‘Taken’: Patriarchal Porn

Okay, let me start by saying I really liked “Taken.”  

If you haven’t seen it, it stars Liam Neeson as an ex CIA badass who has retired so he can be near his teenage daughter. She lives with her mom (Neeson’s ex-wife) and her stepfather, a rich, nice guy who you hate just because he makes Neeson look like a shmo – but not for long! 

Neeson’s daughter is kidnapped by white slavers in Paris and Neeson is very, very serious about getting her back.

You can learn all that from the trailer or the commercial, so I’ll put the real spoilers below the fold. 

Again, I was taken with “Taken,” but you can be sure that some post-modern, critical-whatever-studies types will hate this movie, what with the not-too-subtle “Death Wishy” attacks on non-Americans and the patriarchal revenge fantasy of it all. This is “Thelma and Louise” for fathers. (more…)