Seeking Source Suggestions: Women doing violence

[paxpinnae]

Hi!  I'm working on a multifandom vid.  For one section I need clips that have women fighting/ otherwise doing violence in a non-stylized way - think Cally Tyrol biting that dude's ear off in Battlestar Galactica, not Kahlan spinning around in a white dress tapping people with knives in Legend of the Seeker.  Unfortunately, most of the sources I have on hand focus on the pretty happy shiny violence, not the ugly bloody brutish violence, which is why I need help.  What sources, preferably shot in 16:9, have a lot of women beating the crap out of people in a non-sexualized way? 

oh god I sound like a psychopath. I'm not, I promise.

Comments

[killabeez]

Having just made a True Blood vid, I can say, definitely True Blood.

[paxpinnae]

Oooo. I considered True Blood briefly, but I think I forgot about Lorena and Pam. Thank you!

[killabeez]

Not even counting Lorena and Pam, Sookie, Tara, Debbie Pelt, and Jessica all kick ass at various times, and they're all pretty brutal/down-and-dirty fights.

[futuransky]

If a movie is ok, 28 Days Later!

[rhivolution]

And, in a similar vein, Doomsday, though that's in 2.35:1, unfortunately.

[paxpinnae]

Movies are awesome! Thanks!

[leanwellback]

If movies are okay, the Kill Bills, especially vol. 1. And if you're okay with supernatural things, the Vampire Diaries is good for that from mid-season one (there are scenes with the characters being violent without any of the effects or make-up, too).

[paxpinnae]

The Kill Bills are a little too pretty for what I have in mind, but I'll check out the Vampire Diaries. Thanks!

[thingswithwings]

It's interesting how hard this question is to answer, isn't it.

28 Days Later is the first one that comes to mind for me - a lot of stark, bloody violence in that one, much of it committed by Selena, and it's sort of necessary and grim.

You could try The Sarah Connor Chronicles? Sarah's sexualized in that ubiquitous tv way where her t-shirts are kinda tight, but there are lots of shots of her just doing violence/holding a gun/crashing a motorcycle/etc where it's classic action, not classic lady-action. Actually - even better might be Terminator 2: Linda Hamilton is BUFF, and seriously beats people up, and goes a bit nuts trying to kill someone at one point.

And perhaps Ace, from Doctor Who? It depends on the kind of violence you want - is beating up a dalek with a baseball bat, then killing one with a rocket launcher, the kind of thing that suits, or do you want a bit more human-on-human violence/gore? Ace generally likes hitting things and blowing things up, but she never runs anyone through with a sword.

Scully on The X-Files shoots people all the time (memorably, she once shoots Mulder for his own good) and as far as I can recall that violence is never sexualized; it's more like, she's wearing her business suit and doing her job. Similarly you might try gritty cop shows that are actually gritty - Homicide: Life on the Street (maybe, maybe not; I can't remember if Kay Howard ever beats someone up in the interrogation room), or The Wire, or Southland.

Good luck with this! I'm interested to see what kind of vid it ends up being.

[amalnahurriyeh]

Re: The X-Files, the episode you probably want is Orison, from s7, wherein Scully kills a serial killer in her apartment; it's probably the dirtiest kill in the entire series. If you need source, and you can work with stuff that comes from Handbrake, I can pull it for you.

[paxpinnae]

Oooo. If you could do that, that would be great, as I don't have any X-Files. Handbrake is fine; my e-mail is paxpinnae at gmail dot com. Thank you so much!

[paxpinnae]

It really is. :D

Snoop from The Wire and Lydia Adams actually started this whole business, and I'm looking for something a little more visceral than what Ace gets up to, but I have no knowledge of things Terminator or 28 Days Later and will therefore have to check both of those out.

[ghost_lingering]

Criminal Minds does a good job of a) women fighting in ways that aren't sexualized, and b) women fighting sexualized violence in ways that are not sexualized. Prentiss, JJ, and Elle are the three female regulars who get to fight the most, and there are guest stars who get to fight as well. If you want more examples, let me know! (My favorite is a woman who is blindfolded and bound and kicks her attacker in the face and runs away. Not only is it a great moment of resistance but the camera doesn't sexualize her at all. It's in the pilot ep.) FYI, I can probably list off all/most of the Elle fight scenes since I made a vid about her, so I've watched them ad nauseum.

Aeryn Sun from Farscape beats the crap out of people, but she also might be sexualized a bit more than you're looking for. Ditto for Cha Song Joo from Capital Scandal. Eowyn in LotR, perhaps? Sarah Connor?

[paxpinnae]

Ooo, I didn't realize Criminal Minds had that many women in it. I'll have to look into that. Thanks!

[ghost_lingering]

It's definitely a show to look into! FYI, Elle is in the first season and a half and then leaves and Prentiss replaces her. There is another female regular, Garcia, but she's never in any fights. In the middle of the ... 4th (?) season JJ leaves for a bit because the actress had a baby and during that time was replaced by another woman, Jordan, but I don't remember any specific scenes where she fights. In the most recent season the network fired the actress that plays JJ for stupid reasons; I haven't seen the end of season 5 or any of the new season so I can't speak to those episodes.

