Oh, Hit-Girl

She’s even more violent than in the comic.
It will be interesting to see the audience and critic reaction to this.

I love the fact they used ‘The Banana Splits’ theme!

Girl knows her knives. I wonder how Benchmade manged THAT product placement?

Yeah, nice product placement.
In the comic she used blades more than guns, so she does know her knives.

I shudder to think what would have happened if she had gotten a puppy for her birthday.

~

Coat

This preview has taken over my life. All I want to do is watch it over and over.

How did I not know about this comic?

I’ve got nothing but love for Mark, (I’m a fan of his) but it seems wrong to put this in a movie. Yes, some people will understand the joke, but a lot of young girls are going to see this, presented the way it is, and think that it’s some new blueprint on how to behave. What’s that you say? Well, it is rated R! When has that ever stopped anyone. I don’t know. I’m sure it’ll be a great movie, but it just seems like another thing trying to be bigger, louder, and more offensive, while I try and teach my young students, and my daughter how to appreciate 1) Quality of information 2) Leisure to digest it, and 3) The right to carry out actions based on what they learn from the interaction of the first two. (a gold star to the fist person who can tell me where I got that from) Young people have no problem carrying out actions, but based on the fist two things? That’s the part that’s hard to teach in this world of media, bludgeoning them in the face. It seems irresponsible. I’m not saying I’m right or wrong. I just want people to think about these things before they rush out to spend their money. Will I be unpopular for saying this? Go ahead. Shout me down. Just, please, give it some thought.

It’s been interesting seeing the reactions to this from around the web, from Reddit’s cautioned “Oh my monocle!’ types dicussing how bad it is for little girls (who shouldn’t be in a R-rated movie anyways) to AICN’s 1,500 page discussion on how pedo-tasitic is is.

Christopher Moonlight, you are SO on the nose.
Anyone who thinks this crap is a good thing is either A) not a parent or B) not a very good parent. The fact is an R rating doesn’t mean a damn thing today, when movies can eventually be accessed on a freakin’ cell phone. There’s no keeping this stuff from reaching those little eyes and ears that frankly deserve SOME measure of protection in this fucked up cultural meltdown.

with these movie previews I may have to check out the comics soon! O.o

“Oh my monocle!”

What’s that? Some sort of label and dismiss tactic for people who don’t want to be made to think or be accountable?

Thank you Marcus. That measure of protection we need is called education.

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture… You just have to get people to stop reading them!”
-Ray Bradbury

Michael, I think it would be a far better thing to just read the comic. A person can take their time with a comic, understand it’s nuisances, walked away from, come back to, while a movie can only drag you along, and hit you over the head, if it wishes to do so. Don’t get me wrong. I love movies. Horror is my favorite, but a good movie, an honest movie is the hardest thing to get write out of all the story telling mediums. A good story is always honest. That’s why I have no problem with a movie like The Shinning or The Exorcist. They are understands of the truth, using fictional events and images.

I think the overall point is that this movie is NOT for little girls or any children. Just because children may by chance see R-rated movies does not mean they should stop making R-rated movies. How many countless horror movies have children killing people in insanely violent ways? Please.

Josh, I don’t think making or not making R-rated movies is the issue at hand. It’s about honesty in art, and not marketing ignorance and violence to children, as a “cool” way to behave. Again, it’s about being a responsible artist. By the way, I feel it worth pointing out that children and young teens (who are unfortunately not the only group on our planet who can distinguish fiction from reality, due to our present standers of education) don’t have to go see Kick Ass to be impacted by it. They only need to watch the trailer on their (or their friends) computer or I phone.

my point stands, they’re NOT marketing this to children. You’re not going to see a trailer for Hit Girl or Kick Ass while waiting for “Up” to start. The internet is a big, scary place, there’s plenty of other awful things that could reach their eyes at any time. My point is, these things WILL be made and the only moderator here is parents saying “if I ever hear you say those things to people, there will be trouble, missy/buddy.” etc.

About the “honesty,” I think you might take a look at how “honestly” kids talk to each other. Have you ever been through a public school system?

Honesty in art is different for every artist. These people honestly thought an adult R-rated crowd might get a kick out of a girl superhero that can kick ass and swear like a sailor. Your honesty differs from their honesty, it’s that simple.

Of course they’re not marketing directly to children, nor are they THINKING about it. My point is that they’re not be responsible about what they make accessible to kids. Of course kids use bad language. I was a kid not very long ago. This goes WAY beyond how they talk. This is about how our society is set up to influence what young people grow into, just to make a buck. I know people that still think they’re Snoop Dog or Micky and Mallory Knox, and they are sad, criminal people whom I avoid whenever I can.

“Honesty in art is different for every artist. These people honestly thought an adult R-rated crowd might get a kick out of a girl superhero that can kick ass and swear like a sailor. Your honesty differs from their honesty, it’s that simple.”

