Suffragette [DVD] [2015]

Insecure men, nervous and fearful of women, an old misogynous story, highlighted here in this fine film concerning the rise of the suffragette movement in early 20th century England.Patriarchy is always a form of demagoguery, men unprepared to acknowledge and accept women as equals. The established laws say inequality is natural, but these are created by male authority — divine, secular or both. Tradition and history have pronounced the laws right and just, but in all cases no one has bothered to ask women what they think and want. This film is exemplary in showing what can happen when the needs and rights of women are ignored for too long.‘Suffragette’ was originally a term of abuse and derision coined by The Daily Mail in 1906. It was meant to belittle and ridicule women who were fighting for equal rights, including the right to vote. The earlier, less abusive term for such women was ‘suffragists’. The suffragists were more moderate in tone and practice than suffragettes. They were also less effective, unwilling to challenge the status quo with radical thinking and action. By being well-behaved, their words were heard, but always patronisingly. Action was needed, not talk. Or “deeds, not words,” as Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) would famously say. She of course was the street-fighting founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), created in 1903 in Manchester, a necessary upgrade over tepid women’s groups such as the Women’s Freedom League (WFL) and the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the latter founded by Millicent Garrett Fawcett, another famous feminist. Had these earlier women’s groups been politically successful, there would have been no historical rationale for the suffragettes to come into existence. But they weren’t, so the suffragettes did. Those in power (men) paid lip service to the demands of the WFL and NUWSS. These groups were going nowhere and Mrs. Pankhurst knew it. So she upped the political ante by creating and nurturing a group of women who dared to be militant, to use guerrilla tactics, to act, not talk, to fight for their rights. And in so doing her women became modern heroines, proud feminists.This is their story, or a portion of it, beautifully told. It pays tribute to their dedication and courage. Like many modern historical films, it uses both real figures from history and fictional characters to tell the story. For the most part we see real people from the past represented in the film, though the main character, Maud Watts, a 24-year-old laundress, is an amalgam of working-class women of the time. She is married to Sonny, who also works at the large laundry in London’s East End. The year is 1912. They have one child, a boy named George, aged 4 or 5. Maud is a loving mother and dutiful wife. Family and work form the centre of her life, her energies going into both. But it’s home she loves, not work. Home is freedom, work oppression. She toils long hours on the job for low wages, scrubbing, cleaning, washing. The hot vats steam with chemicals, including ammonia. Breathing it in all day is unsafe and she knows it. She sees others coughing, does so herself. But if she wants to keep her job and wages, she’s powerless to do anything about it. So she bears down and endures.Sonny is supportive emotionally. He clearly loves her, though he lacks an emotional vocabulary to express it. He’s a working class lad with limited education. Together they provide a warm nest for George in their simple, cramped rooms. So, all is basically well, at least domestically.One morning her boss Mr. Taylor (bully, sexist, lecher, groper) sends her on an errand. She’s to deliver a parcel to a shop called Buckley’s in the West End. She takes a bus to Oxford Street, hops off, crosses the street. On the busy pavement she pauses to look at fashions in the windows of a department store. The scene looks peaceful but isn’t, or soon won’t be. Violence erupts. Some women pushing baby prams have large rocks in them, not babies. On cue they hurl the rocks at the large plate-glass windows. Glass shatters across the pavement. Maud slips and falls, slightly injuring a wrist. Frightened and confused, she hurries home, parcel undelivered.Outside the department store Maud has seen Violet Miller hurling rocks with the others. Violet works in the laundry with Maud. She’s a newcomer, only having been there three weeks. Violet saw Maud there too and imagines she is sympathetic to the suffragette cause. She says to Maud the next day:“We meet Mondays and Thursdays at Ellyn’s Pharmacy, if you’re interested.”Maud isn’t.A day or two later she goes to the pharmacy anyway to buy medicines for son George. There she meets Edith Ellyn, a suffragette, and her husband, Mr. Ellyn, who is loyal to his wife, sympathetic to her cause. As Maud is about to pay Edith says she needn’t, a kindly gesture though one tempered perhaps by an ulterior motive. Edith knows Maud knows Violet. More young women are needed for the cause.A day or two later Mrs. Haughton, the wife of a prominent MP, visits the laundry. Actually, she stays outside across the street from it, standing on a box. There, once work is over, she gives her oration to the waves of working women filing past her in the street, saying the following to a small group of women who have stopped to listen:“We are equal to men in our labours, so we should be equal to them in our right to vote. This is the moment for you to come forward and speak up. I will choose one person from this laundry to deliver their testimony at the House of Commons. Testimonies will be heard by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lloyd George.”After speaking Mrs. Haughton hands out fliers to the assembled, including one to Maud. Afterwards Violet says to Maud:“It’s as tough for us women as it’s ever been. We’ve got to do whatever we can, however we can.”In reply Maud says:“What, like smashing windows? It’s not respectable.”Violet: “If you want me to respect the law, then make the law respectable.”Violet’s husband is an abusive drunk. She has little recourse but to take his blows when he’s plastered, as the Domestic Violence Act, designed to protect women from such abuse, will not exist in Britain for nearly another 70 years (enacted in 1976).Mrs. Haughton had selected Violet to give testimony in the Commons in the presence of Lloyd George. But with an blackened eye she’s in no condition to appear. Very reluctantly Maud agrees to give testimony in her stead. What can she say face-to-face with the future Prime Minister of England? Not very much, as it transpires. She has no idea what to tell him. Instead, she honestly and meekly answers questions Lloyd George wonders about: her wages, hours, working conditions, etc.Though she cannot know yet how effective her testimony was, she is cautiously hopeful, as are the others. But a fortnight later when Lloyd George faces a crowd of women that includes Maud and Violet, his answer is not affirmative. Maud’s testimony has had no impact. Mrs. Pankhurst is right: words don’t work. The women are incensed, shouting at him, denouncing him as a coward and hypocrite, and if body language is anything to go by, he resembles these things, slinking away to his hansom cab, shoulders hunched, head lowered. He knows he is spineless but too cowardly to do anything about it, caught in one of the vicious circles life likes to offer up.Little by little, without giving most of the story away, Maud is drawn into the women’s movement and will herself become a suffragette. It happens incrementally, experientially, not ideologically. She isn’t bookish and intellectual. She’s decent and honest, which probably counts for more.She will suffer for her loyalty and solidarity. She will be subjected to abuse and loss, to arrest, confinement and brutality. But she won’t be alone. Those who fight with her will become something greater than friends, spiritual comrades, as it were.The street battles continued until the First World War put a stop to them and many others things in 1914. The vote was important, would always be important, but for now all energies had to be poured into the war effort, national survival being even more important than the vote.In 1918, the war against German aggression was won. Victory may have been sweet, but the country was exhausted, gutted. It had given its all to win the thing. That included the women, who did most of the factory work while the men were on the Continent, dying in their millions in muddy trenches. The women helped win the munitions war, and afterwards, acknowledging this, Parliament finally came to its senses and granted the vote (in limited form) to women. All those 30 years of age or more were free to register to vote. They did so in droves. That year Constance Markiewicz became the first woman MP in Britain. More would follow, especially after full voting privileges were finally granted to women in 1928, well after New Zealand (1893) and Australia (1902).How important was the work of Mrs. Pankhurst, her daughters, and that of all the other suffragettes? Incalculable can be the only honest answer. The vote would have eventually come, but it was they who pushed and fought for it, were harassed and arrested and jailed for it. They say Thomas Carlyle’s epic three-volume account of the French Revolution, which Emmeline read as a teenager, was forever the closest book to her heart. If she fought like a revolutionary, it’s because she was one. She especially loved the fact that she was born on July 14, Bastille Day. Time magazine wrote that she was one of the most influential persons of the 20th century, ranking her 64th on their list of 100 people. She ranks even higher (27th place) on the BBC list of the greatest Britons of all time. There is a statue of her in London’s Victoria Tower Gardens. It was erected in 1930, just two years after her death. And, after a public vote in January 2016, a new statue of her will be unveiled in 2019 in Manchester, her place of birth and the city where she came of age politically. Her portrait can also be seen in the National Portrait Gallery in London.She could be autocratic, stubborn and inflexible, but she was also resolute, brave and compassionate, especially with the poor, inspiring the same qualities in thousands of other women (and men). It is good that she is remembered again here in this beautiful film, and played with such luminous grace by the incomparable Meryl Streep, surely the finest American actress of her generation.The film is a women’s film, of course, and one made by women: Sarah Gavron (director), Abi Morgan (writer). But it’s a film for everyone, or for those among us who understand the value and importance of social justice and equality for all. The suffragettes, as this film understands, cannot be praised highly enough.

