Top Ten Tuesday: Fierce Females in Film

Angelina Jolie is one of modern cinema’s best actors to portray a strong, fierce female character on the big screen, which is why she’s appearing as the dangerously fierce super spy in SALT, a new action-packed film opening this Friday. Keeping with that theme, this week’s Top Ten Tuesday is devotes to strong female characters as we give you our list of the ten best Fierce Females in Film!

10. Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

While Maggie may not have had a huge role in John Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, it was an integral role. Adrienne barbeau exemplifies the strong female character common in Carpenter’s films, playing the part with a combination of fierceness and feminimity, without cheaping the role. Maggie has to be tough, being Snake’s girlfriend, but she’s also smart. While ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was Snake’s film, Maggie was anything but a back seat to her man.

09. Varla (Tura Satana) in FASTER PUSSYCAT, KILL, KILL!

Not many ladies can become cult icons, but Tura Satana has managed to become a cult icon with her role as Varla in FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! For a film released in 1965, Varla was quite a shocking character. She was violent and sexual, something you didn’t see too terribly much of in mainstream film. She is an icon for some good, clean female violence in cinema!

08. Celie Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg) in THE COLOR PURPLE

Whoopi Goldberg goes through hell and back in Steven Spielberg’s THE COLOR PURPLE. She portrays Celie Johnson, living in the 1930’s, who’s raped and impregnated twice by her stepfather only to have the two babies taken away from her. Then she’s handed over to a husband Mister (DANNY GLOVER) who physically and verbally abuses her, while trying to molest her younger sister who’s been living with them. After a lifetime of this horror, Celie gets her girl power on when she finally stands up for herself and finds real love with a woman called Shug. In the end, Celie finally finds her inner strength to leave Mister and is happily reunited with her 2 grown children and beloved sister. Talk about fierce!

07. Helen Parr/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) in THE INCREDIBLES

Though she tries to hide her family’s abilities, Helen Parr becomes one of the screen’s most formidable super heroines when the dangerous Syndrome threatens. Voiced by the excellent Holly Hunter, Helen uses all her courage and powers to protect her teenage daughter, Violet, pre-teen son, Dash, and baby , Jack Jack, while trying to find out just what her hubby, Bob (Mr. Incredible) is up to. She uses her amazing stretching powers to knock out the bad guys, infiltrate their headquarters(while taking a glance at that annoying middle age spread), and even turns into a parachute and boat to rescue her kids. Her abilities and heart make The Incredible a family that’s unstoppable and unforgettable.

06. Evey (Natalie Portman) in V FOR VENDETTA

Natalie Portman invokes a little bit of Sigourney Weaver tough-woman from within, portraying the once innocent Evey in V FOR VENDETTA. The long, curly-haired young woman is drawn into the mysterious underworld of a rebellious hero after this mysterious masked man saves her from a couple of corrupt government enforcers. Once exposed to the hero’s lair, she has involuntarily left her old life behind, but eventually comes around as she learns the true nature and intent of the enigmatic man known as V. Evey converts her philosophy and commits to the cause. She is a changed woman, especially after being captured, shaved, beaten and interrogated by the government. Evey embodies a strong woman with a cause, undeterred by any obstacle, diligent and unwilling to submit, except to her cause. Portman branches out, making this role her own and shines, leaving behind — at least temporarily — her otherwise commonly cute acting persona.

05. Barbarella (Jane Fonda) in BARBARELLA

“Decrucify my angel immediately!” Jane Fonda and her long legs played the titular space adventurer in the wonderfully dated, politically incorrect BARBARELLA in 1968. Jane Fonda, then at the peak of her sex kitten period (before her political activism hardened her), opens the film with a memorable anti-gravity strip tease as the titles come tumbling out of her suit and across the screen. Barbarella travels from one wonderful tripped-out fantasy planet to the next as she fights warriors and handles her psychedelic business of saving the universe. I wish someone would have put Jane Fonda in a time capsule in 1968 and kept her there.

04. Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter is the character from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS everyone talked about but Jodie Foster had about four times as much screen time and carried the film. The mental battles between her inexperienced FBI-agent Clarice Starling and the convicted, but basically omnipotent, cannibal psychiatrist, are the heart the film. Clarice is one of the great, smart feminine icons of the movies. Her brains are what propel her investigation into the case and her desire to unearth the truth is stronger than her male counterparts. Clarice’s vulnerability gives way to hardened and steely resolve during the cat and mouse climax. Foster is a physically small actress who took on a big, confident role and ended up sharing the stage with Hopkins on Oscar night.

03. Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride (Uma Thurman) in KILL BILL vol.1-2

Has there ever been a movie heroine to see as much action over the course of two movies than this character created by Quentin Tarantino for his muse, Uma Thurman? In the first scenes of volume one we find out the reason for the film’s title. She’s the former pupil — and lover — of Bill (David Carradine) who decides to walk away from him and his team of assassins and live a normal life. She finds out the hard way that there’s no quitting this crew. As Beatrix is about to be wed, the crew sweeps in and kills everyone at the ceremony. As a parting gesture Bill shoots her in the head and leaves the pregnant bride to die. After several years in a coma, she kills her hospital tormentors and quickly begins her mission of revenge. The first of Bill’s crew, Vernita, loses one of the best fight sequences ever. Perhaps her most impressive feat is the sword battle in Japan with scores of yakuza serving Oren Ishii (including the unforgettable Gogo). They keep coming and she keeps slaying them! Later Bea uses her skill and determination to escape from a coffin after being shot in the chest and buried alive by her ex-teammate, Bud. You can’t help but root for her as she finally catches up to the dastardly Bill. These two films may be Tarantino’s ultimate grind house action epic and the unstoppable Beatrix Kiddo is one of the greatest female action characters ever on screen.

02. Sarah Connors (Linda Hamilton) in THE TERMINATOR

The first time I saw Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in THE TERMINATOR, I knew she was a tough cookie. When I saw her doing pull ups in her state hospital cell in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY, I knew that Sarah Connor was unstoppable. Anyone that can take on robots is OK in my book, and not someone that I would mess with!

01. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in ALIEN Saga

Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in ALIENS is the template for the modern action heroine. In the first ALIEN sequel Ripley was all business, helping a team of Marines to return to the now-colonized planet of walking nightmares. Weaver again played the role realistically, never a damsel in distress yet not quite the kick-ass unbelievable “Take you all on” heroine. Weaver also plays Ripley’s kind, loving side during the scenes with Carrie Henn’s Newt, with the kind of warmth you’d expect from somebody who’s lost everything and has been classified as “unstable”. Sigourney Weaver also manages to look sexy in her tank top while swinging heavy artillery. She’s the kind of heroine a man can root for.