DROPPEDIT'S ONE-SHOE SCENES IN MOVIES AND TV

April 18, 2009 7:27 AM

Women losing their shoes, mostly high heels, appear to be a common theme in movies and TV serials... This list one is the first, consisting of what I term “Prime” shoe loss scenes...

...This category is different from "Prime" List because: the female character slipped her shoe off on purpose; or the errant shoe is readily recoverable or carried in hand; or she removes the remaining shoe and continues barefoot; or the loss is a result of or accompanied by editing flops and inconsistencies in the movie; or the female character is already dead; or the dose of realism is low (such as twisted Cinderella theme, fairy tales), and so on.

posted by fearfulsymmetry (48 comments total)

There is nothing, no matter how banal, that someone, somewhere, doesn't fetishize and spend hours categorizing.
posted by Forktine at 7:48 AM on April 18, 2009 [2 favorites]

Well, let's hope they don't go jumping off of bridges about it...
posted by Avelwood at 7:49 AM on April 18, 2009

Alien (1979) : At the very end, the character played by Sigourney Waiwer kicks off the space monster into the space through the spaceship's hangar door, and one of her rubber shoes is sucked away as well.

If he says so.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:53 AM on April 18, 2009

Kim Bassinger was in Batman 1989, not Batman Returns. I don't know if I can forgive this mistake.
posted by inconsequentialist at 7:59 AM on April 18, 2009

This is what gives me hope for mankind.
posted by srboisvert at 8:06 AM on April 18, 2009

The one-shoe bit doesn't just play to the fetish boys: running in heels and losing one is the easy film sign of transformation from hot chick going about her business with deliberation to hot chick running for her life with desperation. Once the first shoe is off and she daren't turn back for it, she knows and you know that it's crazy time, time to abandon the other half of her favorite shoes and scamper like fuck, stalking feet after stocking feet. The next standard sign is her tripping over something (logs are good but she'll trip at the drop of a hat) and sprawling on the ground while the predator continues to lurch closer. She's out of her element and he's elemental.
posted by pracowity at 8:10 AM on April 18, 2009 [15 favorites]

She's also literally losing the veneer of civilization.
posted by DU at 8:41 AM on April 18, 2009 [3 favorites]

Banal? batshitinsane? Really? Did people forget Rule 34? This is no more banal than a list of topless scenes, it just caters to a different crowd.
posted by StrikeTheViol at 8:54 AM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Maybe there is a tiny sadistic element to it: the female lead is being knocked from her privileged perch.
posted by Saddo at 9:13 AM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Kim Bassinger was in Batman 1989, not Batman Returns. I don't know if I can forgive this mistake.

Not to mention the extra D they tacked on to C.H.U.D.

It's Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, Dipshit
posted by mannequito at 9:14 AM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Pracowity, more sinisterly, it is the signal to the audience that women are incompetent at saving themselves or others and need saving by The Hero. See also "bad guy takes gun away from trembling woman/woman is unable to shoot him due to her weak womanly mind" etc. etc. See ladies, even if you have a gun, you are too weak to use it! Only someone with a penis can pull the trigger!

I cannot tell you, as a woman, how much I loved Sarah Connor in Terminator II for this reason. Even though Arnold got to actually push the evil Terminator into the molten metal, Linda Hamilton was one of the very very few female badasses out there for women to identify with. Note that she didn't wear heels either. The movie also pointed out that she was pretty weak and screamy in the first one, but had to toughen up to fight the apocalypse. So awesome.

Ripley was great too (and Sigourney Weaver always looks like a badass), although I don't really like the Alien series otherwise.

Buffy was kind of interesting in this context, in that without her special powers, she would never have been able to kick so much butt, being so wee, without a lot of weaponry.
posted by emjaybee at 9:18 AM on April 18, 2009 [7 favorites]

pracowity: " The next standard sign is her tripping over something... ."

Sorry for the derail but this is one of those annoyances too intense to suffer in silence... Can someone explain why we're supposed to be charmed or amused by seeing the female lead fall on her ass in each and every romantic comedy? Is her incompetence supposed to trigger our nurturing instinct or something? /hate
posted by Joe Beese at 9:22 AM on April 18, 2009

Joe, I have heard (actually funny) female actors remark that instead of hiring funny women for comedy, directors often hire pretty women and just have them fall down a lot. Plus Christopher Hitchens already told us that women can't be funny anyway, you know!

