Movie review
November 23, 2016 · 124 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Allied is a 2016 WWII spy romance thriller in which a Canadian intelligence officer and a French Resistance fighter pose as a married couple for an assassination mission in Casablanca before their relationship is tested by espionage suspicions and loyalty demands in London. The core story centers on love, duty, betrayal, and moral dilemmas under wartime pressure. A visible supporting lesbian character (Max’s sister) is portrayed in affectionate scenes with her girlfriend and treated as casually normalized, creating the film’s sole audience-visible identity element amid an otherwise period-faithful heterosexual romance narrative.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Allied.
Woke representation / casting
An openly lesbian supporting character is included and shown in affectionate girlfriend scenes, inserted into the 1940s setting and normalized without historical concealment or comment.
Woke political dialogue
No explicit activist, identity, or modern political speeches; the casual acceptance of the lesbian relationship is the only subtle contemporary signal.
Identity-driven story themes
Background lesbian relationship functions as incidental modern representation rather than a plot engine or recurring theme in the espionage-romance narrative.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Nazis appear strictly as historical wartime enemies; no reframing into present-day systemic, patriarchal, colonial, or identity-political critiques.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant – original screenplay with no source-material alterations or reinterpretations.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Limited forum notes on the anachronistic lesbian portrayal as modern insertion; no widespread “too woke,” forced-diversity, or propaganda accusations in news or social media.
Creator track record context
No relevant prior activist or identity-focused work by Zemeckis or Knight; Knight has explicitly opposed woke framing.
Production
