Emily Blunt to try to put a good spin on “the first female Pinkerton detective” for Amazon
Blunt will star in a new film about Kate Warne, who served as the first female officer of the infamous union-busting agency
Film News Pinkerton
Emily Blunt has signed on for a new project at Amazon, with Deadline reporting that she’ll be working (in a producing capacity) with her Jungle Cruise pal Dwayne Johnson for a film about 19th century detective Kate Warne. Warne is famed as a pioneer in law enforcement, having broken barriers in the 1850s when she became, uh…the first female detective for the infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency. Hm.
Okay, so let’s get into this. We should start by noting that Warne’s activity with the Pinkerton Agency, which ended with her death from “congestion of the lungs” in her mid-30s in 1868, predates many of the activities that made the name “Pinkerton” far more infamous in the years to come. There’s no clear historical evidence that she participated in any of the labor violence, strikebreaking, or general violent oppression by the wealthy of the poor that were the Pinkerton’s stock in trade for many decades, and which have rendered the company’s name a go-to watchword for villainy for anyone with even a smidge of labor sympathies in the modern era. (Also, anyone who’s watched Deadwood.) That being said, she did volunteer to be part of an armed private police force founded to serve the interests of the rich, and was closely associated with Allan Pinkerton himself, so it’s hard to paint her as perfectly blameless in the company’s actions. It’s just that visualizing her broadly as a sort of “strikebreaker girlboss” is probably a bit of a stretch—but so too, maybe, is the movie’s logline assertion that she was a “female Sherlock Holmes.”
Warne is most famous for her association with the Agency’s efforts to protect Abraham Lincoln from purported assassination plots in the early 1860s—per the company’s own mythology, it’s “We Never Sleep” motto supposedly stems from a restless night she spent watching over president-elect Lincoln during a train journey to Washington D.C. in early 1861. She also reportedly worked throughout the South for the Union during the Civil War, posing as a Southern lady to collect intelligence from loose-lipped society mavens. And, really, it’s not hard to see why Blunt might be drawn to Warne’s story, which is legitimately groundbreaking and exciting—despite its unavoidable association with a company that would go on to become a popularly reviled boogeyman.
In any case, Blunt is set to star in and produce on the film, which is being produced at Amazon through The Rock’s Seven Bucks Productions company. It’s not clear yet, meanwhile, how Securitas AB—the Swedish security company that acquired the Pinkerton brand in 1999, and which has raised legal objections to use of the company’s trademarks in other media—will react to the news, although the inherently positive aspects of Warne’s stories will probably make them more sympathetic than when Red Dead Redemption 2 depicted the company’s agent (not unfairly, given the historical record) as little more than aggressive and violent thugs-for-hire.
128 Comments
So her and Krasinki are republicans right? This, all his dumb army propaganda shit and a survivalist wankfest horror series. Maybe a “libertarian” whatever that means.
Some (only partially verified) Googling seems to indicate that Krasinski considers himself a Democrat. He’s donated to Elizabeth Warren, at least, and pretty consistently pushes back when people claim he’s a closet-conservative. He’s always been bro-ish, though, and seems to be chasing the Clint Eastwood fan demographic. I think it’s more that they’re insulated enough that they don’t really notice (or care) about the political implications of their projects.
Hm interesting.
Less conservative then Chris Pratt at least.
I’m less certain of this than the ones for Blunt & Krasinski, but for what it’s worth:https://www.opensecrets.org/search?q=Chris+Pratt&type=donors
Elizabeth Warren is a conservative and a capitalist so this means nothing.
First, the question wasn’t “is John Krasinski a leftist?” The question was “is John Krasinski a Republican?” Do you know literally any Republicans who support Elizabeth Warren?Second,
Yes, all the Republicans from back when she was a Republican. She only became a Democrat once the Democrats had shifted enough to the Right for her.
Is this part where you start posting nothing but snake emojis?
Sadly, a lot of “Hollywood Liberals” tend to just be Republicans who are less socially conservative.
The reverso of this…
LGBTQIA+ BRO BUT DONT TAX ME
you’re just describing regular liberals
https://www.opensecrets.org/search?q=John+Krasinski&type=donors
https://www.opensecrets.org/search?q=Emily+Blunt&type=donors
The latter contains multiple people, but you should be able to distinguish the Actor from Beverly Hills CA vs the retired woman from Virginia.
