Obituary...

It's time to note the quiet passing of a once-glorious yet ill-remembered Hollywood star. The star passed quietly, and historians have had trouble pinpointing the exact moment the star burned out finally, after blazing across the cinematic sky since the very inception of the medium.

I refer, naturally, to slapping women on film. In an age where the word 'domestic' could only be paired with 'bliss', writers thought nothing of having their male lead subdue an hysterical woman with a well-intentioned open hand to the cheek. Rarely did the woman in question react with indignation to the corporal sanction dealt her way; usually a feminine hand gingerly placed on the point of contact, coupled with a thoughtful look, was enough to indicate that the lesson had been learned.

Clark Gable did it in Gone With the Wind, Sean Connery did it as James Bond, but since the 1980s the old star found, as many have before it, that times and fashions move on, leaving some by the wayside while leaving others relatively untarnished.

But has the demise of open-handed chastisement led to hysterical female co-stars running wild? The simple answer is no. As anyone who follows film closely will know, Hollywood abhors a vacuum. No trend, fad or star is pushed aside until its successor is known. In this case, the pretender to the crown was a star cast from a cruder, misshapen, but closely related mould.

The advent of realistic domestic violence in film saw the more naive, black and white, Mom and Pop style of wife-beating fade quietly into the Sunset Boulevard. On-screen wives and partners are now kept in line using more brutal means. Nostalgic cinemaphiles can only shake their heads and long for yesteryear when confronted with the sight of Denzel Washington pushing his wife to the ground in He Got Game, or Temuera Morrison violently assaulting his defenceless wife in Once Were Warriors.

It seems obvious that the passing of the open-handed slap between lovers is indicative of the breakdown of human relationships that has taken place in the last 60 years. Gone are the days when differences could be resolved by a means of dispute resolution that made its point but never left a bruise. The harsh reality of the 21st Century requires that inter-spousal disagreements be settled with blood, broken glass and bellowing. One wonders whether the inability of non-brutal means of settling arguments at the personal level is reflected on the national and international stage. Wouldn't the US have preferred a quick and easy option like a quick slap to the cheek, rather than having to chase Iraq down the hall in its underpants and a singlet? Would the world be a better place if disagreements could be settled in a fast and fair manner that left both parties understanding the situation better?

So vale, the open-handed slap. The world is a nastier, more violent place without you.


OPEN HANDED SLAP
1905-UNKNOWN