Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
(2017)The true story of the women behind the man behind the woman.
Biopic on Dr. William Marston, the psychologist and inventor who created Wonder Woman. Stars Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast), Rebecca Hall (Iron Man 3) and Bella Heathcote (The Neon Demon).... More
The true story of what inspired Harvard psychologist Dr. William Moulton Marston to create the iconic Wonder Woman character in the 1940s. While Marston’s feminist superhero was criticised by censors for her ‘sexual perversity’, he was keeping a secret that could have destroyed him. Marston’s muses for the Wonder Woman character were his wife Elizabeth Marston and their lover Olive Byrne, two empowered women who defied convention: working with Marston on human behaviour research while building a hidden life with him that rivaled the greatest of superhero disguises.Hide
-
Directed by Angela Robinson ('Herbie Fully Loaded', 'D.E.B.S.', TV's 'The L Word')
Starring Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, Connie Britton, Oliver Platt, JJ Feild, Maggie Castle, Allie Gallerani
Written by Angela Robinson
Out Now (On-Demand,
DVD or Blu-Ray)
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 3 providers
Flicks Review
BY Paul Casserly Flicks Writer
The woman next to me, in her early 30s I'd guess, let out such a solid groan about 90 seconds into this bio-pic that I placed a bet that she would be gone within the hour. But like me she stuck it out. Despite the lame score, the often leaden direction and the comic sex scenes, the story of Professor William Marston, his wife Elizabeth Holloway, their lover Olive Byrne, and the resulting creation of the Wonder Woman comic, is utterly fascinating.... More
William and Elizabeth were a formidable team of psychologists with an interest in sexuality, which remarkably leads them to invent the lie-detector, though sadly they forgot to file a patent to cash in. The detector plays a big part in the movie and eventually in the rope that Wonder Woman uses to extract truth from evil doers, but the contraption is a famously blunt tool, and binary answers are the last thing suggested by the material which is complex to say the least.
The trio’s unorthodox relationship (Olive was William’s student) becomes a scandal and they get the boot from academia. The eventual creation of Wonder Woman the comic book, in 1941, has its roots in that relationship and with Marston’s social theories, taste for bondage and desperation to earn a crust. The early frames of the comic are famously raunchy and queer as hell, leading to outrage, censorship and book burnings.
Feminism, fetishism, free love and good old fashioned family dysfunction make for an ambitious undertaking, one which the film ultimately fumbles, rendering the lurid frames of possibility that leap from those early comic pages into something more beige. But what a story.Hide
The Peoples' Reviews
Reviewed & Rated by
Your rating & review
Rate / Review this movieRate and/or review
Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
BY SpikeDog wannabe
BY AliRob nobody
Went along with little real idea of what the movie was about. After the menage a trois nature of the relationship between Professor Marston and his real life wonder women was revealed - some slightly awkward audience moments there! - we found the story itself interesting and entertaining. We now view Wonder Woman in a different light and as more than just a comic book character. Not the greatest movie but certainly not a waste of an evening. Thank you Flicks for the tickets.
BY Sparrow143 nobody
Won a double pass. I found it lightweight, but enjoyable. The girlfriend thought it was a load of .......
BY Allan-Forsyth grader
In matters of factual accuracy the film fails by asserting that Prof. William Marston invented the lie detector when he did not. An early and less successful version of the lie detector or... More polygraph machine was invented by James Mackenzie in 1902. Marston and his wife only came up with the idea of incorporating the systolic blood pressure cuff. However, what is recognised as the modern polygraph machine was invented by John Larson in 1921.
Another key point where the film is incorrect is where it shows Prof. Marston witnessing a comic book burning somewhat reminisant of the book burnings of Fahrenheit 451 when in fact the first comic book burning did not take place until a year after Marston's death.
In an interview William Marston's granddaughter Christie Marston stated that the film is historically inaccurate. She said that the creators of the film did not contact her family and that the "depiction of the family and Wonder Woman's origins are made up".
On the whole however this is an entertaining albeit lightweight movie that in my opinion could have been better researched and presented the subjects in a more favorable light.Hide
BY Jason-Aldous nobody
Showing 5 of 12 reviews. See all reviews
The Press Reviews
Wonder Woman's genesis in bondage play and a willfully naughty attempt to subvert the mainstream deserves a more courageous film than this one, gauzy and overscored. Full Review
This is arguably the phoniest film you'll see all year, marred by clumsy direction, over-obvious acting and a wooden script that skews what was so radical about the thruple's arrangement into something tame and downright boring. Full Review
...uses the template of the traditional biopic to put forward "non-traditional" gender roles... Full Review
You may long for a more disreputable, less buttoned-up telling, but there is something about this one's sleek, streamlined conventionality that feels both appropriate and pleasing. Full Review
This movie spreads an odd pall of sentimentality and period-glow nostalgia over a fascinating real-life story. Full Review
[Professor] Marston [& the Wonder Women] is simply a love letter to the amazing people who inhabit it. Full Review
A sly and thoroughly charming Trojan horse of a movie, "Professor Marston" tells the story of the man who created Wonder Woman and the women who inspired him, both in and out of bed. Full Review
If there's any justice, this perfectly-timed counter-programming to the Amazon Princess' other big screen date will find an audience... Full Review
Care to comment?