To be honest, I doubt if she considered it any deeper than “I get to play a badass gunslinger-private eye-“feminist”y trailblazer.” I don’t claim to know what her or her husband’s politics are behind closed doors, but I doubt they played a massive part here; in fact, I’m skeptical that if you put a gun to her head and demanded that she tell you everything she knows about the history Pinkerton Detective Agency, she (like I suspect a lot of people) probably wouldn’t have much deeper insight than “they were the first private detective agency”.
So she’s stupid?
Yeah, maybe. Or ill-informed about the history of the Pinkertons. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if an English actress didn’t have the most in-depth knowledge of the history of the American labor movement.
If you’re going to be play someone and you don’t read up on them and the groups they’re associated with you’re an idiot.
You’ll notice I didn’t dispute that possibility.I kind of get the feeling you’re trying pick a fight with me that maybe doesn’t exist here, so I’ll bow out now if that’s alright.
May I add *for an actor of her caliber that can pick from lots of different roles. If she was struggling it’d be a different story.And I’m not trying to pick a fight with you. The dipshit defending the Pinkertons is a different story.
No worries; apologies for misinterpreting your tone!
Isn’t he the same guy who was hyperventilating over Rian Johnson in the TLJ thread last week?
I wasn’t even the most prominent commentator on that thread. But it amuses me that a different perspective pains you so.
Nah, it was just funny because you were acting like a director ruined your life because he made some stupid movie and you wouldn’t shut up about it. Constantly Posting Video Essays Guy was more prolific but at least he came across as, you know, sane.
“you wouldn’t shut up about it”Again, I was not the most prominent commentator. Not even close. I wrote .41% of comments on that article. That you’ve conflated less than 1% of comments with never shutting up means I clearly hit a nerve and you’re clearly insecure about your own thoughts about the film.
Sure.
Thanks. I will continue not caring about what you have to say while you will continue being devastated by my opinions.
Sure.
“Sure”Good one. You think of that yourself.The irony that you have failed to grasp is that you have now contributed more comments on this article than I ever did on “The Last Jedi” post.Fact.
Sure.
No problem. Happy to help and inform.
Sure.
You acted like Rian Johnson molested you…
I’m English and only vaguely aware of the history of Pinkertons, so that checks out. I just knew that they were a detective agency, mainly because one of the characters in The Axeman’s Jazz works for them (well worth a read, by the way, as are the follow ups).
All people should be considered stupid until proven otherwise.
No I’m doesn’t!
Yeah, same with Krasinki. I’ve seen people speculate that he’s a CIA plant for doing the Jack Ryan show, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised he doesn’t really know much about their history and mainly took the role because he had a premature midlife crisis over the idea that he would only ever be known as Office Jim.
Yeah, TBH I think that can be easily explained as “actor wouldn’t mind being paid generously to play an action-hero spy” without needing to conspiracy theorise.
that seems absurdly naive given the cia’s heavy involvement with the production, jim from the office’s horny public relations work for the agency, the ridiculous plots of the show (nuclear venezuela durrr), and knowing literally anything about the agency itself there’s no “conspiracy theorizing” necessary.
Between 13 Hours and Jack Ryan I suspect John Krasinski leans at least a little to the right, but it doesn’t pay to confuse an actor and their roles I suppose.
He also wrote a movie about evil Frackers.
And the ridiculous twist of that movie was that his character was undercover for the gas industry the whole time and was really trying to make the anti-fracking activists look insane to eventually get the town to buy into the fracking
it doesn’t pay to confuse an actor and their roles I suppose.If it did, Ralph Fiennes should never work again. Not just as an actor, as anything.
Ha, very good point! Perhaps ‘protagonists’ would be a more nuanced take, but even so it won’t always be indicative of the actor’s own politics.
Her uncle is a pretty big conservative politician in the UK and she comes from a well off family there. If I had to guess I’d say she might have some old-school conservative leanings but also progressive views. But I’d also guess she’s not a Trump style Republican, being a Brit after all, and her politics might not fit neatly in our categories. So, who knows. They’re both a bit baffling and I have no idea what to make of John Krasinski.
Her uncle is quote progressive for a Tory (well he has been, since he came out as gay).
Both Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin. They are bourgeouise political parties that only care about capital and protecting the ruling class. Their differences stem from their social and cultural conflicts and its all played up so we are swept up in the spectacle of fighting over masks and coffee cups and critical race theory and abortion and whatnot while the corporate vultures who support both parties pick away at the rest of us.Krasinski is more likely than not a CIA tool considering Jack Ryan is a CIA operative and that show is about plotlines like fomenting US intervention in Venezuela.