Honesty in art means the artists understanding of the truth, as they see it. If your audience can identify with your artistic statement, you know you’ve done your job as an artist. All I see here is a studio wanting to make money. That is the antithesis of honesty. An audience that can identify (and I’m not saying they do or that most will) with Hit Girl is a scary thing indeed. I’d almost think that means that a hit “Storm Saxon” movie isn’t too far off.
Josh, I’m sure you’re a great guy, and I have no issue with you or anyone else wanting to go and enjoy this movie. I might even enjoy this movie. I enjoy satire. I’m going to make it a point to read the comic and see what the artists original intent was, but please, don’t kid yourself as to what this movie reflects. Remember, I’m talking about an artists responsibility here. I acknowledge that many artist want to pretend that they don’t have any, so they don’t have to be accountable, but they do. This movie’s distributors don’t care about art, they don’t care about who they market to, they don’t care about who they might influence or how. If you give them your money, you are empowering them to continue down this path, and take anyone (young and old) who isn’t educated enough (yet) to know better with them. It’s already happening. The Soup on E points it out to use once a week, and we laugh about it, but only because we don’t want to cry.

Again, if a child can NOT distinguish what is acceptable in society based on an R-rated “fiction movie film” for adults that they legally should not be viewing, the FAILING is NOT within the studio who didn’t somehow shelter them from it (which is impossible for them, as you pointed out, because of the internet), it is from the PARENTS/GUARDIANS actually not talking to their children and making them understand it is NOT OKAY to behave that way, making them understand the CONSEQUENCES and if need be creating consequences of their own (ever been grounded for swearing? getting into a fight? etc.) until they understand it for themselves.

These film-makers’ EXPRESSION is to make a cool story that people will like. It’s the same thing that every studio strives to do, (whether its a brainless action movie to entertain for a few hours or a beautiful drama that will be with them forever) the hundreds of people that pour their heart and yes, SOUL into for months or years to produce a finished product. Sometimes the main motivation for those at the top (or middle, or bottom, or whatever) is money, but the fact remains that there is SOME passion behind it or else that script would still be stuck behind some couch cushions in some writer’s apartment.

Okay, I’m all for the soulness-ness of Hollywood argument, but you have to understand, they MAKE money, it’s what businesses do. If they DIDN’T there would be NO films to inspire or not inspire, and everyone just might be bumping into each other with their heads up their asses (or we might just end up with only Youtube, watching home movies based on the previous statement).

I also don’t buy that they don’t care who they market to, it’s pretty much the crux of who actually goes to see the film and bring in said dollars. Ever see a great film that was extremely under-rated? Chances are it had shitty/mis-directed marketing.

On the last note, don’t you see? That’s what artists DO, man! They make people love, laugh, cry, hate, for better or worse! An artist’s “responsibility” is to honestly express THEMSELVES through whatever it is they do, based on the life lived around and through them! (paraphrased from Bruce Lee, who,omigosh, expressed himself through his FIGHTING style). Some people buy into it, others don’t. Duchamp made millions of people believe that a urinal was worth any more than the porcelain that it was made of. I hate that stuff, but I can’t argue his right to express it (Hell, maybe THAT was just for the money, who knows!). That’s America, man. For better or worse, people can say, show, make, and feel whatever they want. The so-called evil internet is probably the truest expression tool (or the closest we can get to it) of mankind to date (again, for BETTER or WORSE).

Basically, I think your statement about money from art (i.e. making a living doing what you love to do as an artist) being the “antithesis of honesty” is a load of bull. If the audience thinks Hit Girl is funny, hasn’t that artist truely expressed themselves in that they thought it would be funny too? What you’re saying is expression of art is okay as long as it fits your personal moral standards.

i’m with josh here. there are far worse things for little girls, like the twilight series, which is actually aimed at kids. the whole point of the red-band trailer is so kids won’t see it. and i seriously doubt parents will take their kids to go see a movie with a swear word in the title.

and i don’t see this as another souless hollywood movie cause of the trouble matt vaughn, the director, had funding the film. more like the artistic expression of him, millar, and romita jr.

i think it’s jarring to have a kid character be that violent and that’s what’s bothering people. but i seriously think someone as intelligent as millar has a good point behind doing this. my quick reading of it is, if superheroes are real, how odd is to have a 12 year-old be the sidekick of a grownman. doing violent things. it’s clearly the batman and robin thing, put in a different light.

so relax i don’t see kids being ruined or not thought about in this movie, considering they’re not remotely marketing this to kids.

“so relax i don’t see kids being ruined or not thought about in this movie, considering they’re not remotely marketing this to kids.”

This movie is just one example. On it’s own, I would agree, but if you don’t see our kids being ruined, then you’re not paying attention. Remember as well that I acknowledged that the marketing wasn’t at kids. I get the satire. I just see it as irresponsible in a movie. If you chose to re-read my comments, just take some time to consider what I’ve said. Step outside yourselves and think about how our culture behaves these days. I welcome anyone to make their own conclusions, but take your time, and don’t just base it on what everyone is telling you is “cool.” Okay, that’s all I’m going to say, for now. I have students that I have to make sure are ready to run the world some day.

and I’LL leave with THIS: People, don’t let media baby-sit the children and they’ll manage to turn out just fine, I’m sure!

Anyone who thinks the studios are not aware that children will be accessing this garbage at some point, despite the manner in which they market it, is being extremely naive. Little girls WILL see this and the majority of them WILL think it is cool to act and speak that way. It’s that simple. Parents will have a hard time with the aftermath of this one.