The Help - TV Panel with Matt (12A) and Dan (12B) D: Hello and welcome to One and a Half Critical Men. The show where I, Daniel Garlick and Matthew Ng talk about movies in depth. This episode we will be talking about the 2011 film, ‘The Help.’ M: So this film was directed by Tate Taylor and featured actresses Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer and Bryce Dallas Howard. It received 4 Academy Award nominations and was given a 4 out of 5 star rating on imdb. This 2011 drama was adapted by Kathryn Stockett’s acclaimed novel, ‘The Help.’ D: The synopsis of the film involves a group of African American maids who work for white families in the 1960s Jackson Mississippi. A journalist called Skeeter played by Emma Stone, wants to find a job …show more content…
For example, when an African American maid called Minnie, played by Octavia Spencer, is beaten by her husband for being fired by Hillie played by Howard, the main antagonist, it fits the time period and the struggles of the African Americans perfectly as back in the 1960s, the struggles that they were facing were high rates of unemployment and poverty, if you lost your job that would basically be it. So seeing this in the film was awesome and I think it positioned the viewers to see the harshness of the world back then. The representation of Minnie though makes her seem like a woman with a lot of sass which is kind of stereotypical when you think about …show more content…
That moment is insulting on so many levels. The scene basically just involves Hillie telling her other girlfriends in a casual matter that “The blacks have different diseases, that’s why they need to use the other bathroom.” The reasons why it’s offensive is that to start, the woman basically talk about it right in front of Abilene. The topic is just so casual to them they don’t realise it’s insulting. That sort of careless racism is just crushing, and so great for the development of characters. In one go, it sets up Hilly as the obvious antagonist, and also shows Abileen to be this incredibly strong woman, who’s being persecuted almost continuously. And that’s the feeling that you get, when you watch it. That this is not a once off conversation. This has been going on for years. The viewers really get a shock from this scene which is
New worldly conflicts arise everyday and many of these conflicts make us question our morals as individuals and as a nation. In both “Flight Patterns” and “The Help: A Feel-Good Movie That Feels Kind of Icky” we are introduced into the conflicts that race bring about in everyday life. It is indisputable that race is hard to talk about and everyone seems to have a different stance on what is racism and what is not. In both stories, race is brought up and talked about in a way that is solely bringing truth to the issue. In Sherman Alexie’s story we see the thought process about race from someone who is not white, and in Dana Stevens’ story we see how a white woman sees controversy in a film that is supposed to be about black women. Both stories
The views of African-Americans have changed drastically from the 1930s to 1980s and the film industry has been able to captures some of the more dramatic changes on film. Dating back to the 1930s, there has been films produced that depicted African-Americans as docile individuals who live to serve white families. As times changed and America made progress in integration of cultures, African-American rose to a new role on the big screen. Initially, African-Americans were introduced on the screen as closer equals to their white counter parts. However, these films did not accurately depict African-Americans as whites wrote the roles. America made greater strides towards equality in all areas, including the film industry that allowed for the development of new roles for African-Americans. This grittier and more intense approach was only achieved through African-Americans taking on the major behind the scenes. African-Americans were only to achieve a more accurate depiction onscreen as American’s perceptions of race were challenged over a 50-year period and African-Americans took on roles behind the scenes.
I am reviewing The Help by Kathryn Stockett.The Help is a powerful,truth-filled story set in the early 1960s in Jackson,Mississippi.It is a novel about black African American maids working in white households and being treated unfairly.
In conclusion, the ideas of prejudice and racial discrimination are the binding of the story, providing readers with an interest and a longing to finish the book. The novel also incorporates a various amount of details and important events that shaped the book to complete supremacy. Including hostile actions and fallouts of friends, the rebellion of the overbearing minority, and the complete destruction of a an everyday town. Also, the ending of the work involves the type of ending the general public expects, with a twist of heartache for the characters that did not quite come out on top. To conclude, The Help is a very popular book due to it’s tear jerking plot twists and down to earth characters almost anybody can relate to.
