17 July 2001

Lots of mail came in about Legally Blonde and the e-mails that ran in The Hot Button about it.  Here is a sampling….

The Back writes:  “I can’t help but respond to NOT PEGGY OR MAMA in her own response to an earlier ROTD, re: Legally Blonde.  That she considers Legally Blonde her “favorite movie of the year so far” strikes me as somewhat absurd; that there have been a lot of pictures better than Legally Blonde foisted on the public this year is indisputable, I think. Whether one considers Memento, or Lumumba or Songcatcher a better film is, as usual, in the mind of the movie
beholder, but as for comedies, I would put Shrek up against Legally Blonde any day of the week, animated or not.  And Shrek is certainly not what she refers to an “art-house” picture.

As for it being “Clueless Goes to Law School”—maybe so, but Clueless was a far superior film, as was Heathers, in that same vein—even Buffy The Vampire Slayer had, forgive me, more bite to it.  And Reese Witherspoon has had much better material in the past, from Freeway (and even before that) through Election.

NOT PEGGY OR MAMA makes a big stink about political correctness and the need to enjoy movies that are simply meant to be fun, which I agree with, but as your previous ROTD noted, political correctness is a very particular theme of the film and as such is addressable and, really, unavoidable.  I don’t mean to stomp all over a movie that is meant to be fairly breezy, but like THE PHIX, I resented the theme, which is about stereotypes, being made in the context of so many other negative stereotypes.  

Your reader states: “And, sad to say, I think some of the stereotypes were quite accurate.”  The thing about stereotypes is not whether they possess any degree of accuracy, in fact the most objectionable stereotypes are often the ones that have the greatest accuracy, and, for that very reason, reinforce negative notions about this or that particular group, class, age, religion, gender or ethnicity.  But comedy, by nature, is about stereotypes and I can’t argue that well-crafted stereotypes make us laugh, as we see the truth beneath the image.  What hurts a movie like Legally Blonde is that it pretends to be about destroying some stereotypes while it blithely goes about
reinforcing others.  

A better picture would have made some effort to craft interesting characters of the people around her.  The Jewish lesbian (and they went out of their way to identify her as Jewish, by the way), the drab feminist academics—a lot of sour images to regurgitate in a movie that wants to convince us to avoid prejudice.

At heart, I think, the film is meant to show the California blonde as someone who is unafraid to be outrageously feminine (i.e. colorful and frilly and silly and ostensibly stupid—very Lorelei Lee) in an environment in which those values are either suspect or outright rejected by the young academic community.  In fact the only place Elle finds a kindred spirit is with a working class manicurist; someone who isn’t part of the dull, drab Harvard environment.

I think that you, Viewer, needed to just check your politically correct card at the door…This movie wasn't meant to be socially analyzed.

I think the entire point that THE PHIX was making was that she/he would have liked very much to “sit back and enjoy” Legally Blonde, but that the faults and flaws of the film, particularly the implausibilities at the heart of Witherspoon’s character, a fault which is primarily found in the writing, prevented her/him from doing so.  I wouldn’t know whether or not THE PHIX is a political correct card-carrier (frankly I didn’t know they handed such things out), but political correctness is not the central problem with Legally Blonde.  The simple fact is, it’s unimaginative and largely unfunny, for all the reasons mentioned above and several others.

As for Dave Poland and tits, who cares?  But to imagine that a movie is good because it has “no nudity and hardly any swearing” does not make it a “decent” film except in the minds of people who judge the quality of films by their ratings.  I would suggest that NOT PEGGY OR MAMA take her niece out of the family section, or the drama section, or the comedy section, and make a beeline for the quality section.

A Women In Control: "Viewer, next time you want to enjoy a movie, apparently you need to go to the drama section.  You should stay away from comedies, since you obviously don't know what one is.

If I wanted to read Viewers immature, angry put downs of one another I would read those stupid talk backs at AICN.  She made her points but went on and on and then got incredibly personal and nasty at the end.  This woman wanted to be a bitch, pure and simple.  She didn't want to express an opinion, she wanted to bitch someone out without having to deal with their response. 

Legally Blonde doesn't hurt women or perpetuate stereotypes because people know it's a movie.  But a real women getting all shrill and taking someone's opinion of a simple little comedy into full out personal attack, perpetuates the stereotype of women not being able to argue a point without emotion getting in the way of reason.  Get a grip Peggy!

A guy, PD Not NY pipes up:  “Man it pisses me off when movies like "Legally Blonde" get good reviews from both critics and the general public.  Maybe I take movies too seriously, and maybe I should lighten up, but I can't help it.  I love movies with every inch of my being.  For better or worse my life revolves around them.  I live movies.  I like to be entertained as much as the next person, but I see truly great movies fall by the wayside and go unnoticed with crap like "Legally Blonde"

is praised for being light and fun and harmless and cute.  Screw harmless and screw cute.  If you want cute, go to a pet store and look at kitties and puppies all day long.  "Legally Blonde" is nothing more than fluff.  You can see this stuff every day on TV. There is absolutely nothing new here.  But people love it anyway. Why can't the people who waste their time on "Legally Blonde," seeing it and defending it, instead go see "Memento" or "Sexy Beast" or "The Anniversary Party" or any number of films out there right now that are not the same old thing?  If you're a teenage girl or Ryan Phillippe I can understand going to see this movie.  But no one else has an excuse.  What a waste of time.  Talk about the definition of a perfect wait for video movie.  Why see this in theaters?  Just rent "Clueless."  And please, enough with this "Reese is so cute" crap. She is obnoxious and annoying and stupid in this movie.  I cringe just when I see the preview and she's acting like a moron but it's supposed to be so darned cute and funny.  You can't pay most people to see stuff like "Sexy Beast" in theaters, but they are more than happy to dish out $9 for a movie about a dumb blonde who makes it in law school.  That's just sad.  I realize I'm wasting my time here. You can't preach to the converted and you can't convince John or Jane Q. Public to see a decent movie when they can turn off their brain and watch "Clueless 2: The College Years."  But I don't care.  I like to vent and I feel better already.”

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