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The Shape of Water
Movie

The Shape of Water

2017 • Drama, Fantasy, Romance

Woke Score
9
out of 10

Plot

From master storyteller Guillermo del Toro comes THE SHAPE OF WATER, an otherworldly fable set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. Rounding out the cast are Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Doug Jones.

Overall Series Review

The film functions as a clear political allegory, establishing a world where institutional America, represented by the government and military-industrial complex, is the central source of cruelty and oppression. The heroes are defined entirely by their intersectional identities as marginalized individuals: a non-verbal, working-class woman; a Black cleaning lady; a closeted gay artist; and a non-human, non-white creature kidnapped from the Amazon. The primary antagonist is a heterosexual, hyper-masculine White male agent who embodies American exceptionalism, racism, sexism, and traditional values, making the plot a straightforward conflict between the 'oppressed' outcasts and the 'toxic' mainstream power structure. The romantic core is a celebration of love outside of conventional human and sexual norms, which serves as the ultimate triumph over the rigid, suffocating morality of 1960s American society.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics10/10

The narrative is built around a solidarity movement of the intersectionally oppressed against the White, heterosexual, male antagonist. The protagonist is a disabled woman, her main allies are a Black woman and a gay man, and their shared purpose is to save the creature who symbolizes the ultimate 'Other.' The villain, Colonel Strickland, is a representation of white privilege and systemic oppression who is ultimately defeated by this alliance.

Oikophobia9/10

The 1962 American setting is framed as a 'cold dystopia' of 'paranoia, oppression, and cruelty,' where the US Government is the monstrous force that tortures the Amphibian Man for military use. The creature, referred to as a 'river god' captured from the Amazon, is presented as morally and spiritually superior, challenging the 'moral shallowness' of American society and its institutions.

Feminism8/10

The female protagonist, Elisa, is the autonomous hero who initiates the rescue and the sexual relationship with the creature, defying the restrictive gender roles of the 1960s. Her masturbation scene establishes her self-pleasure and independence from male validation. The primary male figure of traditional authority, Strickland, is portrayed as a 'toxic,' abusive, and dehumanizing monster, while the hero is a woman who finds fulfillment outside the confines of traditional marriage or family life.

LGBTQ+9/10

A central heroic character, Giles, is a closeted gay man who risks everything for his friends, providing a positive and essential representation of alternative sexuality. The relationship between Elisa and the creature is broadly understood as an allegory for queer love that exists beyond biological and societal boundaries. The villainous society explicitly denigrates the gay character by claiming that 'gays like him aren't wanted' in a 'family place.'

Anti-Theism9/10

The character who obsesses over external respectability, follows 'protocol' to the letter, and strives for the 'Norman Rockwell family' is the villain, Colonel Strickland, whose external morality is exposed as pharisaical hypocrisy. The film aligns 'love' and rejection of 'conventional morality' with the heroes, while painting the representative of 'family-values conservativism' as the torturer. Supernatural grace and moral purity are assigned to the non-human 'river god' creature.