List by Dani Glazzard
25 Greatest Female Characters (please help decide)
Hollywood films are dominated by men. Let's come up with the a list of the greatest women (and girl) characters in any genre. They don't have to be the protagonist but they should be a fleshed out character, not just an object.
I'll start off with 2 obvious ones...
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Good idea, spontaneous movies that come to mind:
Mulholland Drive has two very strong and present female main characters: Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring, both great performances, both great and interesting characters.
Leon The Professional, Nathalie Portman as Mathilda is awesome, but she is more of a kid than a woman, so maybe doesn't qualify.
Gonna think about that and come back!
Ripley in Alien trilogy
River Tam in Serenity
The Bride in Kill Bill
Annie Hall
Great list idea. I would agree with the Sigourney Weaver and Natalie Portman suggestions. I think you could quite easily through Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia in there, too.
Going off the beaten track, though, I think Anne Parillaud in Nikita and Bette Davis in All About Eve are great shouts, too.
I’d agree with the suggestions so far and add Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity; she’s the archetypal film noir femme fatale to me.
Margo Channing in "All About Eve";
Erica Benton in "An Unmarried Woman";
Norma Desmond in "Sunset Blvd.";
Sophie in "Sophie's Choice"
Sarah Conner from T1 *and* T2 - two totally different characters.
Great suggestions everyone.
@Steve Grzesiak, Margo (Bette Davis) is one of my favourite characters of all time. Definitely deserves to be up there.
@kirbyapplegate and @Cohaagen, Embarrassingly, I haven't seen Double Indemnity, An Unmarried Woman or Sunset Boulevard, which is why they're at the bottom. I know they're classics though so I'll get on that.
@Ryan I agree Sarah Connor's very different but I don't want to put her on twice. (I don't think she's THAT good.) I went for Terminator because that's the first time we see her (I did the same with Princess Leia and The Bride).
@Horn - I agree that both characters in Mulholland Drive are great but I feel like it's cheating to have both so I opted for Naomi Watts. That's kind of 2-characters-for-the-price-of-1 anyway.
Oh, and @SilentJoe13, Annie Hall is iconic (just hearing the name makes me feel happy) so I put her on but she's low down because I think the real character strength in that movie is Woody Allen. Annie Hall is sort of a predecessor of the manic pixie dream girl: www.avclub.com/articles/wild-things-16-films-featuring-manic-pixie-dream-g,2407/
i have a soft spot for Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinnie. I'd say shes a pretty great character
@Dani That's understandable. I'd also like to suggest Laurie in Halloween (1978 of course) and Thelma & Louise.
Added all. @MongooseCmr - I haven't see My Cousin Vinny but I really like Marisa Tomei.
I've also added some of more of my own - we had practically no films by women directors/writers so I added a few.
We've hit 25 but keep the suggestions coming. I definitely don't think this is the perfect list. I'm also tempted by Kick-Ass' Hit-Girl, The Queen's Queen Elizabeth II, Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, the character in Fish Tank, the women in Scream...
I think Mildred Pierce (1945) should be included. Mildred is such a strong character and actually one of my favorite characters of all time.
I missed this list before it hit 25, but here, just in case, are some more suggestions. Soderberg's "Erin Brockovich," Tarsem's "The Cell," and Raimi's "The Gift" all feature strong female protagonists: women who are put through their paces by their respective plots and come out swinging.
Chloe Morentz-Kick-Ass
Jennifer Lopez-The Cell
Charlize Theron-Monster
Kate Hudson-Almost Famous
Elizabeth Olsen-Martha Marcy May Marlene
Halle Berry-Monster's Ball
Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone-The Help
Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker is not just a strong female character, but also a great performance. She steals the whole film every time she's on screen.
In a similar vain, what about Charlize Theron in Monster? Not just one of the greatest performances from any actress on film, but one of the greatest performances from anyone on film, playing a very tragic and sinister character.
It may be a little late, and I agree with plenty of the choices on the list, I feel the need to bring up two more:
Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday
Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
These two really should be considered.
Lindsey from the Abyss.