The Help is based on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel about race relations in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Like J. K. Rowling and her Harry Potter book, The Help was turned down by dozens of publishers. The movie version, at 137 minutes, is too long. The story is straight-forward: Skeeter Phelan, a young girl who wants to be a writer (played by Emma Stone), decides to write about the African-American maids who work in white households. Getting the maids to talk takes some doing because Skeeter doesn’t really understand how bad conditions are in her hometown. Viola Davis plays Aibileen Clark, a stoic maid, to perfection. Octavia Spencer plays the rebellious Minny Jackson with a blend of seriousness and humor. When I read Kathryn Skockett’s novel, I was shocked at the racism still prevalent in 1963. Somehow, I thought things had improved by 1963. Wrong! The movie softens the racism portrayed in the novel. GRADE: B+
Racism still prevalent in 1963–say it ain’t so!! Try racism still prevalent in 2011–I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you there’s still plenty of it. And I think I already posted about the white teacher at our newly-integrated junior high school in 1970 who told me at recess that “those n*****s are so loud.” Even 41 years after the event, that still shocks me.
As for this movie (and its associated book), it seems to me it’s just another in a line of anachronistic pop culture events in which the wholesale oppression of the entire black race becomes a feel-good story because we see that it opened the eyes of an innocent white person. Harrumph!
You’re right, Deb. But THE HELP, both the book and the movie, seem to have struck a cultural nerve. If THE HELP can better race relations, then it’s a Good Thing.
I found the teasers for it intriguing, but I sure don’t want to go face-to-face with a didactic diatribe on cultural mistreatment. I have a good knowledge of through other sources.
THE HELP isn’t very didactic, Rick. The great performances overwhelm any preachiness.