The Old Guard-Assignment 4 Pt. A; Kelsey S.

I watched a movie called The Old Guard, filmed in 2020. The storyline focuses on a group of immortal mercenaries who work to try and bring justice in the world, as well as keep their immortal identities a secret. With an old client exposing their secret to those who wish to profit off of their “gift”, the team works to save themselves and stop their new found enemy. Also occurring at this time, a new member of the team joins, and the team must learn to now show this new immortal how to navigate their new life, as well as protect themselves and the team.

The photo I’ve chosen is in the first fifteen minutes of the film where the plot is being established, and we the audience have just learned of their immortal identity. In this frame we can see the four main characters, standing in a semicircle, with none directly facing or looking at the camera adjacent from them. There are multiple bodies laying in various places around the room, with the main characters still in action-ready stances having just finished killing the men who had attempted to murder them. The room is visibly dark with a focus of color on blue, green and black tones-creating an edgy, harsh mood. The movie is edited together with no set color pattern in the movie, other than the main characters all wearing more neutral colored clothing. The movie has very fast paced editing, with multiple angles being shown all within a short period of time. The movie is quite fast paced with only a few moments of reflective pauses. The movie portrays a large amount of violence that flows through consistently in the whole film. Every action of violence is carefully choreographed and fast paced, giving the team a professional feel with their military precise moves. 

Each character is quite evenly matched in their abilities, the main character ‘Andy’ is the most skilled because she is the oldest out of the team. She also is the leader, though there is a fair amount of equal sharing in the power dynamic. She is in what would typically be written as a male role, without being oversexualized or dependent on a man to extend or validate her storyline. The hard part with having female heroines, according to author J.A. Brown, is that “On the one hand, she represents a potentially transgressive figure capable of expanding the popular perception of women’s roles and abilities; on the other, she runs the risk of reinscribing strict gender binaries and of being nothing more than sexist window-dressing for the predominantly male audience.” This movie did a fantastic job of avoiding this problem with all heroic female characters introduced, though I suspect there may always be this underlying problem of potential sexualization. 

 The film has an incredibly inclusive cast, without it being the main focus to the movie-the characters just are who they are, it is normalized and not the main feature of who they are. With the representations of more queer individuals in film “…they often prompt viewers to accept stereotyped portrayals of gender and sexual differences as normal, which can have a regressive effect advancement of acceptance towards queer individuals.” (Thomson). Too many times I have seen films in which the whole identity of an LGBTQ+ character is strictly stereotypes based on their sexuality. This movie did not do that. To elaborate more, the film consists of the main character being a white woman), two LGBTQ+ males who are in a relationship together, a black woman, and one straight white man. The only romantic relationship in the film, is a queer one between two males; a refreshing and almost unseen example in Hollywood action films. Each character was in depth, had their own back story, intelligence and each were valuable to the team. The film also had many side characters of color and varying sexualities’. The approach on character diversity is incredibly refreshing because it was presented in a much more realistic way of how we see diversity in our society. If you go to the grocery store, it is likely you will see many people of different races, abilities, and sexualities-but likely those things will not be the main point of your interaction with them, such as it is with this movie. The movie has a plotline that does not depend on these factors of sexuality or race, but it naturally incorporates them in so it feels realistic and this lack of emphasis on that just helps create a better inclusive action film. It is by far one of the best inclusive films I have ever seen, and surprised me greatly. 

The Old Guard was released on Netflix in 2020, and has mostly positive reviews, receiving an impressive 80% from Rotten Tomatoes, 6.7/10 from IMDb, and ⅘ on Common Sense Media. There is a sequel in the making currently, following the comic books storyline.

 “Violence has long been basic to the definition of the action and western genres, but other genres such as comedy and drama have also increased the amount and severity of violence depicted. Depictions of violence, therefore, are seen by millions of US customers in theatrical release and by additional millions in their international versions, on videotape, and in television reruns.” Consequences of this movie are the same for any other action movie. It does push a narrative that violence is the only way to solve things, and that until all conflict (and people that cause conflict) is removed, only will there then be peace. It does not leave room for tolerance, even with these characters being violent for justified reasoning. Violence is used commonly and effectively for most films, but we must ask the question: are we able to make quality films without violence, and what would that look like? How would it affect our modern society?

 Brown J.A. (2004) Gender, Sexuality, and Toughness: The Bad Girls of Action Film and Comic Books. In: Inness S.A. (eds) Action Chicks. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981240_3

Thomson, Katelyn. 2021. “An Analysis of LGBTQ+ Representation in Television and Film.” Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections 5, (1). https://scholars.wlu.ca/bridges_contemporary_connections/vol5/iss1/7

McArthur, D L et al. “Violence and its injury consequences in American movies: a public health perspective.” The Western journal of medicine vol. 173,3 (2000): 164-8; discussion 169. doi:10.1136/ewjm.173.3.164

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_old_guard

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7556122/

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-old-guard

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a33231534/old-guard-2-netflix-release-date/