- Possessive, controlling, dangerous, AND undead? This guy’s too good to be true!
I have hated the film Twilight from the minute I heard about it, but not for the reasons you might think. I first heard of Twilight when they announced that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince would not be released in November, a date I literally had marked on my calendar. But, the random entertainment blog consolled, Twilight will premiere that day instead. My first response was “What’s Twilight?”
The next time I heard about the vampire love story was in August, 2008 when my three sisters and my mother became completely obsessed with Stephanie Meyer’s novels. Actually, I am not surprised my mum liked the books – she has always been a huge harlequin romance novel fan, and Meyer’s four book series can be summed up as three parts sexual tension and one part acting on it. The books and film offer the same form of escapism as any other romance novel, but in a more distilled, teen appropriate form. Since that time, I have read all four books, seen the movie, and written an essay on the topic. My conlusion? I wish freaking Harry Potter had been released on time and that I could un-read and un-see the film.
Twilight is about a seventeen year old girl who falls in love with a vampire, and about the challenges they face in their relationship, given that, well, he wants abandon his vows of animal-only blood drinking to suck the blood out of her body. Many have praised the novel and the film for the strong message of abstinence. The couple can barely touch, let alone have sex. But the message of abstinence is blurred, particularly given that the film, marketed toward tweens, teens, and adults alike, contains a scene of Edward creeping on Bella while she sits on her bed in her underpants. Moreover, the film contains some other questionable messages. Edward convinces Bella to lie to her father, brings her into dangerous situations, controls her, and follows her. His actions verge on stalking and completely violate Bella’s privacy and independence. And yet, she falls head over heels for the guy.
Bella’s only personality trait is her obsession with Edward, and her happiness in the film revolves around his paying her attention. She puts herself in the line of fire simply to be around him, without knowing anything about him except for what he looks like. Yes, Robert Pattinson is an attractive man, but really? The director, a woman I might add, might have considered developing a relationship based on more than appearances and scent-addition.
Edward says some pretty creepy stuff throughout the movie, referring to drinking Bella’s blood casually, in a way somewhat akin to dangling a knife over her. Bella’s dad, Charlie, seems to be the only one who finds this off-putting. My favourite scene in the whole movie is when Bella comes down the stairs for prom, and Edward says something along the lines of “you’re perfect.” Charlie shoots him this look that sums up exactly how I feel about the whole movie.
Toward the end of the film, Bella confirms that she is in fact brainless with the following statement: “I can’t bring myself to regret the decisions that brought me face to face with death, they also brought me to Edward.” This seems to be her attitude throughout the film, referring to herself as a stupid lamb, and telling Edward over and over again that she does not care that he is dangerous, that he has killed people, or even that he wanted to kill her. None of it matters because… he’s hot? That’s essentially all the movie offers as a justification. Way to set an example for healthy relationships, Twilight.
