Random Thoughts #2 (No Man's Land from Wonder Woman)

Right of the bat let me tell you that I am a DC fan, due to being raised by the DCAU cartoons in my childhood. I still remember watching the pilot episode of Justice League the animated series and being in awe of the legendary team. Batman is perhaps my favorite character of all time in fiction. I have fond memories of watching the Christopher Reeve Superman movie on TV and Batman Begins served as a segue way for me into watching more character driven dramas beyond the normal action movies I was accustomed to when in my teens. So needless to say the last few years has been very tough being a DC fan when watching their cinematic endeavors. Not since maybe the Dark Knight in 2008 had their been a universally loved DC movie and Marvel in the mean while kept piling on competent movie after one another.

When the DCEU started in 2013 with Man of Steel I was excited, but Man of Steel was kinda meh, Batman V Superman was frustrating to watch as it had flashes of brilliance yet had a convoluted plot and double the amount of horrible scenes to out weigh the good and Suicide Squad was just trash.

So by the time Wonder Woman was coming out I was like "Please let it be at least a decent movie at best". Then the reviews came out and you all know what happened.

Now I don't intend to write a review for this movie so late into it's release. But I just had to say my two cents about arguably the best scene in the movie. "The No Man's Land Sequence" and why it works so well.

Spoilers ahead obviously

Link to watch said scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HDC4U8_ptM

The contrast of a woman in color walking down that grim battlefield spewing hope has got to be one of the greatest movie moments in the superhero genre

               

So up until this point in the movie we have seen Diana become accustomed to and frustrated with Man's world. She's been constantly told by everyone around her that she can't do that and that she can't do this.Like don't go around with a sword and shield in public, or don't go into the war room Diana or we can't help the horses etc... 

Finally she arrives in the trenches of World War I aka "No Man's Land". A Belgian woman who has taken refuge in the ally camp with her baby tells her of  the imprisonment of the village beyond the trenches and pleads for their help. Diana can no longer stand the injustice she sees. She pleads with Steve that they must go and help them. But Steve says that's not what we came there to do and that they have to move on, to keep to their mission. He tells her "This is No Man's Land,  It means that No Man can cross it...........We cannot save everyone in this war, This is not what we came here to do". Now this is where a lesser film would have botched the scene by having Diana say " But I am not a man, you look upon a woman" and have her save the day. Thankfully director Patty Jenkins doesn't go for that.

Diana taking all the enemy fire

               

Instead we have Rupert Gregson-William's score 'No Man's Land' kick in and the scene shifts to a slow mo of Diana putting on the tiara of her aunt Antiope ( who died while saving Diana's life earlier in the movie). Diana turns back to Steve and plainly says " No, But it's what I'm going to do" and to the amazement of the soldiers in the camp she climbs the ladders into No Man's Land as her shield and armor are shown shot by shot as she ascends the steps and finally as the music kicks into a triumphant note we see the reveal of Wonder Woman in her full costume as she walks into No Man's Land. This scene is equivalent to Christopher Reeve revealing the Superman S in the 1978 movie and the "I'm Batman" moment from Batman Begins. It is the moment in which Diana finally becomes the hero that we love. For the movie to work this scene had to work and boy does it work. As she deflects a bullet which is fired by an unseen soldier she deflects all the criticisms and restrictions thrown at her up till that moment. I particularly like the sense of astonishment on Charlie the Scotsman's face. Diana single handedly conquers NML and helps the allies liberate the village. Patty Jenkins didn't have Diana didn't say that she was a woman and there fore could cross a land that no man could, instead Patty showed us Diana crossing No Man's Land without boasting about it. I still can't believe that some idiot executives at warner bros wanted to cut this scene as to them it made no sense. I cannot praise Patty enough for putting her foot down and fighting with the execs to have this scene be in the movie for it is the scene where she finally becomes Wonder Woman. Cutting this would have been equivalent to cutting the previous mentioned scenes from Superman 1978 and Batman Begins from their respective movies.  

Everything from the score to the cinematography to the acting to the production design to the directing completely sells this moment so much that in some screenings people were standing up and cheering.

It has been a long time since a scene from a super hero movie has touched me at such an emotional level. There was no cheap attempts at humor at all and I felt a sense of sincerity to the scene that I hadn't seen in the genre since the first two Sam Raimi Spiderman films and Nolan's first two Batman movies. Diana didn't have any tragic back story to motivate her for her to walk on to that battle field instead she did it because it was just a hero who wanted to help people. Just because she wanted to help people, not because of some angsty internal struggle, but out of love and compassion. Diana herself says later on that "Only love can truly save the world". This movie and scene in particular reminded me why I loved superheroes so much and why I looked up to them as a kid and still do to this very day.