I ordered the DVD because of Julia Ormond's role. She only appeared in about 5 minutes of the film. I was disappointed her appearance was so brief. She seems to become more lovely, the older she gets.
I must say that Hillary Swank delivered a very strong performance. She was well cast for this role. You could tell that women predominated in writing the film and a woman directed it as well.
I did not feel that the unsuccessful romance depicted here was a distraction. The Ben Weissman character was really getting to the lead character, Alice Paul. You could see her political will was starting to buckle under the force of her attraction to Ben and his motherless son. It was perhaps a little too graphic how Alice relieved her sexual tension in the bathtub. At any rate, Alice subdued her softer side under her iron will. Her own needs would always take second place to her political cause.
The scene where the psychiatrist was interviewing Alice in prison was perhaps the most powerful scene in the film. Here was a woman greatly weakened by starvation forced to contend with a powerful mind sent to undermine her efforts by declaring her insane. Every word was taken down to find a pretext to belittle her moral claim to suffrage. She was able to summon the words that compelled this man to reject the powerful inducements to destroy her. Hillary Swank delivered an enormously powerful performance here. She actually appeared near death in these scenes.
Reading some of the other comments here made me realize how distorted feminist doctrine has made history. Of course women are entitled to vote. What has been lost is the understanding of the progression of understanding in Western Civilization that has brought us to our present position.
In the beginning, might ruled everything. All privilege was obtained by being the most powerful man or being useful enough to him to be accorded certain limited considerations. Judaism and even more emphatically Christianity changed all that. The Golden Rule proclaimed that our neighbor was deserving of our regard. Women were accorded a place of respect and honor in Christian doctrine. This was truly revolutionary in historical terms.
The history of Western Civilization is the account of the continued expansion of the rights of man, or to be P.C., humanity. First the nobles in England forced the king to acknowledge their rights by signing the Magna Carta. Then the cities forced the king to recognize their rights under law. Then the merchant class gradually gained rights because they were needed to finance the king's armies and lifestyle. Then rights gradually extended to property owners, especially in the U.S. Blacks in the U.S. gained rights gradually as slavery was abolished first in the North and, after the Civil War, in the South. Women were not excluded from this process. The rights of women continually expanded over these centuries.
The basic point here is that, for the most point, rights were not gained by force. Moral arguments and peaceful protest that appealed to the Christian Conscience gained the day. Many of the women in this film were college graduates. This education gave them the understanding of the possibilities and potentials that their advancement could offer. These women were enormously privileged by the standards of the day.
The tide turned when details of the horrible injustices inflicted on these women inflamed the public opinion to the point where Sufferage became politically necessary. The same process was at work 60 years later when the same means gained Blacks better access to civil rights.
Time constraints greatly compressed this important work. It would have been better served by a mini-series that could have explored the topic in greater depth. Still, kudos to HBO for being willing to tackle this difficult subject. Perhaps a more appealing title could have enhanced the success of this film.
I must say that Hillary Swank delivered a very strong performance. She was well cast for this role. You could tell that women predominated in writing the film and a woman directed it as well.
I did not feel that the unsuccessful romance depicted here was a distraction. The Ben Weissman character was really getting to the lead character, Alice Paul. You could see her political will was starting to buckle under the force of her attraction to Ben and his motherless son. It was perhaps a little too graphic how Alice relieved her sexual tension in the bathtub. At any rate, Alice subdued her softer side under her iron will. Her own needs would always take second place to her political cause.
The scene where the psychiatrist was interviewing Alice in prison was perhaps the most powerful scene in the film. Here was a woman greatly weakened by starvation forced to contend with a powerful mind sent to undermine her efforts by declaring her insane. Every word was taken down to find a pretext to belittle her moral claim to suffrage. She was able to summon the words that compelled this man to reject the powerful inducements to destroy her. Hillary Swank delivered an enormously powerful performance here. She actually appeared near death in these scenes.
Reading some of the other comments here made me realize how distorted feminist doctrine has made history. Of course women are entitled to vote. What has been lost is the understanding of the progression of understanding in Western Civilization that has brought us to our present position.
In the beginning, might ruled everything. All privilege was obtained by being the most powerful man or being useful enough to him to be accorded certain limited considerations. Judaism and even more emphatically Christianity changed all that. The Golden Rule proclaimed that our neighbor was deserving of our regard. Women were accorded a place of respect and honor in Christian doctrine. This was truly revolutionary in historical terms.
The history of Western Civilization is the account of the continued expansion of the rights of man, or to be P.C., humanity. First the nobles in England forced the king to acknowledge their rights by signing the Magna Carta. Then the cities forced the king to recognize their rights under law. Then the merchant class gradually gained rights because they were needed to finance the king's armies and lifestyle. Then rights gradually extended to property owners, especially in the U.S. Blacks in the U.S. gained rights gradually as slavery was abolished first in the North and, after the Civil War, in the South. Women were not excluded from this process. The rights of women continually expanded over these centuries.
The basic point here is that, for the most point, rights were not gained by force. Moral arguments and peaceful protest that appealed to the Christian Conscience gained the day. Many of the women in this film were college graduates. This education gave them the understanding of the possibilities and potentials that their advancement could offer. These women were enormously privileged by the standards of the day.
The tide turned when details of the horrible injustices inflicted on these women inflamed the public opinion to the point where Sufferage became politically necessary. The same process was at work 60 years later when the same means gained Blacks better access to civil rights.
Time constraints greatly compressed this important work. It would have been better served by a mini-series that could have explored the topic in greater depth. Still, kudos to HBO for being willing to tackle this difficult subject. Perhaps a more appealing title could have enhanced the success of this film.