The "male gaze" is a concept first named by Laura Mulvey already in 1975, specifically describing the gendered aspects of movies - not just the content but the way the movies are shot and how that reveals who is expected to be the viewer. Typically, movies are made for male viewers and female bodies are depicted as objects of visual pleasure, not active in their own right. Somewhat unexpectedly, James Cameron wrote a script for a movie that is also an essay on the male gaze. Kathryn Bigelow directed it, and the result is great 90s "end of days" gloom with some themes that are unfortunately still as topical as when the film was made.

***Spoilers***

The film is set in very very near future, just days before 1900s turn to 2000s. This should alert the viewer that it's not pretending to be a plausible exploration of the impats of evolving technology, but just to accept the plot-driving gadget and suspend disbelief. The gadget, SQUIDS, records experiences straights from the brain and lets them be repeated, just as they were experienced the first time. The plot revolves around one of these recordings, proof that famous politically active black rapper Jeriko One was shot by white cops in cold blood. Police violence is a major theme.

The other theme is men watching women, and women having to come up with strategies to deal with this. We have two women: Lornette "Mace" Mason (Angela Bassett) and Faith Justin (Juliette Lewis). Faith has decided to make the most out of being the object of male gaze. She pouts and smiles and makes faces, and squirms and twists her lithe body provocatively clad only in glitter and fripperies. Men's eyes are easily lured by her looks and performances. She enjoys being watched. In fact, she's quite addicted to being gazed at constantly. But we know, even though she has not yet accepted it, that it will never be fully on her terms, no matter how much she tries to influence her watchers. They can at any point just decide to drop her, as it happens at the end of the film. Her hitherto faithful audience leaves without a backward glance. Mace on the other hand has an opposite strategy. She's carved a space for herself that does not require being seen. She's made herself useful, irreplaceable. She wears uniforms that render her almost invisible, a function rather than an individual. She does not smile, except once looking at her son. And actually there's a third woman too, a prostitute called Iris (eye anatomy!) who witnesses and records the murder of Jeriko One. She represents a woman in the male gaze world who does not realise she needs to have a strategy, like Faith and Mace do. Iris just goes with the flow and that gets her killed. Or maybe what actually gets her killed is that she subverts the holy order – daring to see/watch/record men. 

The gruesome killing scene is the most straightforward commentary on the theme of male gaze. The killer forces Iris to view her own violation and killing through his eyes with the SQUID gadget. Just the way female moviegoers have to see female bodies objectified and mutilated, over and over again, and participate in the on-screen violation of women for viewing pleasure (things are changing since #metoo but this isn't something that was left in the 90s). But gendered gaze pops up about every 5 minutes in the movie, one really does not need to work too hard to discover this theme.

Then there are men. Firstly, Lenny, a shady dealer of borrowed memories. He's buying and selling SQUIDS recordings on something resembling MiniDiscs. Lenny has a beautiful face (especially when looking sorrowfully at his lost love) but he's no hero. Barely a protagonist. He's a no-good loser powered only by his own replayed memories of his ex-girlfriend Faith and quite helpless. He has a friend, Max, who even at his best is annoying and assholish. He's also a traitor, killer and a psychopath. And then there's paranoid, violent and mean music mogul Philo, who's dating Faith and producing Jeriko One's music and SQUIDS junkie Tick. 

Allegedly Lenny is the protagonist, but he gets nothing done and would be killed at every turn if not for Mace. She's the real protagonist. Mace is flawless. In the world of mean, bad, loser men with horrible taste in clothes, she’s competent, professional, fierce, responsible, elegant and caring. She would be too perfect even for a movie character, in fact a nasty reviewer would suspect a self-gratifying self-insert by Bigelow … except that Mace has one fundamental flaw that drags her down despite all her good aspects. She has lousy taste in men. Her ex-husband was a criminal who didn’t give a shit about exposing their kid to some kind of disgusting behaviour that warranted a strike from the vice squad. It was of course a tragedy, but I can guarantee Mace’s girl friends breathed a collective sigh of relief. At last that asshole was out of her life! We hope he got a hundred year sentence! And then there were a few years of blessed peace, she focused on her career and parenting her son. But as soon as her SQUIDS dealer friend Lenny started spiralling from just being sketchy into actively stalking his ex-girlfriend, her unfortunate instincts are activated and she began to feel a romantic pull towards him. I can just hear Mace’s girl friends groaning.  

