What struck me in watching the tour de force of this summer’s blockbuster season was how puzzled Wonder Woman, Diana Prince, often is. From her earliest childhood, she questions her mother’s authority with mischief and daring. She pesters her queen mother constantly until, with partial answers, Diana finds her true mission of God Killer and wholeheartedly believes the legend about Aries as the only source of evil.
Yet she is perplexed at every step of her journey—as she walks into 20th century England and the battlefields of World War I.
Her confused, penetrating gaze as our chaotic world unfolds in front of her eyes is one I can’t forget. Wonder Woman is full of wonder and bewilderment. The girl she once was resurfaces, the one who questioned and dared—who sought the truth.
At the movie’s opening scene, Diana reflects on the black and white photo taken in a Belgian town after her first victorious foray with the enemy. She comments (in a voice over) that this was before she knew what she’d since learned: about the darkness in every human. The movie ends by returning to its first scene and that photo as she states what she now knows of us—our dark side that creates evil.
So, to me, the Wonder Woman movie is an inner quest for truth, even though the battle scenes look as though it’s just another “boom, boom, bang, bang” superhero action film. The powerful battle scenes are part of her seeking process, taking on the dark without fear from a position of strength to know it.
When Diana touches the glass of that framed, long-ago photo, she speaks a final truth that every female hero knows: at the heart of all is love.
Now that’s a real quest! Brava for Wonder Woman!