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With friends like these....

© By Amanda Cuda

Movies about male friendships abound. For nearly an situation, there is a corresponding male buddy picture. You have men in prison (The Shawshank Redemption), men on the run (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) men in war (M.A.S.H.), men in a state of confusion (Dumb and Dumber), men in the buff (The Full Monty), men in planes (Top Gun) and countless other combos. However, movies about friendships between women lack that diversity. It's not that female buddy movies don't exist. It's just that -- with the notable exception of Thelma and Louise -- they're all pretty much the same and usually fall into one of two categories. Either the friends in question are two women from different worlds who forge a bond despite their differences or they're a group of women facing a variety of tragicomic challenges and leaning on each other for support. Movies like Beaches fall under the first categores, while films like Waiting to Exhale and Steel Magnolias fall under the second. In both genres, the plot follows a clear trajectory: the friends meet up, share woes and insights, fight, experience a tragedy and ultimately end upenhanced by the relationship. In plot, as in theme, movies about male friendship are allowed more variety. Insight need not be shared. Can you tell me the tragedy or insights at the core of Dumb and Dumber? Were there any catfights between the two convicts in The Shawshank Redemption? And, though there may be tragedy in some male buddy pictures, the male characters aren't obligated to sit around and sob like their female counterparts. While I like some movies about female friendships (I have to confess that Beaches makes me cry every time) I wish they were allowed the complexity and variety of the male buddy genre. Why can't there be a movie about two lady cops? Where's the female version of Top Gun? Or two army nurses with a sick sense of humor? And how come the only movies about women in prison are cheapie exploitation flicks? Is it so hard to understand that female friends do more than cry about men over buckets of ice cream? Friendship among women is often complicated, volatile and an essential part of female maturity. It deserves at least as much attention as the bond among men,if not more. It would be nice to see more movies about female friends that don't oversimplify or cheapen this bond. Though I know it had to happen, it's too bad that Thelma and Louise had to plunge over that cliff to their deaths. We really needed friends like them.

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