MovieChat Forums > Play Misty for Me (1971) Discussion > One of the most misogynistic films ever

One of the most misogynistic films ever


Have a lot of respect for Eastwood and his long career. But when I saw this movie again last night on cable -- first time since I saw it as a kid 40 years ago -- I was surprised to realize how misogynistic it was. Evelyn comes off as just a psychotic nut: no backstory, no nuance, no character development, nothing but an over-the-top crazy lady stereotype. Even Glenn Close's character in "Fatal Attraction" fared better.

Didn't Clint have a reputation, in his younger days, of being a bit emotionally brutal with the ladies in his personal life? Hard to believe this film, in terms of its roles for women, came from the same guy who gave us "Million Dollar Baby."

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eastwood was actually attempting to rbeak the all male psycho killer mold that was prevalent around that time. without this movie, fatal attraction wouldn't even exist.

*beep* idiot.

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I think it's a film on duality, Evelyn suffering from extreme bipolar disorder, and Eastwood, for the first time, working on both ends of the camera, being both the subject and the object, as actor and director, like playing chess alone and having one's mind split in two.

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'Evelyn suffering from extreme bipolar disorder'
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why do you say she was bipolar? There was no indication of that disease which is only a small portion of mental-illnesses. We would have too witness her on a day to day, hour by hour basis to know if she was bipolar. She was plain psychotic.

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Borderline Personality Disorder was my diagnosis...

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[deleted]

I'm sure he also helped make another film he acted in, about a civil war solder ending up in a school for girls, who chopped off his leg and killed him. I guess it does seem a little misogynistic, but then maybe it could also be said that women like playing the part of a baddie too. Maybe it's misogynistic mainly having men play psychotic killers as women like those roles too? I was going to say if anybody takes a fictional story too seriously then they're an idiot, because real statistics say women and even men, are more likely to be harmed by a man, but there are a lot of people who treat fictional stories as real life, and let the media brainwash them into thinking a certain way, so films should have some responsibility.

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Meh didn't see that myself. It wasn't just a case of a character being portrayed as nut - she actually WAS one. The male character was portrayed as a fool, almost as bad - nothing to do with gender.

I don't even see it as a cautionary tale for misogynists or chauvinists or whatever as he was neither of these things - he never promised her anything more than casual sex. As another poster pointed out, he liked women too much - and that only turned to hate when she went psycho on him, who can blame him for that?

A cautionary tale for fools, perhaps?

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[deleted]

Actually, the screenplay was written by a woman, and nothing in the film really came off as misogynistic,anyway.

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Not just the screenplay, the story was all hers.

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