Twilight

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke (2008) ***

There are some works of popular fiction so beloved by their female fans (although damned by feminist critics) that they’re nearly critic proof. Two such examples are Edith Maud Hull’s 1919 novel The Sheik and the 1921 movie based on it. The story of a young English lady who’s kidnapped from an Algerian desert, held captive and repeatedly raped by a handsome Arab Sheik, Ahmed Ben Hassan, ends with her falling in love with her captor. When the Sheik tries to send her away, she attempts to kill herself! Edith didn’t win any awards from Gloria Steinem, but the novel sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide (and spawned a sequel). The film, starring heartthrob Rudolph Valentino, made $1.5 million in 1921 money. The mass hysteria over the actor who played the Sheik didn’t really culminate until his premature death; over 100,000 distraught women crowded around the funeral home and procession on the streets of Manhattan. One hundred mounted police officers tried to control the throngs, and some mourners reportedly committed suicide.

The 21st century cultural phenomenon Twilight, which I’m viewing for the first time, is likewise difficult to criticize; the movie was unashamedly made for teenage girls. It’s a vampire love story for modern times. Twilight draws upon some similar — what they nowadays call problematic — themes as The Sheik, as well as earlier filmic vampire tales such as Nosferatu (1922) and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula (which it visually alludes to in one scene). Those movies didn’t have Twilight‘s ace cards, though: Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

Stewart plays 17-year-old Bella Swan, who journeys to live with her Chief of Police father (Billy Burke, The Closer) in Forks, Washington, a rainy, cloudy logging town. While the shy girl makes friends with the upbeat Jessica (Anna Kendrick, in one of her first film roles), she’s mostly intrigued by the mysterious, exclusive and decidedly pale Cullin family, several of which attend the same high school. (I imagine the family’s name is a tip to Dark Shadows‘ handsome vampire Barnabas Collins.) Bella’s most captivated by the sultry, James Dean-looking Edward Cullin (Pattinson), an ashen brooder who exudes fashion model coolness and alluring aloofness. The more he treats Bella poorly as a classmate, the more she’s attracted to him. These two are destined to come together even if he’s a 108-year-old vampire.

The attraction these two characters (and actors) have for each other is palpable and the film’s popularity is no surprise; when, in the famous (or infamous) forest scene, Edward tells Bella, “It’s like you’re my own personal brand of heroin.”, I can imagine a thousand fluttering, female hearts. Not since John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in Flesh and the Devil (1926) have I seen such quivering lips, intense stares and intent glances. Both the actors sell it, though; they have the kinds of beautifully sculpted faces needed for convincing love and lust.

The conflict arises not only in Edward’s attempt to love Bella without turning her into an inhuman immortal, but also in a trio of man-pouncing vampires dressed like roadies for the ’70s band Heart. Unlike Edward’s family, they have no qualms about attacking humans and Bella’s starting to look very tasty to one of them.

I’m so used to seeing Stewart and Pattinson in critically acclaimed and low budget movies (both have starred in little-seen David Cronenberg movies — the kind that only play in your town for a week) that it’s an adjustment seeing them in a film watched by — and pitching for — a huge audience. As popular as Twilight made the actors, they were determined to shed themselves of the stereotyping and aim for higher goals — and both have succeeded.

It’s surprising to realize Twilight, made by Summit Entertainment, was essentially an indie film, produced by a company that had no comparably big previous hits (The Hurt Locker, released the same year as Twilight, also helped put them on the map). The director, Catherine Hardwicke did as well as possible on a budget not commensurate with the popularity of the film and is to be commended for directing a strong female protagonist (when Twilight became a huge hit, the franchise — eventually incorporating five films — was wrestled from her control and given to various male directors). Only the speedy vampire tree climbing and jumping in the aforementioned forest scene look cheesy now — and may have then.

It’s not surprising — especially for a youth-marketed film — that Twilight, now at sixteen years old, looks a bit dated. Kudos, though, for it using the music of Muse, whose massive prog-rock sound hasn’t dated. I remember, around 2005, asking for Muse merchandise in a Hot Topic, and the cashier said she had never heard of the group, while also looking like I was crazy. I’d bet money it was a different story after Twilight blew up.

—Michael R. Neno, 2025 January 26