can’t stop thinking about the fact that phoenix, as a female character, is not once used as a emotional wayfinder for rooster or the audience. i’m not yet over how damn COMPELLING it is as a facet of her character.
so phoenix is presented from the off as someone with an obvious close connection with rooster, and through her perspective we see bits of their history - deadpanning him when she nails him with the pool cue because he didn’t tell her he was stateside (and she’s not angry or disappointed, she clearly didn’t expect him to); how she gets out of the way for rooster and hangman to face off (she’s knows what’s coming but also that it’s not her fight); the way her face lights up when rooster sits at the piano (because she knows him well enough to know what makes him happy and how he expresses it).
these moments all tell us things about phoenix and rooster’s friendship, but none of it serves to solve rooster’s problems or help him work through his emotions. phoenix never steps into that role. you could argue she gets close when rooster admits to her that mav pulled his papers, but even then phoenix doesn’t sympathise or validate rooster’s anger. she pauses, considers, and only asks “why would he do that?” - the one question rooster should be asking but doesn’t, the one his anger’s been pushing him away from for years.
and i just love that. phoenix isn’t there as a character to serve others, she isn’t a woman that exists to push forward the arc of a male protagonist. she’s there as the architect of the web that pulls all of these pilots and their shared histories together. she’s there to show how friendships can be deep and sustained and caring without being emotionally crippling. she’s there to show that knowing a person isn’t the same as understanding them. she doesn’t know rooster fully, but kneeling on the tarmac she understands him better than anyone in the world.
to illustrate my point by comparison, think about penny. to mav she’s a reminder of the past (one he’s constantly wrestling with because he can’t forgive himself for what’s happened, whether he’s earned the blame or not.) she steers him back towards what’s important and inspires his action when he has a crisis of confidence after cyclone pulls him out of the programme. the grand goodbye before mav goes on the mission in his dress whites with the cavernous black sea behind them is the cinematic equivalent of holding up a sign to the audience that says ‘you should be sad and worried! this little man’s in danger! hope you left room for catharsis after dinner.’
now i’m not saying one is better than the other (i stan penny and will hear nothing bad about her.) both characters serve purposes in the narrative that progress the plot. all i am saying is that it would have been so easy for the writers to write phoenix as that feminine emotional touchpoint for rooster and the audience. they could have inserted a scene after rooster and hangman’s fight where rooster starts to sift through his complex emotions about mav and his dad with her. they could have had a shot of her flying back looking distraught after rooster goes back for mav. what they did instead; in making her the connective glue of the group, using her to colour in their unseen past relationships and dynamics; is force rooster’s arc to come from within. and i’m telling you, the entire freaking movie is stronger for it.
so yeah. i really love phoenix. can you tell?
