‘True Lies’: Becoming Equal Partners

Re “It’s Not True That ‘Lies’ Helps Women” (Aug. 29): Can political correctness blind one to the real virtues and intentions of a movie? You might think so by reading Carol Treadwell’s Counterpunch to Douglas Eby’s “True Lies” Counterpunch (“Curtis’ True Role in ‘Lies’: Empowerment,” Aug. 8). Treadwell misrepresents the intent of key scenes, along with the movie’s message, one in which the hero learns to accept his wife as an equal partner.

In “True Lies,” we are deliberately presented with a seemingly sexist female character--Jamie Lee Curtis as the doting suburban housewife. But the Curtis character is not at all what she initially appears to be. She is, in fact, the true lie of “True Lies.”

In a key sequence that Treadwell had so much trouble with, Curtis is interrogated by her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the help of a two-way mirror. The scene not only demonstrates that Curtis has aspirations beyond her role as a housewife, it also dramatizes how Schwarzenegger, by failing to acknowledge Curtis as a complete person, is in very real danger of losing her. When Curtis violently cracks the mirror, it is not, as Treadwell mentions, a sign of her “inability” but a dramatic warning to Schwarzenegger--he can no longer “hide behind the mirror,” i.e.: his carefully ordered lies, his sexism.

Treadwell also misinterprets the movie’s Tom Arnold character. The Arnold character is an “example” to Schwarzenegger of what he could become--bitter, sexist, divorced--if he fails to change.

Moreover, a sequence in which Curtis performs a humorous striptease is not, as Treadwell would have us believe, a scene in which “a husband needs to see his wife as a prostitute.” Yes, of course Schwarzenegger is entranced by his wife’s dance, but, on a more fundamental level, he’s alarmed by the fact that Curtis is committed to her duties as a spy--that she’s acting independently.

“True Lies” presents an accessible portrayal of a couple who undergo a transformation. “True Lies,” with all of its typical bang-bang action-movie accouterments, may well be one of the more openly feminist movies of the year.

MICHAEL APOSTOLINA

Los Angeles