Orethapedia

I will fight, for those who can not fight for themselves.- Diana Prince

I was a Wonder Woman fan when I was a little girl. If you were a child of the 1970’s, you had Isis and Wonder Woman to inspire. Up until today, I had managed to avoid any hype that surrounded the film.

The film tells the story  of Diana before she was Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). The story kicks off when she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior.

Raised on a sheltered island paradise, Diana meets an American pilot (Chris Pine) who tells her about the massive conflict that’s raging in the outside world. Convinced that she can stop the threat, Diana leaves her home for the first time.

Fighting alongside men in a war to end all wars, she finally discovers her full powers and true destiny.The film kicks off with Diana’s mother telling the story of mankind’s fall  from civility. This scene  leads to the challenges of a young woman growing up and being trained. It isn’t too soon after when we meet Chris Pine’s character Steve Trevor at the ultimate hopeless moment of his life.

The film revisits the the theme of hope, suffering and justice in an honest way. Suffering, pain, and loss are a part of every human life. We experience minor setbacks and major ones. Some of us experience catastrophic events in which all hope appears extinguished.  Diana and Steve meet the human condition in the most depraved of situations. They meet victims of war. It is often those who live with, see and experience war that lose hope. Steve Trevor wants justice and lives with a burning hope that he can save the world. 

As I have said over and over, faith, hope, and love are theological virtues, gifts given by God to help us in our journey to heaven where alone we can find perfect happiness. They are called “theological” because they are received as gifts through God’s power (as opposed to acquired virtues attained through human effort) and because they focus in distinct ways on God himself.

Suffering, pain, and loss are a part of every human life. We experience minor setbacks and major ones. Some of us experience catastrophic events in which all hope appears extinguished. When we meet Diana she is  reflecting on a photo and you the viewer will be taken on a journey with her through suffering, pain and loss in the harshest of reality. She lands in the struggle of war. In particular Diana’s pursuit ties into World War 2. The Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945.It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of “total war”, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust (in which approximately 11 million people were killed) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres (in which approximately one million were killed, and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.

The film’s producers make the viewers aware of the high stakes without saying it. Diana Prince delivers the edict that is a command as much as it is a promise. She affirms, ‘It is our sacred duty to defend the world. And it is what I am going to do.’

Wonder Woman  also places a mirror  on Christian hope having been replaced by secular ideas of progress achieved through technology. The film introduces the theory of evil in a tangible way that is not cartoonish. We have all witnessed the way in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed become a terrifying progress in evil. The evil villains are introduced in the form of a German general (Danny Huston) and his evil scientist henchwoman (Elena Anaya). The implication of vanity and addiction are introduced head on and you see it in the most uncomfortable of ways. Technological progress certainly can improve human lives but more than that is needed to make life truly worth living.

The film for me was a quick two hours and twenty minutes of engaged high thought. The film has no vile language or gratuitous sex.  There is a  humorous discussion of marriage and sex that happens early on in the film that will give adults a chuckle.

The action is fun!  The only downer for me was that I had wished she was a tad more American in theme and costume.  Otherwise, I think this was a great prequel, film and  a wonderful moral tale.

Here is a taste: