Film Review- Krystal Cabrera

The two films that I’m choosing to review are Divergent and Black Panther. These are my personal favorite movies. Even though these are movies that have good female chracters we don’t know if they pass the bechdel test. The bechdel test is if two female characters in a movie have a conversation not involving a man.

Divergent is based on a futuristic society that is divided. It’s divided into five factions. Each faction has one specific role in their society. Everyone has to fit into either one of the factions, if you don’t your considered Divergent. In this case Tris is divergent and she has to hide her secret because divergent’s are considered a threat to their society. Tris must undergo physical and mental test in the faction she chose while also having to try and hide her secret.

The second movie that I’ll be reviewing is Black Panther. This movie was such a huge break through into the African American culture. Black Panther is a marvel movie about a technoligically advanced African civilization. T’Challa was the son of one of the King’s son. He was left in America by himself. T’Challa buit rage over the years and when he found Wakanda he took over it. Black Panther the real king of Wakanda took back his thrown after a vigorious battle.

I really fell in love with Divergent because Tris the main female character was a good example. She was strong and brave through out the movie. There were many task that she had to overcome but with the support of her family/firends they were able to escape oppression and abuse. This movies does pass the bechdel test because a lot of female charcaters talk with one another about their struggles.

Black Panther was a huge step forward for African/African American culture. The main character was not a female but there were a lots of females that played inportant roles too. For example, Okoya played role as the head of Wakanda’s special forces. She was such a strong female character because she was true warrior. Okoya risked everything for her country and was loyal to her leaders. She displayed an honorable warrior throughout the entire movie. This movies passes the bechdel test because there was a small snipit of two females having a conversation not regarding a male.

Now that you know background information about the two movies that I chose it’s time to make up my test of choice and see if it passes. For my test I’d like to see if there is at least one main female chracater that leads a group of people that doesn’t involve any sort of romance. It can’t be a minor part of the movie but important. With the new test that I made I’ll be reviewing Divergent and Black Panther to see if they pass the test.

I personally think that Divergent does not pass my test. Throughout the movie Tris has a romantic conncetion with Four the entire time. She is the leader of a group but the romance stands out more. Maybe in the other movies that came out after the first one do pass because Tris and Four already have the love it’s not like they need to build it. For example, Tris and Four are new lovers which involves more time on them to build that feeling throughout the movie. On the other hand, in the other movies the focus can be on building communities not love. If that makes sense.

Moving onto Black Panther, I think that it does pass my test. The Queen of Wakanda was a leader and she wasn’t involved in romance. She lost her husband and she wasn’t trying to rekindle a new flame. Next, Okoya was the general of Wakanda’s army. She did have a lover but they didn’t come in contact a lot in the movie. Okoya was even put to the test if she would chose her lover over her country and chose her country. I feel like it passes teh test because this idea of a women chosing her future over a man is not seen in many movies. Most movies the women leaves her job to fit into these men’s lives. So I feel like it showed a ver strong image on women today.