Way back on the seventies, even before the first Star Wars movie came out, Laura Mulvey, feminist film theorist published her work “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. In it, she explained, according to Freudian theory, the two pleasures from cinema come from 1) identifying yourself in the story to forget about life for a while, and 2) enjoy looking at visually appealing images and people. Because the industry was entirely controlled by straight white men, though, they inherently filled the first niche with people like them and the second one with objectified and sexualized women, especially there solely for the enjoyment of the male gaze.
Left without lead characters to identify with, minorities —what an ugly and deceiving word when they amount for the majority of people in the world— had to desperately search for themselves in background characters. A big part of the fandom consists of women, people of color, queer or with disabilities, latching on to the few characters they could find representation in. They get attached to this characters, love them like part of their own family and friends, because they provide something that is so rare to them in mass media: a voice.
One can only imagine what it is like to be a straight white male. To go to the movies, enjoy the story fully, and then leave without the necessity to form any kind of emotional attachment to the characters. Why would they? They will find themselves perfectly represented all over again in the next movie they decide to watch, whichever it might be, and the next one, and the next one. Representation to them is not a luxury, it’s a given right.
Seeing this, it’s no wonder how confused and scared straight white males are, now that they can’t find themselves leading the charge of the new Star Wars franchise. Two movies in a row they’ve had to sit on that theater and face the minority’s reality, facing a situation that is so unlike anything their psyche is used to they react like wounded animals, with a primal fear of being erased from a narrative they are sure to own.
The best part is, for the first time, they are so desperate to find themselves that, like lost children in the dark, they have latched themselves to the one character that has given them a chance at representation: Kylo Ren. They have projected on him their airs of grandeur, blind expectative of an easy redemption and even the misguided self-assurance that, in the end, he will be the ‘true hero’ —instead of the women and people of color who are actually fighting evil in the story. Inadvertently, though, they have willingly chosen to self identify with the most annoying, manipulative, mediocre, unbelievably self-righteous and unbearably whinny fuck-boy this franchise has ever created.
Though, looking at their reactions and comments online, they might not be too far off on that one.
I’m going to explain why one scene that they chose to remove actually puts the whole movie in perspective and answers a lot of questions fans had about the final cut.
Obviously this is definitely going to spoil you and I can list about 100 different trigger warnings so unless you have seen the movie and are prepared to deal with the same themes, don’t read on.
Cancer World Tour
We see in what makes the final cut of the film that Vanessa is desperate to find a cure for Wade’s cancer and in the edited scene called “Cancer World Tour” she does just as he predicts, drags him around the world trying every cure.
As always Wade narrates the scene so he informs us that they have been all of the world and have already tried everything and now they were at rock bottom, in a very unlikely clinic in Guadalajara Mexico.
Wade has given up long ago but is keeping that to himself, spending the rest of his very short life indulging Vanessa in the fantasy that he can be cured.
He is in a waiting room bitterly observing the other hopeless patients indulging their own love ones, or perhaps even themselves, and he visibly has a hard time keeping his anger and sadness to himself.
Wade listens in as a mother tries to pay for her young son’s treatment and the nurse very coldly insists she won’t take any pesos, everything has to be in American cash. The little boy reaches for a sucker and the nurse says it will cost extra. Wade quickly puts his own cash on the desk, saying it’s on him.
Something is still bothering him. Wade watches the young boy sit as an older gentleman Wade himself was talking to earlier gets up to go in for his own appointment. Wade tells us in a voice over how he is at the end of his rope. He will indulge Vanessa, he will spend all the money that is needed to do so, but he can’t watch more of these innocent people being screwed over.
Wade sneaks into the operating room to observe that what is going on is that this miracle cure is not a miracle nor a cure. I don’t know exactly how much a layperson may understand this particular treatment by what they filmed so I’m going to explain in a bit more detail: this is an actual treatment that is offered for a great amount of money and the practitioner promises that they will remove your cancer without putting you under anesthesia or even cutting you open; they will somehow reach in and pull it out of you. The stomach is pressed upon by the practitioner and with sleight-of-hand they produced a bit of animal organ, presenting it as the removed cancer. There is a bit of blood but no incision, they claim to have healed that as well.
Wade waits secretly as the the older gentleman, relieved to have been cured, leaves the room and then he enters to confront the practitioner. Wade dryly remarks that the bucket of removed tumors smells like chicken, the practitioner reaches for a scalpel to defend himself, Wade has already taken it.
Wade loses it. He viciously beats and stabs the man. No fancy choreography, no clever banter. Wade gruesomely murders this man with his own two hands and blood is everywhere. The staff and waiting room rush in to see what is happened and Vanessa is among them.
Wade, in excruciating emotional pain, realizes what has happened. Vanessa is watching. This wasn’t a job and it wasn’t done efficiently. He isn’t being a mercenary, he’s being a murderer, is becoming what we will call Deadpool.
Fleeing, Wade runs away and leaves Vanessa to desperately scream in search for him to no avail. He is gone.
I don’t know why this scene wouldn’t of been included in the final cut. To me it solves a lot of issues that people have had with the characterization of both Wade and Vanessa.
Many reviewers asked why, despite the fact that Wade obviously was upset and beginning to show signs of mental illness, he couldn’t just go back to Vanessa and let her see his scars. She certainly didn’t come off as the type of character who would judge him for the way he looked but that wasn’t it. Wade is reluctant to show her what he looks like now, of course, but most of the reluctance comes from the fact that she has already seen a little bit of what he has become inside and that’s a completely different story. Vanessa fell in love with a different man, a man who killed people but wasn’t violent, wasn’t unhinged.
Maybe more importantly it gives the ending an entirely different tone. It’s not the happy ending it appears. Vanessa forgives Wade and despite his warning she is in Deadpool’s arms, not really understanding that Wade is gone. Deadpool very canonically gives into the bit of hope that it might be okay, someone might actually love him.
But what happens next? Vanessa is now going to meet Deadpool and realize that she has to again mourn the loss of Wade who she believes has come back from the dead. Will she love this new man? Should she? Is she safe to be with him?
Your feelings for Deadpool aside, try to imagine what Vanessa is walking into. Wade would never hurt her but Deadpool is not Wade and sometimes Deadpool is not even Deadpool. Sometimes this body is overtaken with pain and hallucinations. If Wade can viciously beat and stab a man to death when he disassociates, what does Deadpool do when he disassociates?
kototyph 