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Two films, produced 10 years apart and both written by lesbian screenwriters, provide interesting counterpoints to the mainstream action movies mentioned above. In 1996, Ilene Chaiken, now known as the creator of The L Word, wrote the screenplay for Barb Wire, a B-movie extravaganza starring Pamela Anderson Lee as leather-and-vinyl-clad mercenary Barb Wire. And in 2006, L Word and Go Fish scribe Guinevere Turner wrote the screenplay for BloodRayne, a vampire movie starring openly bisexual Kristanna Loken (who previously played the terminator in T3) and Michelle Rodriguez (Lost).

Though neither Barb Wire nor BloodRayne were box office successes, the fact that they were written by well-known lesbian screenwriters--both of whom worked on The L Word-- is of an intriguing connection that begs the question of whether lesbian authorship makes a difference in this aggressively (or possibly defensively) heterosexual genre.

Barb Wire, which is essentially based on Casablanca, does not contain any lesbian subtext in the storyline, but the film is clearly queer. Barb runs what looks a lot like a gay leather bar (named the Hammer Head), complete with what appears to be lesbian patrons who fondle each other lovingly. In addition, it turns out that Barb's goal is to help a woman doctor escape to Canada (America at this point has turned into something of a police state) with the cure for AIDS.

It's true that the film is a vehicle for Pamela Anderson's well-marketed sexuality, but despite an incredibly long strip club sequence in which she is sprayed with water, the character of Barb Wire is one of the most feminist heroines ever seen in action movies. Despite the fact that all men want her, none of them get to have her, and Barb does not allow any men to take advantage of her. She declares that she'll work with anyone for cash, but in the movie her jobs all result in aiding oppressed women.

BloodRayne, though it too was written by a lesbian, does not share the same unexpected feminist ideals of Barb Wire. It does, however, package together a number of trends that have characterized female-led action movies. It begins with a militantly feminist storyline: The character of Rayne (Kristanna Loken) sets out to kill her father, the vampire leader Kagan (played, surprisingly, by Ben Kingsley), who both raped and murdered her mother. Rayne is thus half-human, half-vampire, straddling a middle space between human and animal; this enables her character to be less-than-pure.

The movie also employs the time-worn theme of vampire lesbianism, but this time with a twist. Rayne is drawn to women and to blood, but she only kills vampires--in one scene, in a homosexually suggestive way. Michelle Rodriguez plays another vampire hunter, Katarin, who has unclear motivations except for one: She is obviously presented as a foil for Rayne. The two women eventually meet in combat, bringing out a homoerotic charge that is stereotypical of woman-on-woman fights, and also parallels the homoeroticism between men in action movies. When Rayne finally does engage in heterosexual sex with a man, Sebastian (Matthew Davis), it's an aggressive scene in which it is clear that she is the one in control.

BloodRayne is by no means a brilliant movie (and suffers from director Uwe Boll's disturbing glee with unrealistically spurting blood), but it neatly brings together a number of tropes that extend through many female-led action movies.

It's clear that Hollywood has been chasing the next Lara Croft ever since Tomb Raider raked in $252 million worldwide, but none have come close to that success, not even Tomb Raider 2, which was a relative failure in comparison. As these films continue to be released, however, the possibilities for women in these lead roles has continue to broaden, and the possibilities for lesbian content in them also continues to increase.

The next step, of course, would be to have a female action lead engage in an overtly lesbian encounter without anyone--good or evil--dying. It will be interesting to see whether Joss Whedon's long-awaited adaptation of Wonder Woman, which is still in development, will take that next step.

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