A Hooker with a heart of gold!
Hollywoood did it. Again. And again.
No, I don't want to discuss if it was a good or bad idea.
In fact, I loved Naomi Watts' performance.
But please tell me your opinion as to WHY Hollywood uses this meme ("Hooker with a heart of gold") SO OFTEN.
I am sure that 99.99 % of the readers here can't relate to this from his (or her?) personal experience.
So why is this meme used so often? What's the point?
It's a metaphor for the average woman, a flattering one. The dumb guys in the audience want to believe that they could earn the gratitude of some woman, and treacherous women in the audience want the guys to believe it.
shareI think it's because they've usually settled for this job as a last resort to make money. A lot of people think of hookers as dirty rude and gross individuals when in fact, if you look deeper, they're usually just misunderstood and trying to make ends meet in a more honest way (as Bill Murray says in the movie)
I agree that Naomi was amazing, and I wondered why that phrase was used, but I think it's just about looking beyond the job they do.
--Maybe Daka is St. Vincent's saint!!
Exactly. There are different career paths hookers take. She seemed more to me like a stripper that hooks on the side. As an immigrant, it may have been her best shot at making money. Maybe her Visa was expired and she couldn't get any above board jobs that payed as well.
It's not as if she was a street hooker with a pimp only doing it for the drug money. She didn't seem like a drug addict. But she was certainly no high end escort, either. Somewhere in between, but at the lower end of the pay scale.
At least, according to my TV and Movie knowledge of the hooker industry.
Being a stripper or hooker pays a lot more than menial and low-skilled jobs and even jobs that do require skills, you just have to be the kind of person who would do it.
I don't think any hooker or stripper does it because it's the only job they can do, unless they're a victim of human trafficking.
I don't think her character is a cliche. She wasn't really a "heart of gold" hooker imho. She helped Vincent because he helped her out too a bit. And later she could live in his house rent free and even get paid. Even though I'm not sure how he would pay her lol.
share^This. Having just finished the DVD, I agree Daka wasn't the standard trope. It wasn't the dewy ingenue; JR in 'Pretty Woman' or Mira Sorvino in 'Mighty Aprhodite'. Daka's abrupt, wearily bossy demeanor saved the character from that.
If there was a heart of gold moment, it was when she extracts a few singles from Oliver's mom, then in turn shares her vending machine snacks with them. I thought her character was well written & performed. I'd like to see Watts in a few more comedic roles.
I agree Daka wasn't the standard trope. It wasn't the dewy ingenue; JR in 'Pretty Woman' or Mira Sorvino in 'Mighty Aprhodite'. Daka's abrupt, wearily bossy demeanor saved the character from that.
I agree Daka wasn't the standard trope. It wasn't the dewy ingenue; JR in 'Pretty Woman' or Mira Sorvino in 'Mighty Aprhodite'. Daka's abrupt, wearily bossy demeanor saved the character from that.
Of course she felt for him, not all of em have a stone heart.
Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas.
My opinion - for what it is worth is...
Why wouldn't a 'hooker' have a heart of gold. Yes these women have chosen a career path that is not exactly within the law, does that make them a bad person?
Millions of women, over thousands of years have been providing this service in return for money. I'm not sure what makes you think that out of these millions of women, we can't find some with caring personalities.
Also let's not forget that a lot of women selling their bodies are forced into it, against their will.
I personally have never paid for sex (though some people I know have)so, no I can't relate from personal experience. Also, maybe we've watched different movies, as I don't recall seeing this narrative over and over again - maybe you can provide some examples? (Pretty Woman is the only other one I'm getting off the top of my head without opening other tabs and looking into it).
As for why the producers/writers/directors go with it 'so often', surely because they think it will add something to the story. My point still remains though. Why not?
I'm sorry, I wasn't aware this is the Internet BOOK Database.
a career path that is not exactly within the law
I personally have never paid for sex
[deleted]
hooking is against the law now ?
neither have I, but I did have sex with a prostitute back when I was 13, it was one of the greatest experience I had as a teenager
As you mentioned, Pretty Woman was one example of the "Heart-of-Gold" hooker. I can think of a few others. 1)Taxi Driver- Jody Foster's character was a misguided young runaway that wasn't all bad. 2)Payback- Porter (played by Mel Gibson) had this ex-girlfriend turned hooker that was actually quite decent. 3)Night Shift with Michael Keaton and Henry Winkler playing pimps to a group of "Good-Hearted, good natured hookers. 4) The recent Equalizer with Denzel Washington had Dakota Fanning as a young "Heart-of-Gold" hooker. and a few with misunderstood women (of the night) 5) Klute 6)Leaving Las Vegas - Elizabeth Shue is practically "your mother" when it comes to nursing Cages character back to health and well-being
Those are just the few that I can think of. I believe the original poster has a point. Of course the 1st recorded Prostitute with a Heart-of-Gold would be Rahab the Harlot in Jericho who hid the Jewish spies and lowered them to safety out of her window according to the Old Testament.
GREAT POST!
THANKS A LOT.
I'm serious, thanks for pointing out some movies with this meme. I will have to watch or rewatch some of the movies you mentioned.
On a sidenote, Dakota Fanning doesn't play in "The Equalizer (2014)" (Which movie DID you have in mind?).
The hooker's name in "The Equalizer (2014)" is Teri, and her real life name is Chloë Grace Moretz. She was great, but less screentime than I hoped after seeing her at the beginning.
I'll add Trading Places to your list.
shareShe's into older guys.
shareI have this theory that most of these trope-y women's roles are written & produced by guys who never recovered from some awkward high school trauma involving some girl. The pretty cheerleader, chemistry lab partner <insert your own here> who didn't go to the *Big Dance* with him because she already had a boyfriend or date and didn't dump that boyfriend or date to accept his invitation.
This is mainly my theory for movies where women are little more than stalked, then raped, then murdered, just so the men can feel sad, then get mad, and then start doing stuff (A Walk Among the Tombstones). But I think it might contribute to the ever popular HwaHoG meme as well.
I'll end by sharing a funny remark someone made about 'Pretty Woman':
It's a story about a guy who has attachment issues & becomes obsessed with a prostitute. If Julia Roberts were younger & Richard Gere was poorer, it'd be Taxi Driver.
I don't think that it has that much to do with high school trauma. It's just writing. It's hard to come up with fresh motivation, and this trope is so easy to grab that writers do it out of reflex. It's also well understood by the audiences, even as a cliche, that you don't have to do very much work to sell it.
Tropes generally are used when writers AREN'T influenced by their real lives :)
It's the newish Hollywood where we laugh along with hookers and unfaithful drunks, but bullies and people who ask for the money they are owed are villains.
share