You’re an idiot.
She’s playing the woman who guarded Lincoln and literally saved his life. She’s not playing the assholes who assassinated Native Americans. Try to keep up.
#notallpinkertonsFuck off Linda
girlboss pinkerton is the most liberal thing imaginable, as is jim from the office being insanely horny for the cia and a warren donor lol. these things are all perfectly congruent with an ideology that entered at least 7 new military conflicts just in the last decade.
It’s actually surprising there wasn’t already a movie.
Oh there was, 1951’s The Tall Target. It was mostly about a male agent but (spoilers for a 70 year old movie) he was only a decoy to distract conspirators from Warne and Lincoln.
Ah, that’s missing from the “In popular culture” section of her Wikipedia article.
Hey, I’ve read about this person before!
https://www.avclub.com/america-s-first-female-detective-once-saved-abraham-lin-1846303888She was 23 when she joined the agency and died at 34, but I guess people looked older back then.
That article wasn’t even linked in the news story. So this website writes a piece basically saying “isn’t this woman notable?” and then, when a film is being mooted about her life, doesn’t focuses on events that occurred after she died and were depicted in Red Dead Redemption 2. I swear, this website is getting dumber by the second.
Stop defending the fucking Pinkertons. Jesus you’re a tool.
You are hysterical and nauseating. Don’t breed. Thanks.
You’re defending the Pinkertons. Are you a Rogan fan and a libertarian?
“I felt that this person’s achievement of saving the life of Abraham Lincoln was interesting and you try to strawman me into defending a massacre THAT HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH HER.”
You just really love throwing your support of hired thugs who participated in a massacre (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre).
This occurred nearly five decades after she died.I felt that this person’s achievement of saving the life of Abraham Lincoln was interesting and you try to strawman me into defending a massacre THAT HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH HER. You are absolutely representative of a diminishing discourse and are about as disgusting as your namesake.
You realize that the Pinkertons are still around right? A movie like this is great for the brand image of an organization who’s job is to uphold the business interests of the wealthy and whitewash all the horrible shit they’ve done and they’ll re-brand themselves as “woke” for hiring a girlboss.
So your criticism has nothing to do with Kate Warne herself (the subject of the film), but your fantasy on what they may or may not do in the future? Got it.Like everyone else in the world, I will continue not giving a shit about what you have to contribute.Thanks.
The US Army is another organization still around, but if someone made a movie about Gettysburg it wouldn’t be especially relevant to bring up the Spanish-American War.
Tom Hanks is going to be in it, so it’s fine.
Newswire writers don’t read the AV Club.
Neither do many of the commenters.
Thanks-I was 90% sure I’d learned about her from an AV Club article (and that the article and/or comments speculated that her story would make a good movie), so I was surprised it wasn’t linked above.
You know that most (re: all) private detectives aren’t uncovering vast conspiracies, right? They’re just collecting evidence of extramarital affairs so that one party will gain leverage in divorce proceedings, but there have been plenty of films and television shows about PIs working to eradicate crime. And, while the Pinkerton Agency was literally subject to private interests, it wasn’t like there was an incorruptible police force. Individuals often did hire the Pinkerton Agency because their sheriff’s department was incompetent or corrupt and they had no other recourse for their injuries. So I am fine with a film about a female Pinkerton agent, especially one starring Emily Blunt. It wouldn’t be any more bullshit than other PI films.
Individuals often did hire the Pinkerton Agency … To do what? They weren’t a bunch of Monk or Castle type people.
“Members of the Osage tribe began to live in fear. Their advocates and wards (the persons appointed by the courts to manage the Osages assets) began to show concern. Wanting answers Osages and concerned persons asked for assistance from the County Sheriff’s Offices, The State of Oklahoma, and the federal government. At first, the requests for assistance fell on deaf ears, so The Osages and concerned persons contracted Pinkerton Detective Agency and the William J. Burns International Detective Agency. Both of these early private investigation businesses had some success with sending their agents undercover into the oil fields and towns to gather information and track down leads.”
