Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017)

A Discussion Guide
Backstory: the Creation of Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman was originally the brainchild of Dr. William Moulon Marston (1893-1947), a Harvard educated psychologist, who over the course of his life was a lawyer, scientist, professor, and writer. He is generally credited with inventing the systolic blood pressure test and, as a related endeavor, the lie detector test. Marston’s ‘career in comics’ began in 1940, when he was hired as a consultant to All-American Comics (forerunner of DC Comics) to help stave off criticism about violence and sexual content in their publications.

While part of Marston’s overt strategy to deflect criticism was to create a female superhero, what remained covert and secret was the fact that Marston maintained a relationship with two women, each having two children to him, and all living together as one family; and that both women influenced Marston’s development of Wonder Woman, who in turn was something of a composite of Marston’s various theories (his philosophy of diametric opposites, his interest in bondage/submission themes and “sex love” training, and his being powerfully influenced by the suffrage, feminism and birth control movements of his day).

When Marston created Wonder Woman in 1941, he would draw inspiration from women he knew such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Margaret Sanger, Olive Byrne and Elizabeth Holloway Marston. And when he submitted a draft of his first script he explained the subtext of Wonder Woman by drawing upon Amazonian origins in ancient Greece as a means of chronicling “a great movement now under way—the growth in the power of women.”

A little later, in 1943 —and much more publically— Marston wrote: “Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don’t want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.” And even more pointedly, “Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who, I believe, should rule the world.”

Trivia:
In the comics, Steve Trevor and Diana met in WWII (1939-45). In this film, they meet in WWI (1914-18), a change the filmmakers thought that more suitable as this period of time saw questions about women’s rights and about the changed nature of warfare. Additionally, the less clear line between good and evil that characterized WWI (as opposed to the Nazis of WWII) better serves the storyline.

A real life character, General Erich Ludendorff was supreme commander of the German forces in WWI and he did authorize the use of mustard gas, a corrosive agent that could, depending on the exposure, inflict temporary or permanent blindness, lasting damage to lungs and an extremely painful death.

Diana’s scenes in London are an homage to the first season of Wonder Woman (1975) and to Superman (1978). Touching the first, when Diana is introduced as Capt. Steve Trevor’s secretary in WWI, this is a play on her having been depicted as a clerical officer to U.S. Army Maj. Steve Trevor during WWII. And touching the second, Diana’s being dressed to fit into English society, this is a play on Superman’s entry into American urban life where he is disguised by way of ordinary clothes and by the addition of glasses (and where he stops a mugging attack and even has some trouble with a revolving door). Further, the glasses and remarks by Etta Candy in this film are an allusion to Diana wearing glasses in her civilian guise throughout the first season of Wonder Woman (1975).

Speaking of Etta Candy, she was actually part of the original Wonder Woman comic, serving as a faithful friend to Diana. Although unused by DC Comics for decades before being reintroduced as an important Wonder Woman character in 2006, in this film, she resembles her earliest, original version in appearance. (Currently, in the comics, Etta Candy is depicted as an African-American woman).

One of the film’s central pieces—”The No Man’s Land” sequence—initially caused confusion for some of the film’s creative team. Thinking of it as an action sequence, the concern related to how it could work without Diana fighting a villain. (Director Patty Jenkins insisted that the scene was a pivotal dramatic moment, underscoring Diana’s self-affirmation and her resolution).