Girl friend 1: “So what’s up with Mace? I haven’t heard from her for quite some time. Is she still driving cool limos for the private security firm?”

Girl friend 2: “Yeah she’s still chauffeuring rich men around, the pay is good, the uniform is neat, the customers are OK I guess, and anyway she swore she’s not going back to waitressing never ever. But, well… some bad news too…”

Girl friend 1: “ Oh no! Please don’t say she’s gotten back together with her asshole ex!”

Girl friend 2: “At least not that, thank heavens, although I’m not sure if this is even worse. You remember Lenny?”

Girl friend 1: “Hmm you mean Lenny, the skinny white dude dealing those weird SQUIDS discs? That play out people’s memories like you were experiencing them yourself?”

Girl friend 2: “That guy. With the horrible ties and fake Rolexes. The ex-cop. Who’s always pining after his ex-girl Faith.”

Girl friend 1: “Hahaha the guy who lost Faith! But wait what are you saying, I can’t believe it, are you really saying our Mace has gotten herself mixed up with that loser? I mean she could pick any guy she wanted, with her looks, and those awesome toned arms, and she’s so nice and reliable too. Why on Earth would she fall for that guy?”

Girl friend 2: “I know right? This really sucks. But on the other hand, think about the men in this universe: losers, violent assholes, junkies and fucking sick in the head killer rapists. I guess losers is the best we can get.”

Girl friend 1: “True, sadly. The double amputee guy working at the club seems OK though. Kinda cute too. Should I ask him out maybe?”

Girl friend 2: “I heard a rumour he’s a voyeur pervert. Better stay away from him. But the silver fox police boss is quite attractive for an old white geezer.”

Girl friend 1: “Well I heard a rumour he’s ‘safekeeping’ proof about Jeriko One’s murder and now it can never be proven that it was cops. He’s no better than the rest of them. There’s not one bearable man in this entire universe. I wish I could just date Mace. She’d keep me safe and I’d treat her right. Sigh.”

Girl friend 2: “Same. Siiiigh.”

I'm not going to deny the final scene is beautiful and touching and effective, but for Mace's sake I hope the kiss with Lenny  is just a temporary freakout caused by heightened emotions after danger and violence. 

Anyway, Mace and Lenny kiss. 1999 changes to 2000. Confetti floats. Los Angeles at the eve of the new millennium has been spared from erupting into inevitable racial violence.  Mace, despite her heart telling her she should send the evidence of Jeriko One's murder to mass media, was helpless against Lenny's pleas ("trust meee", Mace's kryptonite apparently) and handed it over to a police boss. We never find out what happens, but we can assume the police boss makes sure some kind of secret justice is served. He's a good guy after all, according to Lenny. And so the citizens of Los Angeles think the killing was (black) gang violence, and the police organization never needs to confront its racism, and nothing changes but the 20th century to 21st. I guess that's one reason why this film has disappeared into oblivion instead of becoming a cult classic. The film deals with (white) police violence against black citizens, and portrays this as unjust and horrible. But still, it fails at the very end to take a stance for reform, refuses to see any hope for a better world. There's revenge against the particular perpetratos, but not the structural step forward 2020s audiences would expect to follow from the entire series of events. Everything fizzles out. The other reason why this movie does not resonate with 2020s audiences is the positively antiquated approach to privacy. The entire plot is set into motion by the music mogul trying to cover up that he has his top artists under surveillance. He wants to see what they are up to in their free time and this would be so horrible that his career would crash if it came out. People used to the ubiquitous gaze of the social media era to which we perform regarless of gender, can hardly fathom why this is supposed to be such a big deal. 

Final verdict:

Fascinating cybrpunkish thriller touching upon many 1990s big social themes, of which many are still relevant. Everyone else but ultra cool Angela Bassett dresses in hideous 90s retro mix-up fashions and music track is the edgiest and grittiest 90s has to offer plus some "world music" touches, so the movie is a perfect zeitgeist capture. Gross violence is for once there for other reason than gratifying the disgusting desires of the viewers, although one has to read feminist film critique first to catch up on that. Not to be watched when feeling queasy or unwell. But definitely worth a view.