That’s cute I’m glad they did something not terrible once.This is actually a really good article on what horrible things they’ve done AND continue to do. Bezos even hired them to spy on workers.https://www.teenvogue.com/story/who-were-the-pinkertons
I feel like my first comment actually addresses your points, so I am just going to quote that: “You know that most (re: all) private detectives aren’t uncovering vast conspiracies, right? They’re just collecting evidence of extramarital affairs so that one party will gain leverage in divorce proceedings, but there have been plenty of films and television shows about PIs working to eradicate crime. And, while the Pinkerton Agency was literally subject to private interests, it wasn’t like there was an incorruptible police force. Individuals often did hire the Pinkerton Agency because their sheriff’s department was incompetent or corrupt and they had no other recourse for their injuries. So I am fine with a film about a female Pinkerton agent, especially one starring Emily Blunt. It wouldn’t be any more bullshit than other PI films.”
teenvogue, huh?
That’s also an rare example of where the FBI really were the good guys besides the Pinkertons (the FBI, and even Hoover personally eventually got on board helping the Osage find the murderers)
Honest to god I’d say the FBI has a higher hit ratio of doing the right thing then the Pinkerton agency. They also had a larger role in that cited event.
I agree with that.
While Daschell Hammett does not go too deep into the strike breaking by Pinkerton’s, one thing that comes out in his stories is how much of the Continental Op’s work involved insurance claims and missing persons cases. A few times the stories involve “security consulting” that could easily lead into what the real agency was well known for.
Get coffee, make copies, you name it,
Dashell Hammett incorporated a lot of his experience as a Pinkerton into the Continental Op stories and his other works. In a large number of stories, the initial work involves either insurance investigations or missing persons cases.
Don’t defend the fucking Pinkertons.
Also Pinkertons were hired thugs business would employ to break up strikes, in one instance by literally dropping bomb on strikers (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_coal_wars).
I wrote “Individuals often did hire the Pinkerton Agency because their sheriff’s department was incompetent or corrupt and they had no other recourse for their injuries.”Nothing you wrote actually negates that. It’s funny how all of your examples about why this film shouldn’t be made are events from decades after her death.
And now…Bezos. You know he watched this and didn’t see the humour:
The more realistic depictions of PI’s uncovering conspiracies, such as Chinatown do it with the PI starting out doing the normal PI things like photographing adulterers but discovering something more is going on.
I love female representation but… well sometimes the jobs are not good for humanity. There have been female serial killers and female holocaust guards, but for obvious reasons you won’t hear those cited as good. While not on that level, working with the Pinkertons doesn’t carry a strong moral implication does it? I’m intrigued to see how this shapes up but this is not a story where going all girl power is wise. I’ve read what the Pinkertons did, the list of positive accomplishments is fairly thin. I’m not even fully convinced the Baltimore Plot was as real as they make it out to be. Stuff like Homestead is a better example of what they were. A private army for the rich and powerful, saving kidnapped children was not something they did.
I remember when some TERFs on Twitter were trying to frame a Nazi and torturer who was assassinated by the French Resistance as a girlboss…
WHAT. How on Earth does that work? God I’m getting flashbacks to that really dumb moment when Michael Moore tried to say no woman was involved in global warming or the holocaust or shot up a school. Only to have multiple feminists gladly point out examples in all the categories.
The tweet in question:
“Killed by the French Resistance” doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Violette Morris, a.k.a. “The Hyena of the Gestapo,” was a willing Nazi collaborator. She ran garages for the Luftwaffe. She was part of the Carlingue and reportedly enjoyed torturing prisoners for the Gestapo. She was personally invited to be an honoured guest at the Olympics by the Fuhrer himself. She was killed by a French Resistance ambush while driving a family of fellow Nazi collaborators.This tweet was posted soon after the Wi Spa riot in LA, in which “Gender Critical Feminists”/TERFs marched and instigated violence right alongside the Proud Boys in protest of a seemingly non-existent trans woman using the women’s change rooms. The point is to reframe collaboration with fascists/White Supremacists as an excusable tactic in the fight for women’s liberation in the face of the “trans agenda”.
“Anything done by a woman is an inherently feminist action and all feminist actions are good”. That’s the logic.
it’s identity reductionism as politics and it just creates ideological nonsense. a few years ago there was an article about how most of the major defense firms are now led by women, and it’s like – did anything change? are the wars now more woke? have we stopped supporting arms deals with saudi arabia and israel? have we stopped arming far-right militias world over? weirdly hasn’t happened!https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/top-us-defense-firms-led-women/story?id=56564622
Lemme guess, the TERFs tried to frame it as “ok” because men were doing something bad so that when a woman did the exact same thing, that woman should be lauded for breaking gender roles?
There’s a weird strain of TERFdom out that secretly loves when men do bad shit because they feel it gives women the permission to do that same bad shit.
