I finished watching She, a 1984 Italian-made post-apocalyptic film about a violent she-goddess who gets captured by two man-slaves—then go on the lam.

And the whole thing was inexplicable. None of the motivations of these characters made sense. Everyone is horrible. I wish everyone in this film died.

So I had to figure out why this film got made.

As it turns out, it’s based on a 19th century novel entitled She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard. And that book is even more bonkers than the movie I just watched.

The plot is probably the most misogynist and racist I’ve ever encountered. In the original book, the she-goddess is a white goddess of an African tribe. And this book has downright Social Darwinist themes too.

Wildly, this novel has never been out of print. It still has a fanbase and you can buy it on Amazon.

Now compared to the book, the movie is downright saintly—but not by much. Sure, the racism is gone. But the misogyny? That’s preserved.

It’s clear to me, even after the BDSM subtext is removed, that the “heroes” are rapists. So if you’ve experienced any of that trauma, you should probably not watch the movie.

I don’t recommend She. It does have its laugh out loud moments—more for how inept this whole movie is than anything intentional. But it’s a terrible movie based on an even worse book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She:_A_History_of_Adventure

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