Why do audiences like girls with guns? I am not talking about normal audiences who simply enjoy a good action flick and strong female characters on the screen. I am talking about a specific sector of movie fans who love seeing a woman holding a gun and shooting people, it's a whole informal subgenre after all. The most logical answer is that it´s cool, but a deeper look might give us some psychological insight into it. If we play psychologist then we can maybe theorize that a woman holding a gun represents a phallic symbol being caressed and held by a female. The gun, a symbol of empowerment for men who reaffirm their masculinity by carrying it and shooting with it, is not only a symbol of empowerment in the hands of a woman as well, but at the same time it creates a reaction in the mind of males who find it attractive to one degree or another.
Besides Andy Sidaris, I think Luc Besson understood this more than anyone else and explored the subject like no one else with Nikita. This is the epitome of the genre after all, or at least the movie that synthesized all of the elements that comprise it
Nikita (Anne Parillaud from Innocent Blood) is an unkempt teenage rebel who is sentenced to life in prison after a botched robbery where she killed a police officer. She is suddenly recruited to be part of a secret government agency that turns her into a skilled assassin. Over time, she becomes a martial artist, a precise sharpshooter and learns the ways of the femme fatale with an older lady representative.
After a tricky final test, Nikita graduates and is released so she can live her new life as an assassin for the government. However, being an agent is not the only new thing for Nikita, she will also find love in a sweet and down to earth store clerk who she marries. Now, Nikita will need to find balance between her deadly work and her love life.
Tons of movies have copied the more superficial elements of La Femme Nikita, the secret assassin girl with a gun, the constant action, the badass lines and poses, the plot, etc... But what still stands out about the movie is the brilliant direction. The film shows some nice visuals, Luc Besson establishes himself as a visual stylist with great talent and sense of color and composition. The cinematography also sports all kinds of textures and a good use of sterile environments and blacks and whites when necessary. Besson knows how to shoot every place in order to make it look appealing and fit it into a particular aesthetic with no trouble.
The smart use of wide shots and perfectly selected shots during the editing phase give the film an unprecedented weight in its execution. The action is in plain sight and never gets bogged down by shaky cam or flashy editing, it lets you swallow all of the information in each shot before swiftly moving along at a steady pace. The movie has a melancholic and dry tone, a lucid tone I should say, that never becomes lighthearted enough to seem trivial nor brooding enough to seem disconnected from reality like overly dark action movies sometimes are.
In fact, one of the many things that Besson relies heavily upon is the stark realism of the material´s execution. The plot at first looks like a generic spy novel, but the actual way the scenes play out with entire conviction and with the attempt of giving you real people with solid personalities and their own aspirations really elevates the material. The scene of her completing an assignment while in a hotel bathroom as her husband speaks to her behind the door masterfully conveys her stress at keeping her two new overwhelming lives together.
Going back to my first point, Nikita is the epitome of the female and feminine action leads (according to Besson) because of her arc. Beginning as a tough but ragged down junkie, Nikita is then given intense training that elaborates on the idea that Besson is aiming at: The power of femininity used by the femme fatale.
Nikita then learns to use the way men see her and her own beauty in order to turn that on her enemies. An idea that would be repeated many times in action girl history, it began to be explored with the femme fatale trope in film noir but it never reached a point of honesty and reality until this movie, which is more profound. Nikita is not only just as capable as any other agent but she also has a more powerful weapon, this has to be symbolized visually in some form, and the gun seems like a perfect way for artists to do so, especially for filmmakers. Besson cracked the code and perfected it.
Besson´s concept of a perfect action woman is such, a fair killer that is underestimated but eventually shows off her strength and capabilities, but most importantly she delves deep into the mind of men and hypnotizes them with their beauty and grace.
Nikita isn't without her challenges though, in fact she is tested frequently. Psychologically, she finds her life to be too much for her, in the final scene the two men who loved her and who had the closest relationship with her state that they will miss her. They are, in one way or another, infatuated with the irresistible Nikita. However, there's no use in trying to tame her. She deserves to be free and happy. Nikita does not flee out of cowardice but she becomes unchained, breaking her marital and governmental shackles, preparing for a brand new life. Just as the start of the movie, it's all erased in service of a fresh start. Another chance at living life.
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| "There are two things that are infinite: femininity and means to take advantage of it." |
The film never had a direct sequel but it spawned three remakes: Black Cat (1991) from Hong Kong (a country that probably had a big influence on the genre and the film itself), Point of No Return (1993) from the USA, and Kartoos (1999) which was done in Bollywood. None of them were as popular or as well made as the original film. Two tv shows followed, La Femme Nikita (1997-2001) and the shorter Nikita (2010-2013).
Some people like to claim that Nikita was a failure at the box office and with critics but I think it had more of an impact than people give it credit for, I am willing to bet that the vast majority of action movies with female leads after the film's release took at least some inspiration or some element from the original Nikita, I would even say that it set the template for Hollywood's action girls following the nineties.
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