They kind of just omitted the fact she was a Nazi, everyone called the TERF out, and than she put her account to private.
JFC, her nickname was “Hyena of the Gestapo”! It’s not like there aren’t a lot of heroic women to choose from in that time period.
I hope it was a female Resistance member who put her down. Checkmate, TERFs. And there were plenty of women Maquis – though probably not as famous and enviable as Violette, who was basically a trust fund baby.
I remember when the story broke that Amy Klobuchar has a habit of verbally abusing and throwing office supplies at her subordinates, and there was an immediate counter-narrative over how much of a “sexist double standard” it is to criticize her for it. I’m of the controversial opinion that it shouldn’t be okay to chuck staplers at your employees’ heads, regardless of your gender.
Because we live in age when Teen Vogue writes really good articles, this one addresses a lot of stuff they did and still do to this day.https://www.teenvogue.com/story/who-were-the-pinkertons
This is the most damning thing. Bloody Teen bloody Vogue having a good article about why an organization is terrible.
teen vogue has had similiar stuff like this for years now.
I don’t think we have to make series about people who were purely “positive”, though. A story just has to be interesting, which Kate Warne’s really was. It shouldn’t be used for moralizing and putting “unproblematic” people on a pedestal, that’s how you end up with church cartoons.
As usual, Deadwood said it best:
I can’t even read the word Pinkertons without hearing it in Al’s voice. This is a good thing!
Sounds like a good movie to watch while smoking Virginia Slims.
So a show that highlights a company known for cracking down on unions is made by a company known for…cracking down on unions. Boss.
“Yes?”
it’ll be a whole series, next up is Matewan Too where Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp’s hired gun characters are the good guys
Is she going to play the barely legal Japanese fan who sent Rivers Cuomo a fan letter?
Goddamn those half-Japanese girls – they do it to him every time.
Scarlett Johansson and Emma Stone are arm wrestling for it.
this just in: we do not in fact have to rehabilitate the image of the Pinkertons by girlbossing them
Leave it to Amazon to produce a show where the union-busting Pinkertons are the good guys.
They can always call it the Continental Detective Agency like former Pinkerton Daschell Hammett. While there are several stories about how he came to leave the agency, the one that give most credit to as not an obvious PR cover story is that at one pount while working a mining strike in Idaho, Hammett and a few other agents were offered a bonus to deal with a union organizer. He refused, and within a week found out the man had died under mysterious circumstances. Hammett left shortly after.
So… “The Pinkertons”?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pinkertons
popularly reviled boogeyman.The Pinkertons are not “boogeyman”, you insipid, bloodless piece of shit. They really, truly, actually are cunts.
Doesn’t really seem worse than a positive portrayal of a pig in any era. It’s still all about glorifying a truly evil gang of individuals. And I say this is someone who likes Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
I would like to believe this but no one should make a protagonist of any kind out those state sanctioned murderers and thugs for hire. Join the one big union. iww.org
Has it been alleged that Kate Warne ever murdered anyone?
Why are you defending the Pinkertons too? Maybe there ares ome really kind hearted ambitious female SS members that did some nice things too. The thing this woman is associated with is bad. The Pinkertons still exist and they are bad, Bezos even hired them to spy on workers. Stop defending this propaganda.
What did Kate Warne specifically do that you object to?
Do you defend cops too?
Since people already brought up “Killers of the Flower Moon”, then sure I would defend Meth Damon’s character there.
Hey, being a Pinkerton isn’t all thuggery and Union-busting. Sometimes they go into floating sky-cities and murder racists….and anti-racists.
Strikebreaker Girlboss this fall on CBS!
oh my god the more👏female👏drone👏pilots meme became real
I assume she mostly thinks of the Pinkertons in the way the rest of us do, as the unstoppable posse who chase Butch and Sundance.
Actors from other countries have a bad habit of diving into stories here that they think are clear-cut because some screenwriter dumbed them down but really they have no idea how they sit in our national consciousness. Another good example was that terrible movie about Ted Kennedy from a few years back with that Australian guy turning him into a Bond villain. Or Felicity Jones playing RBG as if she was in Legally Fucking Brunette. Another good example is what Samuel L. complained about: all these british actors playing every black american historical figure (not that the performances are bad, Kaluuya really knocked it out of the park as Fred Hampton).Like, making the Pinkertons into heroes is something that should be thought very carefully about and struggled with
ew, fuck this