Week 7: Creature from the Black Lagoon

This is another film I hadn't seen before this week, and I watched it with my dad and my brother. We had a blast laughing at all the weird things like this shot above (my new favorite) and when the creature first sees the girl swimming, reaching toward her but flinching away as he is enamored by her beauty. After that he decides to snatch her away multiple times anyway. Despite any of that, the girl still looks toward the lagoon with a face that says "I've never felt this way about someone like him before". The sexual tension between the creature and the female protagonist reminds me of the relationship in The Shape of Water minus everything that made it endearing, and that's probably because Creature from the Black Lagoon isn't really about that. As Carol Clover touches on, it's about the men and their grappling with the irrational vs. the rational, or the white science vs. the black magic. Whatever's going between the creature and the girl serves to fulfill the male fantasy of saving the damsel from evil, or from the rival.
Monster aside, the rival scientist makes at least one comment toward the female protagonist. This rival is the main male protagonist's superior, and treats him with little respect when the male protagonist tries to be rational. The rival talks down to him in favor of pursuing the irrational, only thinking of what he can gain from the situation now, while the male protagonist stays rational and tries to focus on escaping and coming back better equipped. As far as saving the girl, it's as if she's being saved both from the monster trying to take her and her own attraction to the monster, like it's the male protagonist's duty to save her from being attracted to the wrong men. I got a bit of a nice guy vibe from male fantasy in this film.