If you haven't seen the movie, you may judge it on how it was marketed. That is it. You may not judge it on:
- How well it was acted/directed/written
- How it handles race/class issues
- If it is or isn't better than any other movie you have or haven't seen
From my perspective, The Help wasn't "White lady solves racism." It was, "White lady who has connections because of her socioeconomic class and race exploits those connections so that black women, specifically a black woman with whom she has a personal, loving relationship, can tell their story in a public way."
But lets talk about something else that bugs me about reactions to The Help. The idea that it's a "woman's movie." Why is that? Sure it stars a bunch of women, but it's not about particularly female concerns. Unless racism, domestic abuse, socioeconomic disparity, snobbery, and the dignity of the human spirit are only female concerns.
Let's compare it to a movie I consider to be very much a "woman's movie": Steel Magnolias. That movie is first about a wedding, then about pregnancy and childbirth, and throughout is a movie about how women relate to one another, particularly a mother and a daughter. I can see where there's not much for a man to connect to there. I mean, hell, a lot of the scenes are in a beauty parlor, long the sacred and holy place for women to congregate.
But The Help shouldn't pose that many barriers to men. Except for the fact that we live in a culture where most anything that comes out of a woman's mouth is less important than when it comes out of a man's mouth. Would it make it easier for you men if I told you The Help was directed by a man? And that it has some sweet looking cars from the period in it? (In case you don't know me and my sense of humor, please know the previous two sentences were said VERY firmly tongue-in-cheek.)
But this gets us into the bigger problem: Men aren't expected to want to see and/or like a movie with a primarily female cast. And yet, the same is not expected of women. If I applied the same rationale for me, as a woman, here are some of the movies from imdb's Top 250 that I would not be expected to see/like:
- #1 Shawshank Redemption
- #2 The Godfather
- #3 The Godfather Part II
- #4 Pulp Fiction
- #5 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- #6 Twelve Angry Men
- #7 The Dark Knight
- #8 Schindler's List
- #9 The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King
- #10 Fight Club
So, if you saw The Help and didn't like it, fine. If you saw The Help and disagree with me about its treatment of race, also fine. If you didn't see The Help, shut your freaking pie hole.
If you're interested now in seeing The Help, let me list some reasons why you should:
- Viola Davis
- Passes the Bechdel test like a motherfucking champ
(I saw 8 of the 9 Best Picture nominees from last year - couldn't bring myself to sit through War Horse. To the best of my recollection, The Help was the only movie to pass this test.) - Octavia Spencer
- The sweet looking cars
- Jessica Chastain
- Very tightly written, edited. Most movies make me angry by being too long. This one didn't.
- Emma Stone
- Sumptuous, gorgeous set design and costuming. It's a beautiful movie to look at.
- Allison Janney
- It's really, really funny in parts.
- Anna Camp
- It really doesn't offer easy answers about racism in the South in that time period
- Bryce Dallas Howard
- {spoiler} Emma Stone doesn't get the guy. And she's happy anyway.
- Cecily Tyson
- In Jessica Chastain's character, has some interesting things to say about "old money" vs "new money" - which if you stop to think about it, was usually "Your daddy's money" vs "Your husband's money"back then.
- Sissy Spacek
- Some interesting mother/daughter stuff between Janney and Stone
- Mary Steenburgen
- Leslie Jordan
This post was inspired by a Twitter conversation with my friend Joe. The whole Blind Side/Sandra Bullock topic is an entirely different rant I may or may not post at a later date.
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