[klia]

Kono on the new H50 has done some excellent, non-sexualized ass kicking. Ditto Ziva on NCIS. And Fiona on Burn Notice (bonus: I love seeing tiny, petite women kicking ass).

[paxpinnae]

Kono and Fiona were already on the list (KONO HALF-DROWNING THAT CHICK IN A POOL, OMG HER FACE), but I'll have to check out Ziva. Thank you!

[aris_tgd]

Since someone already mentioned Kill Bill, I'll add Red Eye (movie)--the climax of the movie has a fight scene that's fairly straightforwardly shot. Also there's a scene involving a pen.

[paxpinnae]

Huh. Never seen Red Eye. I'll look into that. Thanks!

[alchemise]

Olivia from Fringe is great for doing brutal, non-sexualized violence. Especially the episode in season 1 where she escapes from men trying to do freaky medical shit to her.

[beatrice_otter]

Sam Carter from Stargate: SG-1 might be a good candidate. Most of her fight scenes were from a distance--guns, bombs, etc., but there were a few notable exceptions. For instance, the ep in the first season where she has a knife-fight with a Mongol chieftain. (My personal favorite, however, would be the one where she punches Ba'al, in season 10--it was awesome, watching him go down like that, and it was awesome watching her (and the camera) be so matter-of-fact about it. Ba'al gives her crap, Ba'al will be in a world of hurt.) In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Kira Nerys got into quite a lot of fights, both in the show itself and in flashbacks--she grew up in the Resistance, after all. And iirc, they were pretty much all straight-up fight scenes. Come to think of it, Dax had some fight scenes as well that would probably do--I remember one episode in particular where she and a couple of old Klingon buddies from her previous host went on a quest for vengeance together against "The Albino." Now, Star Trek isn't known for its violence--it's fairly sanitized--but on the other hand, it's not sexualized either. The last minute and a half of this Kira vid has a few bits of her fight scenes, to give you a bit of a flavor of what they're like, and the vidder could probably tell you what eps had good fight scenes.

[livrelibre]

Salt would be good for this, though it's in 2:35:1.

[stultiloquentia]

I haven't seen the film, but I remember reading a blurb about Angelina Jolie in Salt that makes me think it might work. The director had to teach her how to stunt fight. At first she was all, "Wut? I've been stunt fighting for years!" He told her, "Yeah, but you've been taught how to fight attractively. I'm gonna teach you how to punch the way they taught Bruce Willis how to punch."

[paxpinnae]

That sounds PERFECT. Thanks for the suggestion!

[apatheia_jane]

I'm very interested to see this! I hate the Charlies Angel style of girlpower violence - like the only possible way they could show women kicking arse is to make it unrealistic/make them metahuman. Not cool!

Girlfight & Million dollar baby.

Grindhouse. Planet Terror is probably all too sexified, but the final scene in Deathproof is great.

King Arthur - the one with Kiera Knightley. They make her personally a bit more badass than realistic (archery with recently broken fingers), but the battle scenes with women are great, because they fight how small untrained people fighting big professional soldiers could possibly be effective - in teams, by being faster and attacking from behind, and not getting into the traditional grudgematch swordfights. and they're there for exactly the same reason the menfolk are - its their land, their homes, & an army is invading. I don't know if you want battle scenes though.

Rome - 2nd season, I think 207 (Death Mask). It involved Gaia, I think it was a fight with Eirene. Either that or one of the other slaves. It was a rivalry fight, anyway, and I haven't seen it lately, but it was not pretty.

Naked weapon. About young girls getting kidnapped and trained to become sexy assassins. The assassinations are pretty stylised, but out of about 40 girls to start with, only a few graduate, and the fights between them are pretty brutal.

Starship Troopers. There's a lot of scifi that is set in a future where women are more integrated into the military, but a lot of it is mostly gun violence right up until the alien/whatever rips their head off. I'm assuming you want woman on human violence, otherwise Ripley from Aliens would be an obvious choice.

Misfits. It's always Kelly that throws the first punch. 101, the probation worker, 201, the 3rd probation worker, & a few other threats & skirmishes.

2nd the suggestion of Fringe for the episode where she's kidnapped, breaks out & escapes. And 28 Days Later.

The Brave One? Again, mostly gun violence.

Serial killer movies - natural born killers, monster, fun. I don't really remember specific scenes though. Fun has teenage girls, mostly set after they were caught being interviewed, with flashbacks to violence. its not pretty but its kinda more surreal than gritty.

Smashley (Drew Barrymore) in Whip It!

And I'm spent.

[apatheia_jane]

Hard Candy. It has Ellen Page playing a 14yo in a cat & mouse game with a possible paedophile/murderer, and she is amazingly awesome in it. In terms of violent scenes - she's not a fist fighter, research is her weapon. And sedatives. And glad wrap. And spray bottles of cleaners. And tasers. Its a lot more clever thriller than action, but its an excellent movie & she does have some angry violent scenes.

Shattered has a cop who has left her boyfriend. He spends the whole show trying to get back with her, and in the last episode he tries to kiss her & she shoves him off, & then he hits her and she wins the ensuing scuffle then kicks him a lot while he's on the ground.