Johnny Mnemonic
The news that the classic cyberpunk novel Neuromancer is being made into a movie should make me happy. Neuromancer the book gave us Molly Millions, supercool professional bodyguard, assassin, and general troublemaker. She has a body full of cybernetic implants, including razor-sharp blades that come out from under her fingernails, and a sharp mind to go with it. Information Society even wrote a song about her, because they were big geeks, and geeks love Molly. They love her because she's sexy, sure, but also because she's so damn good at what she does. Be in awe, people. A movie with Molly should be a Heroine Content greatest hit.
Unfortunately, I have seen Johnny Mnemonic. Johnny Mnemonic the short story, written before Neuromancer, also features Molly Millions. Johnny Mnenomic the movie, though, gives us Jane instead.
Poor Jane.
I mean poor us! How did this happen? For this movie, Molly the ultimate warrior was reduced to Jane the twitchy adrenaline junkie, complete with a debilitating nerve disorder that makes her completely unreliable as muscle. She's often more interested in beating up people and showing off than in getting the job done, which consummate professional Molly would never do (even though she loves her work). Also unlike Molly, Jane has no political skills, no worldwide network of connections to call on, and she wears a backless chain mail halter top.
Am I wrong here, or can a chain mail shirt on a woman without anything underneath possibly be comfortable?
To be fair, movie Johnny (played by Keanu Reeves) is also about 200% less cool than the character in the short story. However, he gets to do everything. He hacks the net for more information about the data he's carrying while Jane stands lookout. He fights the Ultimate Bad Guy while Jane handles the second string or gets stomped by Dolph Lundgren - who gets a movie poster credit even though Ice-T and Henry Rollins each have just as much screen time. Heck, if it weren't for Johnny, Jane would have been crushed under a flaming car that she doesn't even notice is about to fall on her head.
When we first meet Jane in the film, one of the characters says to her "You're damaged goods." I couldn't agree more.
Johnny Mnemonic gets No Stars. In the Heroine Content ratings scheme, this stands for Setting Us Back 20 Years. When we use this rating, we usually mean that a movie is a big step back for women and/or people of color in general. In this case, it's more literal. This film is a big step backwards from its own source material. William Gibson gave us an amazing heroine, then took her away.
I wish that Neuromancer will be different, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Comments
Thanks for sharing this - I never read the original short story. And sadly, Jane was about as kickass as any movie women seemed to be around the time this movie came out. I like the perspective you've put on it.
Posted by: BetaCandy | September 3, 2007 11:39 AM
I remember reading a comment from William Gibson stating the reason Molly wasn't in Johnny Mnemonic was that Gibson liked the character too much, was using her in other stories, and wanted to make sure she didn't get screwed up by the studio (as well as making it possible for Neuromancer to be made by a different studio - if Molly had been in JM, the studio would have had a "lock" on that character).
Posted by: Anon, A Mouse | September 5, 2007 12:32 PM