/derail
posted by emjaybee at 9:27 AM on April 18, 2009

It's because many directors hire actresses that they want to, or think the audience, will want to fuck, rather than enjoy their skills as a comedian. Pretty people are not often funny; they don't need to be.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:56 AM on April 18, 2009

I took lots of pictures when we visited the Vatican in Rome a few years ago. This one is my favourite.
posted by chococat at 10:02 AM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Roy Batty: Questions... Morphology? Longevity? Incept dates?

Jimmy Choo: Don't know, I don't know such stuff. I just do shoes, ju-, ju-, just shoes... just footwear design, just shoes. You Nexus, huh? I design your shoes.

Roy Batty: Choo, if only you could see what I've seen with your shoes!
posted by grounded at 10:29 AM on April 18, 2009 [3 favorites]

Wouldn't all shoe loss scenes be prime, unless you've got a Centaur or multiple heroines? Personally, I'm not all that into the idea of a Centaur in heels.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:48 AM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

it is the signal to the audience that women are incompetent at saving themselves or others and need saving by The Hero.

Holy cow! People can have very specific fetishes and detail them on the internet!?! Other people can take offense at those same fetishes!?! Discuss it if you must, but the author probably didn't submit this post and probably isn't using a geocities page force a viewpoint on the rest of the world. Everyone has a fetish, even if your fetish is not having a fetish (and all the recursive bull that sentence can bring up). It's a fetish site on the internet.
posted by Science! at 11:15 AM on April 18, 2009

Pracowity, more sinisterly, it is the signal to the audience that women are incompetent at saving themselves or others

I thought it was the symbolizing of the beginning of a transformation where women cast off their oppressive footwear that serves only as a tool of presentation to the male gaze and begin to rely more fully on their innate capacities as women.
posted by namespan at 11:50 AM on April 18, 2009 [4 favorites]

I wonder why this isn't on the list.
posted by MrBadExample at 12:10 PM on April 18, 2009 [2 favorites]

Joe, I have heard (actually funny) female actors remark that instead of hiring funny women for comedy, directors often hire pretty women and just have them fall down a lot.

That could explain this.
posted by iviken at 12:12 PM on April 18, 2009

Joe, I have heard (actually funny) female actors remark that instead of hiring funny women for comedy, directors often hire pretty women and just have them fall down a lot.

Uh, source?

I've been in casting conversations. There are usually three pieces to evaluate: cost, talent, and worth. If they're part of the conversation, they've already proven themselves to be attractive enough for audiences to stare at for two hours. Here are some actresses over the last fifteen years who qualify as romantic comedy leads: Anne Hatheway, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Kate Hudson, Katherine Heigl, Ashley Judd, Renée Zellweger, Drew Barrymore, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez... I could go on. Of those, I'd say J Lo is probably the only one who's lost her ability to give a decent line reading. I'll take ANY of those other actresses, though, over the 'actually funny' ones. Playing the romantic comedy lead requires some deft and intricate talent, and it has to do with a LOT more than a) being funny or b) being hot.

I'd also love to know who the 'actually funny' (as in, you can't be pretty AND funny?) female actors are, because I bet they don't actually say that.
posted by incessant at 12:35 PM on April 18, 2009

Oh, and just to keep this vaguely on topic, I'm going to start incorporating this 'dropped shoe' thing into everything I write now. Not as a method of keying to the audience transformation or fragility, but just to blow DROPPEDIT's mind.
posted by incessant at 12:38 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Eponysterical.
posted by roll truck roll at 1:31 PM on April 18, 2009

I'm just glad he mentions the Out-Of-Towners. Great movie, and the scene where they argue over her broken heel is a classic bit. It was also the stylistic precursor to Scorsese's often-overlooked black comedy After Hours.
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:43 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Losing shoes is a central element of The Kids in the Hall skit about zombies.
posted by furtive at 3:36 PM on April 18, 2009

Ha, incessant, this wasn't in People, I was referring to (struggling, still no-name) actresses whose blogs I once followed; pamie.com might have been one, but it was several years ago.

