FILM COMMENTARY: SUNSET BOULEVARD

I finally just saw the American film-noir classic movie “Sunset Boulevard” (1950).  Immediately after watching the film, I went online and searched for “feminist commentary on film Sunset Blvd.”  I found one hit in the first page of the search results that led me to a blog called An Unapologetic Feminist, and blog post entitled, “Movie Retro Review: A Feminist Looks Back at Sunset Boulevard.” 

The article, or blog post, was more of a synopsis of the plot of the film, with a tiny bit of analysis of what makes it great. The only feminist observation made about the movie at all was, “It’s definitely a role reversal pretty much unseen in Hollywood, as typically the female is painted as the gold-digger and the man is the sugar daddy.  [Norma] Desmond is independently wealthy, strong, assertive, unfailing in her belief in herself, but a little demented and demanding. She makes a perfect feminist.”

Norma Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson) is the lead character in the film, the now past-her-prime, once-famous, silent film star ingénue who resides in a lonely, past-its-prime mansion, surrounded by make-believe fantasies in her mind of regaining her career and celebrity.  The plot of the film revolves around a young, handsome and sexy male writer who stumbles onto the mansion where Norma lives and ends up staying there with her, as she lavishes her money and lifestyle onto him.

I don’t disagree with the reviewer’s commentary in the quote above, but it certainly was not the feminist commentary I got out of the film, which is why I am now writing this article. 

Here are the messages of the film that triggered my feminist-analysis brain-waves to start crackling:

1)  In the film, Norma Desmond was 50 years old.  And yet, whenever a character would mention her name, the surrounding characters would inevitably say, “Norma Desmond? I thought she was dead!”  Or, “Is she still alive?”  This happened on a number of occasions and I feel it reflects a somewhat sad truth that women tend to have to face:  That once we are over 50, whether we are actresses or not, we are often put out to pasture and considered irrelevant to the day-to-day happenings of modern life.  Kinda like being dead.

2) We actually find out first that Norma hasn’t worked in her career (film acting) in 23 years.  Later we learn she is 50 years old now, meaning she hasn’t worked since she was 27 years old!  But she also was a silent film star, and when the talkies took over, she seems to have been ushered out with the whole silent-era.  It is hard to know if that is because by age 27, studios already prefer to look for younger, fresher faces? New faces to go with the new films? There was some indication, however, that Norma herself was not able to embrace the new technology, so perhaps losing her film career is not a feminist issue per se.  But what is, is this:

3)  Now, at age 50, she wants—and plans—to make a comeback, a “return” as she prefers to call it.  She still looks attractive, with good skin and a trim figure, and yet when she mistakenly believes that she’s been offered a picture at Paramount, she frantically and obsessively puts herself through weeks of neck-tuck surgery, eye surgery, facials, cumbersome facial-sleeping contraptions, securing her face in place during the day with tape, neurotic dieting and everything else she can think of to regain her youthful appearance.

This behavior of hers is a huge feminist commentary just in itself!  Women in Hollywood to this day do all that stuff, if they want to keep working past age 35. Those are their choices:  Keep working on your career and your craft that you’ve worked hard to develop, or don’t—it’s your choice.  But, if you want the job, your going to need:  a complete makeover, lose X-number of pounds, have your breasts augmented, have your eyes done, liposuction may be necessary, chemical peels of course, lip collagen to make your lips puffy, and whatever else the studio puppet-masters think a fabricated woman needs to look like.  Bearing in mind, of course, that male aging is totally acceptable and we don’t expect a 50 year old man to look 18 or 25.

4)  Another feminine commentary that was subliminal in the film:  The woman’s persistent, suspicious jealousy that her “man” might be attracted to younger, more beautiful women, and how that obsessive fear drives women to do some crazy, irrational stuff, like spying, confronting or accusing other women, and throwing emotional outbursts.

My personal feminist take-away from the film was this:  that women work so hard to be “what people want/expect them to be,” which includes being always lovely in person and appearance, nicely pleasant, and especially acquiescent.  Why else would the term “bitch” be so pervasive now, if the opposite of “bitch” isn’t what is still expected of women?  And since women (like men) do care about being liked and accepted, many women do work very hard to stay young-looking and attractive. But it is an inevitable fact that women, like men, age.  And we still need to have careers and a life! Just because our skin isn’t in its prime doesn’t mean we aren’t at the top of our game!

Norma Desmond ended up lonely and alone, and going mad in her mind as a result.  Her only self-worth revolved around her beauty and appearance.  She had spent her lifetime putting all her emphasis on that one aspect of her being, and when age started to take over, she was left with nothing. 

The tragedy there is that she never learned to develop herself—her personality, her interests, her skills outside of acting.  She didn’t have family of her own, either.   At least women today have the option to still have their LIFE and a good one at that, rich and full, even when we are past our physical and sexual prime.   But it requires knowing that beauty is all fine and good, and sure, it’s OK to try to do our best with that, but it’s not the end all and be all.  Our inner development is so much more important, and if men can’t appreciate that about women, that is their problem.  Men leave women for younger women, that is a fact.  Not always, but often.  But a mature woman who is mentally developed and life- and career-matured has much more to offer than a once has-been pretty girl who put all her eggs into just being “what everyone wants her to be.”