Pathetic Female Characters
Something I've noticed more in movies with time is how often the female movie characters are just an appendage basically, hollow shells. See the female lead in The Hustler and to an even greater extent its sequel The Color of Money. In the latter, Tom Cruise's girlfriend Carmen does nothing but sit, watch him play pool and video games in bars, hold the money he wins, take off his jacket, drink and smoke cigarettes, eat and go to the bathroom. That's her character's life basically and whatever love life is implied. Eddie's girlfriend is a little more 3-dimensional as the bar tender. There's very little back story with either of them and it's unsavory or uninteresting. They have one or two anecdotes. In the end, Carmen is reduced to just an errand boy - carrying money and messages between Eddie and Vincent, who have a falling out. The character just seems empty, a cardboard cut-out put in for the sake of having a pretty face for men to look at and someone for women to relate to. But she isn't worth relating to as there is nothing there.
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