And none of those ladies you listed are really particularly funny. Nice enough types, just...not funny. In most of their movies they just fall/drop things a lot when "funny" is called for. Julia Roberts occasionally gets a good line (Steel Magnolias--but then, she was actually the least funny woman in that movie!) Darryl Hannah got to be funny in that movie too, but mostly with a lot of awkward clothing/glasses on.

Lily Tomlin is funny as hell, but not really "pretty" though not unattractive. Carol Burnett, ditto. Of the younger crop, it's hard to think of an actress who has really shone in a comedic role lately, and not as "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" but as actually someone with killer lines and delivery. But then, how many roles like that are actually available that aren't Quirky Small Town Friend?

Gonna stop my massive derail now...and to each their own fetish.
posted by emjaybee at 3:51 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Of the younger crop, it's hard to think of an actress who has really shone in a comedic role lately,

Anna Faris?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:11 PM on April 18, 2009

Oh, Anna Faris...when will you fire your agent?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:34 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Of the younger crop, it's hard to think of an actress who has really shone in a comedic role lately,

Tina Fey? Tho she's on the teevee. Her movie work is ...wanting.
posted by The Whelk at 4:47 PM on April 18, 2009

emjaybee it's hard to think of an actress who has really shone in a comedic role lately, and not as "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" but as actually someone with killer lines and delivery.
Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada".

And none of those ladies you listed are really particularly funny.
I'm sure I could name at least two 3-star or better comedy movies for each of those actresses listed above, but treating this as a question along the lines of "are women as funny as men", I think it's more about the scripts and the believability of the characters in their roles, rather than a socially-predetermined gender divide on humor. Killer lines are at least as much the work of the scriptwriter as the cast, unless there's a significant improv element. Killer delivery is more about the actor's skill, but even there, the director and fellow actors deserve some of the credit.

If you want good examples of killer lines and delivery from actresses, look to TV series. Just glancing through my own collection I could find dozens of TV comedy series with important female characters who are sources of comedy rather than objects of comedy: Daria, Keeping Up Appearances, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Wonderfalls, Seinfeld, and so on. Also, plenty of TV series that are to some extent comedy and to some extent drama or action or tragedy, have the comedy elements driven by female characters: Buffy or Six Feet Under (in which Brenda, Claire, Ruth and Margaret all get "killer lines").
posted by aeschenkarnos at 4:54 PM on April 18, 2009

If you want good examples of killer lines and delivery from actresses, look to TV series.

Yeah, like all those modelesque detectives & forensic scientists in CSI-style shows. I piss myself laughing whenever one of them says "there are traces of barium hydroxyphenylbutylsulfite here...that's a substance used for lubricating the necks of laughing clowns in sideshow alleys - our killer is probably a carny. Has there been a circus in town recently?"

How they manage such perfect deadpan delivery is beyond me.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:47 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

She's also literally losing the veneer of civilization.

No, she's not. "Veneer of civilisation" is figurative.

You cannot literally figuratively do something.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:51 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

unless her shoes are made of veneer
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:51 PM on April 18, 2009

it's figurative anyway - the shoe is a synechdoche of civilisation
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:57 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Buffy was kind of interesting in this context

The reason I don't get all the Whedon Love is that Buffy is barely a heroine. Sure, she kills monsters. But SO MUCH whining, angst and "look at me pouting everyone!!!". Modulo a little kicking and punching, you could hardly create a more stereotypically negative female character if you tried.
posted by DU at 6:25 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Betonski Clovek (Concrete Man): In this 1995 short film (16mm) from Slovakia, Judita Zidar’s pump is stuck in the concrete in the middle of the city. She is impatient to retrieve it, but a string of unexpected events prevent her from finding her lost shoe. At the end of the movie she finds the shoe, which has by now lost its role as the primary motive for her search. Contributed by "Kinja".

say what you will...this is one well-researched list.
posted by CitizenD at 6:40 PM on April 18, 2009

You cannot literally figuratively do something.

I literally laughed my ass off at that.



have you seen it?
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:45 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

NM, it was over here by these women's shoes.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:45 PM on April 18, 2009

No, she's not. "Veneer of civilisation" is figurative.

