Movies For Women Up Against Many Male Action Films

Cyclones, terrorists and Demi Moore nude. Could there be a bit too much testosterone in Hollywood these days?

Yes, say several filmmakers who consider women a target audience, not just the people tagging dutifully along with moviegoing husbands and boyfriends: A small harvest of new films is aimed at the 51 percent of the population not always served by the typically manly summer movies.

“People in Hollywood say, ‘Girls don’t go see movies,’ so they stop making movies for them. And then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy: Girls don’t go see movies because there aren’t any movies for them,” says Jim McKay, the co-writer and director of the independent movie “Girls Town” (tentative opening Aug. 9), which follows three deeply loyal high-school classmates.

“But I think we underestimate people - and we are constantly underestimating the audience.”

The summer movie avalanche began with two blockbusters - “Twister” and “Mission: Impossible” - stocked with lots of boyish action scenes and little empathetic female characters. Helen Hunt’s starring role in “Twister” is overshadowed by funnel clouds, and Emmanuelle Beart is no more than a benchwarmer in “Mission: Impossible.”

Since all but one of the major studios are run by men, it’s not surprising that most of this summer’s few women-oriented movies come from outside the studio system. Three exceptions are “Moll Flanders,” MGM’s account of a persevering orphan in 18th-century England; “Courage Under Fire” (July 12, sneak preview Saturday in Spokane), 20th Century Fox’s friendly fire drama that puts Meg Ryan in a Gulf War foxhole, and Paramount’s “First Wive’s Club” (July 26), an ensemble story of sarcastic ex-spouses.

“Courage Under Fire,” directed by Ed Swick, explores not only battlefield heroism but also the emerging issue of women in the military (Shannon Faulkner won’t be the last Citadel cadet) and the dynamics of male soldiers under a woman’s command. Co-starring Denzel Washington and featuring plenty of guns and ammo, “Courage Under Fire” will be marketed as a complex story with equal appeal for men and women.

“It’s not a war movie. It’s much more than that,” Zwick says, noting that in early research screenings women “are more connected” to the movie than men.

Pen Densham, who loosely based his film, “Moll Flanders,” on Daniel Defoe’s novel, says he wanted to make a movie in which honesty can be chivalrous, where a difficult life journey can be spiritually uplifting.

Several of the films catering to women examine the real-life trials of adolescence and the promise (and disappointment) of young love. In place of car chases, exploding buildings and male-fantasy seductions, these films are about universal experience, not Y-chromosome pyrotechnics.

The well-observed script for McKay’s “Girls Town” sprung from months of improvisation with young actresses. Writer-director Todd Solondz’s “Welcome to the Dollhouse” portrays a wildly unpopular schoolgirl with you-were-there authenticity. And in the movie version of Joyce Carol Oates “Foxfire” (July 26), five young women discuss their lives and futures with vivid candor.

McKay says Hollywood’s depiction of women never has been more farfetched. “I went to see ‘Mission: Impossible’ and people were laughing when Beart was on screen. You have a hard time believing they are still delivering up these scenarios,” he says.

With most of the production money, media attention and advertising dollars focused on a handful of bullets-and-brawn blockbusters, the smaller films easily can be lost in the chaos. Sometimes, however, moviegoers - especially women - rebel against the Hollywood cause, seeking out those films that run against the summer grain.