FRANK OZ

Does anybody else detect a pronounced mysogynistic streak in this guy's career? what's that all about... Consider what a malicious caricature Miss Piggy is, among other things...

Director:
Death at a Funeral (2007)
The Stepford Wives (2004)
The Score (2001)
Bowfinger (1999)
In & Out (1997)
The Indian in the Cupboard (1995)
HouseSitter (1992)
What About Bob? (1991)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
The Dark Crystal (1982)

dude what

what waht

misogyny is not obvious to me, also Miss Piggy is basically the toughest muppet of the bunch. HI YAH

Flesh out your examples a little more, is what I'm saying

well there's the Stepford Wives remake, which is what made me think of this. A really weirdly reactionary movie with that "twist" ending... the scheming alpha-female seems to be a common trope in his work, often depicted as beautiful but vindictive and cruel, outwitting and emasculating their male counterparts. This also happens in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and can be read in the central relationship of Little Shop of Horros. Miss Piggy is a strong character, yes - but she's also invariably vain, violent, domineering, and deceitful. A couple of these I haven't seen (Bowfinger, In and Out, the Score) but I'd be curious to hear about how female roles are handled in those films... and of course there are no women whatsoever in the Dark Crystal, apart from Aughra, who is depicted as a hideous, manipulative witch.

I've often pondered the anti-feminist screed known as the Muppets Take Manhattan. As well as the pro-Castro subplot in What About Bob.

I've never seen What About Bob... I'm just sayin, he has a tendency to portray women as overbearing and manipulative, he seems kind of afraid of them.

I mean yeah you can make the point you just made but the corollary is that Frank Oz's men are typically short-sighted dimbulbs, not so much emasculated by their female counterparts as they are simply greedy or lustful or plain ol' dumb.

Angela Bassett is underutilized in The Score but certainly not scheming, or witchy, or what have you.

and of course there are no women whatsoever in the Dark Crystal

HI DERE

http://www.brandybuck.com/amber/images/neopets/dark_crystal.jpg

Although she does get killed. But she gets resurrected!

its been a few years since I've seen the Dark Crystal but I coulda sworn there's some reference to the two leads being essentially androgynous

the Dark Crystal is a very odd movie on a number of levels

that ball of fluff with teeth. horrid little thing that was.

the scheming alpha-female seems to be a common trope in his work, often depicted as beautiful but vindictive and cruel, outwitting and emasculating their male counterparts.

How is any of this in Little Shop Of Horrors? (Unless you mean the plant, I guess.)

yeah I mean the plant

that plant was such a bitch

plant was a giant cock eating vagina! worst of the worst!

What About Bob? is terrific.

Yeah, they just reran it here last night, I'd nearly forgotten how tight and balanced it is. Even though Bill Murray's character is portrayed as an essentially humane person and Richard Dreyfuss's as pompous and self-centred, the movie also makes you symphatize with Dr. Marvin's situation, so you understand why he wants to kill Bob. And both of them fit those roles so perfectly! There's not much room for the female characters, so I dunno if the movie fits into your theory. Dr. Marvin's wife is portrayed as very stereotypical housewife though.

Also, I love that the movie doesn't end with Dr. Marvin learning from Bob how to be a better person, which would've been the typical Hollywood solution.

Does anybody else detect a pronounced mysogynistic streak in this guy's career? what's that all about... Consider what a malicious caricature Miss Piggy is, among other things...

I thought about this while I was watching the Stepford Wives the other night, but in the end it wasn't so much mysogyny as an overall misanthropy I detected. The film didn't really seem to know what point it wanted to make, or whose side it was on. It was just a mess.

I guess the point they wanted to make was that many women still cling on on to traditional gender roles, oppressive as they may be. But I agree that the film was such a mess it was hard to make anything out of it.

I don't think this message was necessarily antifeminist, I think these way most feminists agree that many (if not most) women do take part in practices and institutions that essentially oppress them, whether they realize it or not. But the twist ending in SW nevertheless took away some of the feminist punch the story might've otherwise had.