Check out the movie SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE from 1983. She plays a loud-mouth teen scavenger on a post-apocalyptic planet who helps bounty hunters rescue kidnapped women from a Darth Vaderized Michael Ironside.
(I've got a review coming up for my own Substack in I think August. It's on Tubi.)
Can confirm - growing up in "Shermer" (aka Northbrook) in the 80s, it was very very very white (and Asian, but mostly white). It's more diverse now but that was the reality then. Also, sitting next to her in that photo in France is my wife Angie!
Hey Glenn, thanks for chiming in! That's awesome that your wife Angie is in that photo next to Molly! That's pretty wild, I love Substack for this sort of stuff.
I grew up in the mid west, mind you, Detroit, but I know in the outskirts of suburbia it was as you described. For me, it never troubled me that the film was all white kids (I'm middle eastern by origin, married to a white woman today) and it was just a normal thing and I accepted it in films from the 70s, 80s and 90s. When I look back to really critique films as an adult, I certainly recognize the non-presence of different races in some films, but I also know that writers/directors did not need to force something unnecessarily on the audience for the sake of inclusion. Now there were plenty of films that cut into those areas because of the genre of films they were, but I never wondered, wow, why isn't there a middle eastern person in this movie or that. Different sensibility, and I think we have to be careful to critique films from those days through today's lenses, but certainly within context.
She makes fair points about its time era limitations. Still, BC is the consummate Gen X film, no question.
Excellent work!
Thanks Tom, I appreciate it - this one took some time!
Check out the movie SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE from 1983. She plays a loud-mouth teen scavenger on a post-apocalyptic planet who helps bounty hunters rescue kidnapped women from a Darth Vaderized Michael Ironside.
(I've got a review coming up for my own Substack in I think August. It's on Tubi.)
Seen it and love it!!
Awesome. I don't recall seeing her other teen movies, but the almighty TVTropes page for SPACEHUNTER said she's very much playing against type.
(I guess her other characters aren't as loud and annoying as Niki?)
Can confirm - growing up in "Shermer" (aka Northbrook) in the 80s, it was very very very white (and Asian, but mostly white). It's more diverse now but that was the reality then. Also, sitting next to her in that photo in France is my wife Angie!
Hey Glenn, thanks for chiming in! That's awesome that your wife Angie is in that photo next to Molly! That's pretty wild, I love Substack for this sort of stuff.
I grew up in the mid west, mind you, Detroit, but I know in the outskirts of suburbia it was as you described. For me, it never troubled me that the film was all white kids (I'm middle eastern by origin, married to a white woman today) and it was just a normal thing and I accepted it in films from the 70s, 80s and 90s. When I look back to really critique films as an adult, I certainly recognize the non-presence of different races in some films, but I also know that writers/directors did not need to force something unnecessarily on the audience for the sake of inclusion. Now there were plenty of films that cut into those areas because of the genre of films they were, but I never wondered, wow, why isn't there a middle eastern person in this movie or that. Different sensibility, and I think we have to be careful to critique films from those days through today's lenses, but certainly within context.
Cheers and thank you for reading and commenting!