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Malena
Movie

Malena

2000 • Drama, Romance, War

Woke Score
4
out of 10

Plot

Malèna is about the peril of a beauty through the eyes of a 12 year old kid named Renato. He experiences three things on the same day, beginning of war, getting a bike and sees the arrival of Malèna in town. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed to be dead, and through his soul we see his love for her.

Overall Series Review

Set in a small Sicilian village during World War II, the film follows the tumultuous life of Malèna Scordia, a young, impossibly beautiful woman whose soldier-husband is presumed dead. The narrative is filtered through the obsessive gaze of 12-year-old Renato, who watches as her beauty makes her the object of intense male lust and vicious female jealousy. The movie is a visually rich but melancholic exploration of social hypocrisy and the destructive consequences of being publicly objectified. As Malèna struggles to survive, the townspeople—both male and female—abandon their moral principles, turning her existence into a continuous trial of slander and cruelty. The story ultimately functions as a critique of a traditional, conservative community's moral vacuum and its collective failure to show compassion for a vulnerable individual.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The film’s central conflict is not driven by race or modern intersectional theory but by the universal human vices of lust and envy, which are focused on a woman’s beauty. The setting is historically authentic (WWII Sicily) with a monochromatic cast, meaning there is no forced diversity or vilification of 'whiteness' as a political category.

Oikophobia5/10

The film offers a strong, localized critique of the hypocritical, judgmental, and ultimately cruel social culture of the Sicilian village. The community’s behavior towards a vulnerable woman is depicted as morally corrupt, highlighting a flaw within that specific traditional, Western European society. The critique is moral and internal, rather than a sweeping condemnation of all Western heritage or ancestors.

Feminism8/10

The movie heavily focuses on the oppression of women within a traditional structure. Malèna is a victim whose life is destroyed not by her own choices but by the objectification, malicious gossip, and violent envy of both the lustful men and the jealous women in the town. The narrative portrays the traditional male and female roles—male desire and female social enforcement—as fundamentally toxic and destructive to the heroine, aligning with the idea of a deeply oppressive system.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative centers entirely on heterosexual dynamics: the lust of the men, the jealousy of the wives, and the intense, innocent obsession of the boy, Renato. There are no elements of alternative sexual ideologies, deconstruction of the nuclear family outside of the war-driven separation, or gender theory lecturing present in the film’s plot.

Anti-Theism3/10

The highly traditional, conservative Sicilian town setting implies a strongly religious community, yet its actions throughout the film—gossiping, shunning, moral cowardice, and violent assault—demonstrate a profound spiritual and moral failure. The film's critique is aimed at the hypocrisy of the people, not at the religious doctrine itself. Faith is not explicitly attacked or shown as the root of evil; rather, the absence of transcendent morality in the community's heart is the source of the plot's tragedy.