Over the Edge » September 7 A CRITIQUE OF THE MOVIE “THE HELP” Whose Story is Really Being Told? SHELBY PETERSEN EDITOR IN CHIEF 4 {grew ay \ = aA After watching the movie The Help I had a few thoughts that I just couldn’t get out of my head. For those of you who do not know, The Help is a film about Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. More specifically, it is a film about race relations between the white households in Jackson and their “hired” help. According to the Dreamworks synopsis, “The Help stars Emma Stone as Skeeter, Viola Davis as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as Minny - three very different, extraordinary women in Mississippi during the 1960s, who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project that breaks societal rules and puts them all at risk. From their improbable alliance a remarkable sisterhood emerges, instilling all of them with the courage to transcend the lines that define them, and the realization that sometimes those lines are made to be crossed - even if it means bringing everyone in town face-to-face with the changing times.” On the surface, The Help is a good movie and can be applauded for several aspects, such as its portrayal of strong female characters that are not relegated to the role of sidekick or muse as they have been in other such films. The film, if anything, portrays women as both strong and capable and passes the Bechdel Test (look it up) with flying colours. This is important because even as you sit here reading this article, it may be the case that there is only one female name that comes to mind in association with the Civil Rights Movement (and if you don’t know that name there is some reading you have yet to do!). While the The Help was very well acted and tells a story that has seldom been told, the movie has two flaws, which may be fatal. The first flaw, and perhaps the movie’s biggest downfall, is that the story is told from the point of view of a white person. The movie, adapted from the New York Times bestseller of the same title, was written by Kathryn Stockett. Stockett herself hails from Jackson and wrote the book in part as a reflection of her own experiences in being raised by an African American maid in the absence of her neglectful mother. With this in mind, it is not surprising that the book and the movie are centered around a white woman. In fact, it can be argued that it would be wrong had Mrs. Stockett written her novel from the point of an African American woman because there is no way that she would ever be able to understand life from that perspective. The criticism here is that of the thousands of books that exists which chronicle what life was like for an African American person during the civil rights movement (any time really) written by a man or a women, Hollywood chose to produce one written by a white person, starring a white person. This statement might be hypocritical given the context of this article and the fact this writer is a white woman as well, but this movie is an affront to African American people and the struggles which they have and still do endure. This is the case because this movie takes a very important story and part of history, which still resonates in today’s society with repercussions sure to last generations to come, and gives it to white people as if it was something they themselves manufactured. BASED ON THE SENSATIONA Bibs Sib) Lal ER EEE AE at WE Ec MCCA TCE EA PBK GE IE FART RERSE ars thehelpmovie.com Pimcins participant’ Gyrragenaign cto Pas Share yout sary Got takepart comhhelp ONLINE SOURCE While this movie is meant to empower and send the message that racism is bad, the film doesn’t quite succeed, for two reasons. The first reason being that by telling the story from the point of view of a white woman, the movie steals the voice of the actual African American workers whose story is being told. The second reason is that Skeeter is the vehicle for change in this movie and not the African American women. That is to say that this movie, on some level, acknowledges that there was a problem and that this problem, while known by all of the sad domestic workers, has no solution. That is, until this spunky white woman comes along and decides to make a difference. The criticism here is that by having Skeeter be the catalyst for change, the African American women are used merely as a plot device and are effectively devoid of all power. In a nutshell, this movie has not only stripped African American women of their right to tell their own story but also their right to be their own catalyst for change. The Civil Rights movement did not happen because a group of open-minded white people decided to do something about the horrible inequality surrounding them. It happened because African American people fought for those rights. This movie negates the horrible injustices done during the civil rights movement, like rape and lynching, in favour of an oversimplified feel-good plot. Moreover, this movie acts as if it was the white people who made the difference, when this is simply not the case. The second fatal flaw in the movie The Help is, perhaps, more subtle. First, the movie makes the situation in Jackson, Mississippi seem isolated to domestic workers, and quite civil, when in reality the situation was much more hostile and violent. There is no situation in which any movie about the civil rights movement in the Southern United States can be “light-hearted”. Secondly, the movie ends on a rather positive note (despite Aibileen being fired) because the main foe throughout the film is shown to be slightly crazy and obsessed with etiquette. Skeeter is rewarded handsomely for the success of her book, and each of the maids involved gets forty-four dollars. Moviegoers are left with a sense of relief and finality. In fact, moviegoers may even feel better about themselves thinking things like, “See white people weren’t all that bad during that time. What a happy film.” In addition, at the conclusion of this movie there is a sense given that the issues and problems dealt with throughout the film are static and exist solely in 1962, when this is definitely not the case. Racism and violence ravaged the South for the rest of the decade and still persist today. Since writing this article I have read a few other reviews which share a similar theme, however none of the articles have been published in mainstream media outlets nor have they garnered very much attention. Regardless of this view on the film, it is clear that The Help has garnered a great deal of Oscar buzz. If one good thing can come of this movie it will be that Viola Davis, who plays Aibileen Clark, wins an Oscar for her role because she is truly a phenomenal actress.