By Kam Williams
William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) was a Renaissance man with an impressive array of talents. After earning his BA, PhD, and law degrees, the Harvard graduate taught psychology at Radcliffe. Despite a demanding academic career, he found time to write self-help books and to invent the precursor of the lie detector.
To this day, however, he remains best remembered as the creator of Wonder Woman. Selling the idea to a comic book publisher in 1941 was no mean feat, since until then, Superman, Batman, The Flash, Captain Marvel, The Green Lantern, and all the other superheroes, were male.
The character Marston envisioned was not just a powerful crime-fighter, but also was an attractive Amazon whose eroticism and dominance were deemed to be sexual and sado-masochistic in nature by her detractors. Although Wonder Woman wore a skimpy outfit, as did Superman, and used a rope to subdue and restrain adversaries, the comic books were far from pornographic. Marston had been inspired by the success of the suffrage movement that helped advance the feminist cause. In fact, he once stated that “The only hope for civilization is the greater freedom, development, and equality of women.”
Another source of inspiration were the two women in Marston’s life; his wife, Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), and their longtime lover, Olive (Bella Heathcote). He would father children with each woman, and they all lived under the same roof, although the scandalous arrangement led to the family being shunned by polite society.
Written and directed by Alexandra Robinson, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is an intriguing and informative biopic that finally awards a brilliant visionary, who had been marginalized by history, his due. Thanks to our more enlightened LBGTQ-embracing times, William Moulton Marston can finally be fully appreciated.
Excellent (****). Rated R for profanity, graphic sexuality, and lewd images. Running time: 108 minutes. Production Studio: Stage 6 Films/Boxspring Entertainment/Topple Productions. Distributor: Annapurna Pictures.