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The Help

JWF: …is an Up 'N Comer.; Join date : 2010-03-02
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Post n°1

The Help

by JWF Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:33 pm

The Help" blows you away with an embellished cast, of mostly female actresses, several that are Oscar worthy nominations, including Octavia Spencer and Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron's daughter) While the film has its blemishes, it's a film that should be seen. And that includes males.

The film is focused around Skeeter ( Emma Stone) an inspiring writer who has just returned home to Jackson, Mississippi circa 1960. Her call is to write a novel about the world of domestic help. Their abuse, lack of respect and sorrows, on the eve of the civil rights movement.

We also learn about Aibileen (Viola Davis) a life-time black maid, raising white children, while someone else raised hers. We also meet Aibileen's best friend Minny (Spencer) who is fired after many years of service. Ends up working for white trash (another great performance from Jessica Chastain). And Hilly (Howard) a truly evil racist.

The films is entirely too long at 2 hours and 20 minutes. Personally, I would have preferred more character development around the black maids. And a better structured shapely script. It does treat the civil rights issues in the non stereotypical means, which was refreshing.

B+

Jack

Supernova

Supernova: The Book Chamber; Join date : 2010-06-22
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Post n°2

Re: The Help

by Supernova Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:02 pm

If it ever comes here I may just look into it, it'll be nice to go to the theater again.

Shale

Shale: ...is a Chamber Royal.; Join date : 2010-09-27
Location : Miami Beach
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Post n°3

Re: The Help

by Shale Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:17 pm

That was my movie pick for this week. I have particular interest, having been exposed to Mississippi of the era. I am concerned that they would find too much comedy in the American Apartheid, which was quite deadly for any 'uppity niggers.' So, I am curious just how far they go from reality. (The Color Purple showed the reality of the racist south).

Just this last week a black man was murdered in Jackson Mississippi by a gang of white racists. We thot it had ended and this throwback is an eye opener.

Shale

Shale: ...is a Chamber Royal.; Join date : 2010-09-27
Location : Miami Beach
Posts : 9699
Rep : 219

Post n°4

Re: The Help

by Shale Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:53 pm

The Help
Movie Blurb by Shale
August 11, 2011

This movie opened early in the week and I went to a late matinee today. Really wanted to see this flick, to see how they handled a comedy-drama in the middle of the segregated South in 1960, the beginning of the civil rights struggles. It was handled well; they did not euphemize the ugliness of the time and place.

I also wanted to see this flick because my family is from Mississippi and I was there in the period and saw the institutional racism. It was embarrassing to see the bigotry of most of the white ppl portrayed and it made me glad that my family was not the well-off Southerners that had hired help but were what was called "poor white trash." The black folks' homes in this movie looked the same as those of my family.

Anyhow, we open with Eugenia or "Skeeter" (Emma Stone) just graduated from Ol' Miss and pursuing a career in journalism.

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She gets on as a columnist with a Jackson daily, writing about household tips (of which she knows nothing) and asks for help from a friend's maid, Aibileen (Viola Davis).

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Skeeter was raised in this culture but does not fit in with the shallow elitism around her, especially with Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) the most hateful bigot in town.

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She sees the inequity and abuse of black ppl and empathizes with their plight. Like so many others, she was raised by a black nanny as a child, imprinting on this caregiver but not allowed to respect her in the sick apartheid of the time.

This was the main point of the movie, that black women were raising white children while their own children were raised by others. Skeeter wants to write about this and gets Aibileen to open up about her experience as the help. Reluctantly the more outspoken maid, Minny (Octavia Spencer) joins her and there is interest from Harpers in New York.

Minny & Aibileen tell their tales to Skeeter
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Of course all the help are afraid of reprisal if their identities should ever be known so there are no others to complete the book but when Medgar Evers is murdered and there is a sense that enuf is enuf, they come forward. The book is written and published anonymously, but some in the town know who the worst bigot is and learn the most degrading thing about her.

I did enjoy this movie, not just because I was in the time and place. I think younger ppl would benefit from it, not only from a fine dramatic story but also to get a feel for the history.

On a Personal Note:
I have written some of my experiences during segregation days in an essay called The White Side of Racism.

It is posted on the Smithsonian's Virtual Museum of African American History & Culture.
http://nmaahc.si.edu/memory/view/155

Here are some excerpts about Mississippi:

"... My dad was from Mississippi and each summer we would take the City of New Orleans train down to visit my grandparents in rural Lincoln County outside of Brookhaven.

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As a child I remember my grandmother getting help with the housework from a 'nigra' woman, and paid her a paltry amount of money and used clothing. One summer my aunt was moving to Brookhaven and a huge semi moving van drove up to my grandmother's place. We were putting my aunt's stuff in a little house out back of the main house. Now in the rural South the midday dinner is the important meal of the day and Southern hospitality meant anyone visiting shared this big meal. So the white truck driver sat at our table in the kitchen, while my aunt fixed plates for his two black helpers who ate on the porch. It was the system and everyone seemed satisfied with it - but it did not go unnoticed as strange."
...
"I remember in my late teens reading a book by Carl Rowan (could've been Go South to Sorrow - 1957) in which he mentioned Lamar Smith a black activist who was organizing voters and who was murdered in Brookhaven in August 1955. Wow, sleepy little Brookhaven made national news! I wrote my grandmother and asked her if she knew about it and her reply told me a lot about racism in the South; "We don't talk much about that here."