Review of Dawn

Almost everything about this small film was excellent--the acting first rate, the cinematography accurately capturing the 50's era, good direction--but I actively hated this film. Why? Because not only was the look of the 50's era accurately reproduced, but unfortunately some of the era's most unfortunate sensibilities were also captured without the slightest trace of perspective or comment. What I'm referring to is cinema's earlier tendency to smack down its heroines who dared to step out of their prescribed roles as helpmate, mother or damsel in distress. Over and over in Hollywood's earlier history, women who daringly attempted to take control of their destinies were smartly put back in their place--sometimes comically, sometimes tragically. In this instance, it's the latter. A high school aged woman, living a constrained, suppressed life with her repressive parents, decides to do something a little daring with the urging of a young man she has just met. She sneaks out of her home and goes off on what is supposed to be an innocent escapade. Instead the young man and his two friends--another couple--drive out into the woods where things quickly turn toward the dark side. Our heroine is struck in the face by her hoped-for beau, knocking her to the ground. Then he produces a gun and asks her to walk off into the woods with him, and she meekly complies. Moments later, we hear a gunshot, and the young man returns and states he had just wanted know "what it was like." Ugh. How about a different ending? The two go off into the woods, we hear a gunshot, and the girl returns and shoots at the other two--either killing them or sending them scurrying away. She stands triumphant and perhaps we are given a flashback of her kneeing her would-be murderer in the groin and snatching the gun away (though I myself would probably prefer the details be left unshown). Sure, young girls are sometimes murdered by budding psychopaths in this world, but I've seen way too many movies "celebrating" the meekness and ineptness of women over the decades. This is a new century, and we need films that at least in some measure extol the virtues of this century--not those halfway back into the last. And sadly, this film was directed by a woman. With the ending I suggested, this film would probably have garnered a rating of "9." Instead, it earns a mere "2."