Wonder Woman shows true forgiveness and compassion
Warning: this review contains mild spoilers
“Wonder Woman” appeals to anyone who believes in their place to change the world and brings to the surface the obstacles that emerge, internal and external.
“Wonder Woman”, just released, has topped Iron Man with its popularity and a gross amount of over $100 million as of June 4, according to writer Anthony D’ Alessandro from Deadline. It shows how much women are gaining a voice in both the characters they play, and orchestrating the film’s narration which bestows a powerful resonance.
Too few women are known for what they do in the film industry, let alone on any other corporate level. Director Patty Jenkins is a superhero herself, having finished shooting the movie in ten months without deleting any scenes despite the rumor that spread about how her project was a mess.
Jenkins sounds as though she might have the same passion to save Wonder Woman’s reputation as Diana did in the film about saving the world. Like Diana, Jenkins exercised self-control over her frustration. In answer in an interview posed to Jenkins about if she wanted to tweet about her anger, she said she did because of how false the rumor was.
“Then you have to restrain yourself because you’ll start going crazy if you start doing that all the time,” she told writer Steve Weintraub from Collider
In “Wonder Woman”, what is most powerful is Diana’s unrelenting desire to prevent killing, even though she ends up doing some of that herself later in the film.
From a young age, she scampers from the side of her mother Queen Hippolyta, and observes warriors train. An audience member feels the same awe as the young Diana did witnessing the warriors develop their flexibility, and how to pull themselves up if they were falling from a horse, but still persisting in the mock battle. Diana mimics them until her mother finds her and retrieves her, despite her protests.
Her aunt offers her lessons without Hippolyta’s knowledge. The Queen, keeping Diana’s birth origins a secret, only told her that she was sculpted from clay after a prayer to Zeus. She continued with the story about Ares, the god of war who rebelled against Zeus and began destroying humans because of his jealousy.
When Hippolyta finishes the story, Diana makes it her goal to find Ares and kill him so she saves the world, but later her promise backfires when she is face-to-face with him.
Her chance to accomplish her goal arrives when she rescues Steve Trevor, a spy who nearly drowns when Germans tie him to a boat. After an exchange of arrows between the Amazonians and the Germans, the Amazon council interrogates him with a magical lasso which compels him to tell the truth.
Even then they express their reluctance to free him because they lack complete knowledge of his full intentions.
But under the cover of night, Diana helps him escape under the condition that he takes him to Ares since she sees him as her chance to do good. Hippolyta catches Diana just before they leave, not to stop her as Diana thinks, but to say goodbye.
Diana is just as heartbroken but, she asks a legitimate question: “Who will I be if I stay?” It becomes a question for audience members and those of us who are desperate for a need, for a change we see in our lives and we know it never happens without sacrifice.
As Diana observes the suffering the war has caused, her compassion continues to build and fuels her. Ares challenges Diana in her beliefs about humans by countering it with the pain and suffering they bring into the world. He makes an offer to Diana to join him and recreate the world so it is new. Eventually Diana sees all humans’ abilities for both good and bad.
It is easy to give up what you fight for when you start believing your cause is lost, but when you remember what matters and what you believe, it is worth the pursuit. You need to remember your strength in who you know you are, despite what rises against you.
