Reel Short Film Review: Suffragette
Last night I went to see "Suffragette", a historical period drama about the British women's suffrage movement starring (among others) Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, with a brief but important cameo from Meryl Streep. It is a worthwhile and very good film, steadily paced, beautifully shot, well-scripted, and ably acted. While "Suffragette" could easily (and some might argue, rightly) have been a hagiographical, rabble-rousing protest movie, it neither canonizes its heroines nor demonizes their opponents. Although the semi-fictional "Suffragette" has a message, it does not forget that it is a movie and tells a story instead of forcefully preaching a sermon. In so doing, "Suffragette" is most effective and quite possibly more historically accurate than many other period dramas. Before the credits roll, a timeline of women's voting rights country by country is given. The most recent year is 2015 - a sobering reminder that for many women in the world today, basic rights, dignity, and value is still a dream.
Last night I went to see "Suffragette", a historical period drama about the British women's suffrage movement starring (among others) Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, with a brief but important cameo from Meryl Streep. It is a worthwhile and very good film, steadily paced, beautifully shot, well-scripted, and ably acted. While "Suffragette" could easily (and some might argue, rightly) have been a hagiographical, rabble-rousing protest movie, it neither canonizes its heroines nor demonizes their opponents. Although the semi-fictional "Suffragette" has a message, it does not forget that it is a movie and tells a story instead of forcefully preaching a sermon. In so doing, "Suffragette" is most effective and quite possibly more historically accurate than many other period dramas. Before the credits roll, a timeline of women's voting rights country by country is given. The most recent year is 2015 - a sobering reminder that for many women in the world today, basic rights, dignity, and value is still a dream.
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