In my perspective, I thought that The Help by Katheryn Stockett was an exciting and special book which enhanced me views or race, class, and gender. This fantastic book gave me the thought of how life was like down in Mississippi during the 1960's. The Help gave me different standpoints and characteristics that had taken place with places still segregated by the color of their own skin. These viewpoints hit my mind that gave me the option to judge the book by how life was viewed upon by society in the past and present time.
...rokaw, Rosanne Cash, Wally Lamb, James Mcbride, Anna Quinden, Richard Russo, Scott Turrow, Oprah Winfrey, and Andrew Young. FirstRun Features, 2011. Film.
Nationalities in society today have a stereotype that they are unfortunately characterized by. People assume that Asians are smart and good at martial arts, that the Irish swear too much and consume too much alcohol, that Americans are obese and lazy, and that African Americans are criminals into drugs and are in prison. These stereotypes make everyone of one nationality to be the same as individuals. There are, of course, people who fit the stereotype, which is how the stereotype came to be, but there is a large number of people who defy the stereotype of their race. The film industry helps to reiterate the stereotypes of certain races by matching the race of the actor with the character in the film for a certain effect. African Americans, specifically, in modern day films have been frequently seen to both
For many years, African Americans have faced the challenge of being accurately and positively portrayed within mainstream media, such as American made films. They are often represented as people who are inferior to those of the Caucasian race, and are frequently presented with problems that are related to racial discrimination. The portrayal of African Americans in media such as movies has often been considered a large contributing factor to the racial tensions that still exist in our world today (Lemons, 1977). The movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, sheds light on the portrayal of African Americans in movies, and how stereotypes can greatly impact the lives of those who are not of the Caucasian race.
Moreover, the woman in the ?eye of the Beholder? not only wanted beauty but she felt the need for acceptance. She was denied this when she was taken to a disability camp. It?s amazing how in the movie, people were separated and treated unequally because of their physical appearances, and as result, they could not share the same society. This is in fact is a metaphor for how discrimination was once in extreme existence in this society. For example, African Americans once had to use: different bathrooms, water fountains, and were even segregated to non-white school. They were even isolated to the worse parts of the cities.
She shows how these fictions are woven into the fabric of everyday life in Jackson, from the laws to ordinary conversations, and how these beliefs get passed from generation to generation. It shows a deep mistrust of whites on the part of the black community, who have been betrayed by them again and again. It also shows how powerful and how dangerous it can be to challenge the stereotypes and dissolve the lines that are meant to separate people from each other on the basis of skin
W. Griffith wanted to show that blacks were inferior to the white population. African Americans were considered, uneducated, monsters, and violent. Throughout the film whites were trying their hardest to keep African Americans from gaining too much power, or any power at all. D. W. Griffith wanted to convey the message that it was a mistake to give black people freedom, and African Americans were not smart enough to handle power or freedom. In certain scenes, director D. W. Griffith showed blackface actors acting violent, drunk, and smoking. Throughout the film there were lynchings to put black people back where they belonged. If there were any black actors throughout the movie, they were either servants or slaves. In a scene with African Americans being servants, there are smiles on their faces, and what seems to be happiness while being servants. White people started to get the message that African Americans were happy to be subservient to whites. D. W. Griffith was telling this story through the eyes of a white man, he wanted whites to believe that slavery was wonderful for African Americans, and that they always wanted to work for whites. There was not a very positive relationship between African Americans and whites throughout the movie. Although a law was passed for interracial marriage, it was still not accepted by either
...Their dialogues included nothing very intellectually stimulating, which would suggest a lack of intelligence. By portraying the characters as such, the film was able to represent the judgmental racial stereotypes commonly associated with African Americans.
In the story “The Help” written by Kathryn Stockett we are taken back in time to Jackson, Mississippi in August of 1962, were we meet three women by the name of Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are black women who work for white families as the help. Skeeter is a young white woman in her early twenties who befriends the other two and gets them to tell their stories of what its is like to be the help. The reluctantly hesitate, but eventually give in knowing that the stories they are telling are more important than the negative impact it could have on their lives.
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
I decided to review “Silver Linings Playbook”, which is based on a romantic-comedy novel written by Matthew Quick. It was produced in 2012 by The Weinstein, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro.