Any podcast that covered a randomized selection of movies from throughout the history of movies

would have to spend time wrestling with the ways that values have changed.

They've changed dramatically over the last hundred years and even more

dramatically over the last 10. So even if Friendly Fire focused on courtroom dramas or domestic

comedies or movies where even briefly kids were shown

playing marbles, the hosts would end up talking about gender relations and

representation. War movies are about fighting, about enemies and politics and conflict between nations,

and as such, we are always on the lookout for how well or poorly they do depicting peoples of nationalities, races, and religions other than those of the filmmakers themselves.

It's a major way we evaluate films, and we pay special attention to the women in these films because they're comparatively rare, they're frequently on the receiving

end of the worst kinds of violence depicted often only in silhouette or implication, and because

we're looking for validation of the contemporary idea that women

of the recent past were disenfranchised and stateless beings held captive by an unchallenged

patriarchy.

Interestingly, we've not found that to be universally the case.

Women are comparatively rare, and victims of unspeakable violence, yes, but we have been surprised to find so many strong female characters depicted as wise or

valiant, full of agency, quick-witted, and no patsies.

They're taken seriously by the films.

The male characters seek their approval and alter their choices accordingly,

and although they're often two-dimensional virtuous,

they aren't always uncomplicated.

The cameras pan away when the shooting starts, often not returning to them

until the end, but in most cases they weren't just knitting. They were nursing or

...