hockeywench

I think it's hard for most to remember that women have had the right to vote for less then 100 years. If nothing else this movie may help to renew interest in an issue that most like to conveniently forget. Hillary Swank and Frances O' Connor give wonderful performances as Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. And Anjelica Huston is subtle and formidable as Carrie Chapman Catt. And I loved that Inez Millholland was included-she was an important part of the movement and Julia Ormond is fabulous. This movie is beautifully shot and masterfully edited. It also has a modern soundtrack with great remixs by Sarah McLachlan, Mandalay and Lauren Hill. One criticism though-they didn't do a very good job of showing a true representation of the time and effort it took to achieve the 20th amendment. They made it seem like a few women staged a hunger strike and BAM...votes. So many women gave their health, lives and blood for the movement...they deserve more. There are ways to show time progression, they didn't choose to. More time was given over to the relationship between the suffragettes but it is very well done.

I looked forward to the release of this DVD since I do not have HBO...I shouldn't have bothered. With all the awards and acclaim I expected this to be a tour de force, not this pile of intellectual meanderings. Totally incomprehensible. It feels disjointed and has no flow. I will say, though, Al Pacino could read the phone book and make it riveting. Mary-Louise Parker, on the other hand, sounds like she's trying out for a high school production of "Our Town." Half way through I realized I continued to watch not because I was enjoying it but because I felt I SHOULD watch it...always a bad sign. So I did the smart thing. I turned it off. Intellectuals do so love to hear themselves talk...