow.)
The movie ended with a Radiohead song, though. I didn’t see that coming.
May 11, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
Based on what Anne has told me, they absolutely do…
Here’s a very irreverent, illustrated deconstruction of the series through the Mormon lens, if you have some time to kill: http://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html
May 11, 2009 @ 12:30 pm
Thank you for saying what I suspected but didn’t want to articulate–lacking any LDS background, I don’t want to come off as Mormon-bashing.
But is is deeply disturbing stuff, yes. And reviews online say that the rest of the series gets WORSE.
May 11, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
The Girlfriend and I have had to agree to disagree on these books and the movie. She loves them. I find them deeply troubling.
In my view, the whole “Twilight saga” or whatever the series as whole is called, is nothing more or less than the sexual fantasy of a naive young woman raised in a repressive and paternalistic society, heavily informed by the peculiar beliefs that underpin said society. In other words, it’s a BYU co-ed’s wet dream. (The author is a BYU grad and native of Utah County, if you didn’t know.) Consider: The white and delightsome boy with immense and supernatural power has to rigidly control himself whenever he’s around the girl because she tempts him so, but consummating their love in any way but the most chaste (i.e., actually having sex) would destroy her… eternal love at first sight… the girl being welcomed into the “perfect” family… it’s all incredibly tinged with Mormon thinking, and not to its credit. (I don’t out-of-hand dismiss fiction informed by Mormonism any more than I would a book written from a Catholic perspective, but it’s so transparent in this case…)
Sorry to gush, but Twilight pushes my buttons, and I don’t have much opportunity to express how deeply lame and regressive I think this stuff is, not if I want to ensure some measure of domestic tranquility.
And another thing: the kid playing the lead in the movie is funny looking. He’s supposed to be so “beautiful,” but he’s not… he’s kind of… greasy.