|
Everything revolving
around
The
Help
is kind of a
phenomenal story.
The novel that the
movie is based on is
excellent and so is
the movie itself.
This story about
African American
women in the south
finding a tremendous
amount of courage to
do what they thought
was right is an
amazing story. The
making of the movie
is just as
incredible though
and that makes
The
Help
feel like one of the
most genuine movies
to be released in
recent history. That
genuine quality
explodes off the
screen with every
actor and with Tate
Taylor’s direction.
Everyone knows that
the 60’s in the
south wasn’t a proud
period in American
history. Especially
Mississippi, the
civil rights record
of Mississippi in
that time period is
disgraceful.
The
Help
takes place during
this era and has
three main
characters--three
very courageous
heroines at its
center. The first is
aspiring author
Eugenia ‘Skeeter’
Phelan (Emma Stone.)
After going to
college and
returning home she
decides to break the
rules of society and
write a book giving
a voice to women who
weren’t allowed to
have one. Instead of
writing about what
women were supposed
to write about
during that era-
housework and how to
catch a husband-
Skeeter decided to
do an
interview-based
novel that gave a
voice to the African
American maids in
the south. Not only
was segregation and
Jim Crow a horrible
travesty for black
women in Mississippi
and its surrounding
states, they had to
deal with abominably
racist bosses.
Although slavery was
abolished after the
Civil War it existed
economically for
decades afterwards.
Black men and women
were treated
horribly; the tale
of an African
American maid wasn’t
a pleasant one. They
raised several white
children- basically
mothered them- only
to have those kids
turn around and
treat them like
servants when they
grow up. The two
maids that Skeeter
interviewed were
Ailibeleen Clark and
Minny Jackson. Both
of these women did
what they had to do
to survive and feed
their families, but
after they’d
suffered enough and
saw everyone around
them get treated so
badly they decided
to fight back with
Skeeter to tell
their story and
publish a novel
about the help and
their plights- the
good and the bad.
The movie is a
courageous tale
about these three
women finding the
courage to do what’s
right.
There have been tons
of novel-to-film
adaptations over the
years but for some
reason most of the
time they get it
wrong. Because the
author of the novel
Kathryn Stockett and
director Tate Taylor
were childhood
friends this
adaptation was as
particularly
seamless. The way
you imagine these
characters while
you’re reading the
book is the way they
are depicted in the
film. Those
characters are
extremely believable
and they hold up
remarkably well.
That’s a credit to
the source material
and the job of the
producer and the
director. The other
cool thing about the
movie and how it was
tailored is that in
the novel, there are
roughly eight
chapters that just
set up the story and
introduce us to
these characters.
The film doesn’t do
that and that’s
actually a good
thing. It touches on
what’s important
about each character
and then lets the
rest of it play out
visually as the
movie goes on.
The fact that this
movie is genuine is
what makes it so
great. That genuine
quality is partly
because that they
shot the film in
Mississippi but it
goes further than
that too. Tate
Taylor is a young
director but he’s
been attached to
this story since the
beginning. And
Taylor and author
Kathryn Stockett
each grew up with
African American
women who took care
of them and enriched
their lives and
inspired them to
tell this story.
Octavia Spencer and
Tate Taylor are
great friends,
Allison Janney who
plays Skeeter’s
mother in the movie
is in that same
network of friends
with Taylor and all
of these
relationships pay
dividends on
screen.This network
of friends did a
tremendous job of
bringing this story
to life.
The
bonus features on
The
Help
are great. The
deleted scenes of
course were deleted
for a reason but
they’re still okay
to watch through.
The highlight of the
bonus feature is a
making of feature
that runs at roughly
a half hour. You get
Taylor, Spencer,
Stockett, Janney,
and a few others
talking about that
network of friends
and their experience
growing up in
Mississippi. It’s a
wonderful making-of
feature for fans of
the novel and the
movie.
The
Help
is a terrific movie.
Stockett’s story is
a wonderfully
written novel and it
makes a fantastic
movie. Tate Taylor
did a terrific job
making this movie in
Mississippi to
capture the proper
environment of the
film. This is easily
one of the best
movies of 2011 and
it’s a must watch.
|