But she is literally losing something. That something represents the veneer of civilization and so it is figurative. But you can have a literal loss of a figurative object just like you can have real music in a fictional setting. Is the music fictional? No.
posted by DU at 7:24 PM on April 18, 2009

Can someone explain why we're supposed to be charmed or amused by seeing the female lead fall on her ass in each and every romantic comedy?

Because the target audience for these films are women, and they need a "she's just like me" hook to allow the audience to identify with her.

This is true in nearly every movie genre.

The closest thing you'll get to a truly male-oriented rom-com is a teenage sex comedy, and there, the lead teenage male is always shown to be either a outright dork, a dweeb, or at the very least, he's not like the other guys (e.g. he's Lloyd Dobler ... or he's Chris Klein in American Pie, the star lacrosse player shown to have a secret singing talent). Again, this is to allow teenage boys to identify with these characters.

The opposite is the wish-fulfillment model, where the character in question is shown to be near-perfect and unassailable. James Bond, or Sharon Stone's character from Basic Instinct.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:47 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

(in which Brenda, Claire, Ruth and Margaret all get "killer lines").

Once I realized that everyone is unpleasant and horrible, Six Feet under became much more enjoyable. Even Ruth is seriously fucking with people for sadistic fun.

But SO MUCH whining, angst and "look at me pouting everyone!!!". Modulo a little kicking and punching,

Eh, I kind of liked that. I think part it was the ...limitations of SMG as an actress, and the whole "Take teenage drama and make it as big as it feels" thing. You know, if Buffy isn't having an emotional breakdown you don't have an episode, thing. I liked an action hero who didn't like being an action hero and kept breaking down cause they're fucking 17 and Things Are Fucked Up. Espically since we had a bunch of go-to rock characters for stability and kickassness. It was nice to see the whole "Being a Superhero means you're always kinda crazy and werid-ass" thing.

But I also think it was used as a crutch (Insert Buffy Cry!) for lazy writing. And dear god not every episode is gold.
posted by The Whelk at 10:44 PM on April 18, 2009

But she is literally losing something.

yes. she is literally losing a shoe.

figuratively, she is losing "the veneer of civilisation", which itself is figurative.

so it's actually metafigurative. how you can claim that is in any way literal is literally beyond the furthest reaches of imagination.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:49 PM on April 18, 2009

have you seen it?

i have it right here, on a platter.

would you like me to hand it to you?
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:53 PM on April 18, 2009

Anna Farris is great in that one movie where she plays a ditzy airhead!

...Meryl Streep is part of the younger crop actors?
posted by P.o.B. at 11:06 PM on April 18, 2009

It's a bit chaste for a fetish site.

well, it's no Car Stuck Girls.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:41 PM on April 18, 2009

*snerk* This kind of thing actually got turned into a throwaway sight gag in an X-Files episode. One of the ones Duchovny wrote -- it was the one where Mulder and Scully end up consulting a filmmaker about a movie based on an X-File. It's in the scene where "Mulder and Scully" actually meet "the actors playing themselves" (Tea Leoni and Garry Shandling), and each character is asked a question by his/her doppelganger.

Tea Leoni asks Scully "so, they've got me in these heels -- are you seriously able to run in these things?" And Scully says "sure, let me show you..." as Garry Shandling draws Mulder into another conversation -- and for the rest of the scene, as Garry Shandling is asking Mulder some serious questions, Scully is in the background sprinting back and forth in stillettos as Tea Leoni looks on curiously.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:51 AM on April 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

It seems unrealistic to actually limp around one-shoed - surely in reality most women would be more comfortable just kicking off the other shoe and going barefoot?

I aw a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream once in which Helena lost a shoe and went around one-shoed for basically the rest of the production. It seemed like a lazy way of saying "Hey look Helena is sort of gawky and awkward, whereas Hermia is beautiful and confident." It was really sort of distracting and the only thing I remember about the actress's performance.

A year or so later the school drama club put on the play and in auditions one girl (who ended up getting the part) did the exact same damn thing, which I suppose seemed funny to the director, but everyone else was like, "Dude, we know where you got that. We were all there, and it really wasn't that clever the first time."
posted by naoko at 6:55 PM on April 20, 2009 [1 favorite]