I’ve been very happy about the fact that this year there are several Academy Award-nominated films featuring women who, when faced with adversity, take a never-say-die attitude and give their all.

Not all of them are spies, or assassins. In fact, only one can be considered a government-sanction espionage operative, with a license to kill (okay, to waterboard). But that’s the beauty of the kiss-ass heroine: she doesn’t have to be trained to go the extra mile, Guts are part of her DNA.

If you haven’t seen these three movies, I strongly recommend them. You’ll learn something new; not just about the history in which these incidents took place, but about human nature during the worst of times.

Here’ are three movie heroines who have earned my my respect, and why:

Role: Mary Todd Lincoln
Movie: Lincoln
Actress: Sally Field
(Oscar-nominated for this role)

In Lincoln, the first lady of our great country, circa 1864, must be a pillar of strength for her husband, the president, despite the death of a one of her three sons, her trepidation over the enlistment into the army of another, and the political machinations taking place to ensure the passing of the 13th Amendment.

Best Moment: Really, there are two. In one, Sally Field’s Mary Lincoln makes it clear to her husband that should he push for the 13th Admendment, he better do so prior to the official end of the Civil War, since the odds of it passing with Southerners back in Congress will never happen. When he tells her he has his Secretary of State, William Seward, is doing all he can,Mother Tiger Mary retorts, “Seward can’t do it; you must. Because if you fail to acquire the necessary votes, woe unto you, sir. You will answer to me.”

In another, while welcoming him to a reception, Mary takes on Tommy Lee Jones’ Thaddeus Stevens (R.PA) to task for a snarky remark about the elegance of the White House by reminding him that the White House had mold hanging from the ceiling when she moved in.

Best Quote:(Mary to Abe): “You think I’m ignorant of what you’re up to because you haven’t discussed this scheme with me as you ought to have done? When have I ever been so easily bamboozled? I believe you when you insist that amending the Constitution and abolishing slavery will end this war. And since you’re sending my son into the war, woe to you if you fail to pass the amendment.”

Photo courtesy of Dreamworks Pictures

 

Role: Maya
Movie: Zero Dark Thirty
Actress Jessica Chastain
(Oscar-nominated for this role)

Recruited right out of high school into the CIA, Maya (no last name) is sent to Pakistan and put on the team assigned to finding Osama bin Laden. It becomes the driving force of her life. And yes, she succeeds.

Best Moments: The first takes place at CIA Headquarters, when attending her first formal meeting with CIA Director Leon Panetta, when he’s being briefed on the theory that Osama bin Laden is hiding in a suburban neighborhood in Abbottabad, Pakistan. He dismisses her as “the girl” in the room (she is the only female), but when he asks, who was the m*th*rf*ck*r who came up with the theory, she pipes up:  ”I’m the m*th*rf*ck*r who found this place, sir!” 

In another scene, while everyone else hedges their bets as 40-60 percent that Osama bin Laden is indeed inside the compound, Maya is emphatic that “It’s 100 percent. I know certainty freaks you guys out, but it’s 100.”

Best Quote (Maya, to a group of smart-ass Navy Seal Team 6 members): “ Quite frankly, I didn’t even want to use you guys, with your dip and velcro and all your gear bullshit. I wanted to drop a bomb. But people didn’t believe in this lead enough to drop a bomb. So they’re using you guys as canaries. And, in theory, if bin Laden isn’t there, you can sneak away and no one will be the wiser. But bin Laden is there. And you’re going to kill him for me.”

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures


Role: Hushpuppy
Movie: Beasts of the Southern Wild
Actress: Quvenzhane Wallis
(Oscar-nominated for this role)

A series of tragedies–including a dying father, a devastating fire, and a broken levee that wipes out “the Bathtub”, the bayou where she lives–leaves a six-year-old homeless, and in search of the mother she never knew.

Best Moment: After listening to her father’s last breath leave his body, Hushpuppy sets his funeral pyre adrift in the Mississippi Delta, as he requested.

Best Quote: “When it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me lying around in invisible pieces. When I look too hard, it goes away. And when it all goes quiet, I see they are right here. I see that I’m a little piece in a big, big universe. And that makes things right. When I die, the scientists of the future, they’re gonna find it all. They gonna know, once there was a Hushpuppy, and she live with her daddy in the Bathtub.”

Photo courtesy of Cinereach Pictures

Would you agree with this line-up?
Is there another movie with a kick-ass heroine
I may have missed?
Put forth your nomination!