The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo ( Arden Oplev, 2009)

The Original title translated  into 'the man who hated women'. And I think this is a very appropriate title due to the treatment of women within the film.

For Example Harriet, is the epitome of innocence; she has blonde hair, blue eyes and is a genuinely good-hearted person who is her Uncle's favourite. However she is raped by her father from the age of fourteen and then by her brother. To escape this she makes herself invisible and disappears to the other side of the world.

 Lisbeth is the complete opposite to Harriet, she is damaged and this has made her into the person she is when we meet her in the film. Lisbeth's appearance contrasts greatly with Harriets she has short black hair, lots of piercings, wears jeans and a hoodie and rides a motorcycle. These are all very masculine qualities but they also make her strong as Harriet is much weaker than Lisbeth in some ways as Lisbeth is a fighter and incredibly smart.

In some ways Lisbeth and Blomkvist have swapped roles as Lisbeth has very masculine qualities where as Blomkvist is a family orientated person and at the beginning he is seen to be cooking with a little girl this is stereo-typically a woman's role. 

There are three scenes imparticular which I feel add to the empowerment of women and in-particular the empowerment of Lisbeth:

1. The Rape Scene: This scene is obviously horrendous and show's the degradation of women but like in most films that show the empowerment of women Lisbeth is degraded to the worst possible point before becoming empowered. Similarly in the scene in the Train Station where she is attacked by a group of men for no reason other than the way she looks this show's her degradation by men as if she had not been beaten up by those men her laptop would not have been broken and she would not have been raped. Throughout the whole film men are to blame for not only Lisbeth's but also Harriets and the other female Victims degradation and abuse. The sound, camera angles and lighting in this scene make it even harder to watch and highlight how helpless Lisbeth is at this point in the movie. The camera angles in this scene are very important as Oplev uses a close up of Lisbeth and we can see the torture and pain she is going through, though similarly we can see the pleasure her rapist is having adding to the disgust of the scene. The scene uses very low key lighting this adds to the feeling that Lisbeth is trapped and also as soon as she enters the apartment you know something bad is going to happen due to the lighting. The only sound in the scene is the diegetic sound of Lisbeth's screams this is a very haunting sound and is what makes the scene so unbearable.
2. The Revenge Scene: Lisbeth is a fighter and incredibly smart. She gets her own back on Bjurman but she does it in a smart way, she know's that after this he will never be able to touch her or any other girl again. For her this is the most empowering moment in the film. As I've said she is incredibly smart and courageous as she films her own rape and then uses this against her rapist. She is brutal to him and treats him the way he treated her. She uses his own weapons against him and then forces him to watch the rape scene before finally tattooing on to him " I am a sadistic pig, a pervert and a rapist" she inflicts the pain on to him she felt and leaves a permanent mark on him a scar just like he has scared her. Not only does Lisbeth become empowered through her revenge but she also takes back control of her life as she blackmails him with the footage so that she can take back ownership of her bank accounts, he has no choice in this as she has the footage. She uses the worst moment in her life to change her future. She is incredibly strong. The camera angles in this scene are the same as when Lisbeth is raped this highlights how the tables have turned for Lisbeth as she is no longer the victim. Oplev uses a close up of Bjurman so that we can see his terror and fear however we can feel no sympathy for him due what he has done, instead we end up feeling satisfied and proud of Lisbeth.
3. The death of Martin: I feel this is the scene that truly empowers all the women in the film not just Lisbeth. Martin is a sick sadist who enjoys raping, torturing and murdering women simply because he finds it fun. When Lisbeth and Mikael realsie that Martin is the one who is behind countless murders Martin drugs Mikael and ties him up. When Mikael is questioning him on why he did it Martin simply respond by saying it is what all men want, to be able to do whatever they want and take whatever they want to women, he also says that his favourite moment is watching the hope in the girls eyes fade away when they realise they are going to die.  Lisbeth has the choice she could save Martin or she could watch him burn to death. She chooses to let him die. Oplev use shot reverse shot in this scene very effectively. Martin is begging for his life just like he watched all of his victims beg for theirs but instead he is the 'victim' and Lisbeth has the choice, and you see his hope fade as Lisbeth walks away from the car and it catches on fire. We also see flashbacks to when she was a child and she set's a man on fire who later, it is alluded too is her father who abused her mother to the point where she had to go in to a psychiatric hospital. She is taking revenge not only for the women who Martin murdered but also for her mother and herself.

Although you know on a subconcious level as the audience that what Lisbeth is doing is wrong whilst you are watching the film you do not recognise this.