This isn't based on hard facts, it's a depiction of women's journey through the suffragette movement and the hardships they likely endured.It shows how women were viewed and treated before the vote, and what they were willing to give to be seen as equal. Well acted, heartbreaking story. Watched it twice in one day!

I really enjoyed this film, it tells the story of the suffragettes in a concise way but is no less effective for that. The struggle for women's right to vote went on for such a long time, and it's hard to compress that into the time of a movie. I liked the way it highlighted the abuse of the women in the laundry by their male supervisor, this was all too common and seen as perfectly normal and acceptable (a situation which carried on for many decades even after women got the right to vote!)The central character developed from an ignorant and put-upon young woman into an experienced campaigner and suffragette fighting for her rights and supporting her comrades in arms. The portrayal of Mrs Pankhurst by Meryl Streep was excellent, she captured the essence of her, whilst Anne-Marie Duff as Violet Miller gave a powerful performance as a battered wife and the mother of the abused teenager Maggie (who was also suffering at the hands of the male laundry supervisor).My main disquiet was the portrayal of Emily Davison as a gauche uneducated young woman, she was in fact educated, having attended Kensington High School, then Royal Holloway College in London and St Hugh's at Oxford from which her gender prevented her graduating with a first class degree. She had worked as a governess and a teacher, and at her death she was 41 years old, so not at all the young woman portrayed in the film.Despite that, this is a powerful film which is well-worth watching, as a reminder of how hard the struggle to gain the right to vote was a century ago, and how important it is for all of us who have that right to use it on every possible occasion!

Very good film easy watching loved it.

A very compelling tale, of the suffragettes fight for equality and the right to vote.The film draws on a lot of historical research, which adds clout to the story telling. The cinematography sets and costume design are wonderful, very authentic and the acting is first class. From Helena Bonham Carter, and Carey Mulligan. Strongly recommend this film it is detailed and heart felt, of this feisty group of women. Who went to great lengths to achieve their goals and make their voices heard!

This film attempts to show the progress of the suffragette direct action movement through 1912-1913 through the eyes of a (fictional) character played by Carey Mulligan.I feel that the film did quite well in showing the difficulties of being a woman at that time, and some of the family stuff was actually very moving indeed and got the fact across that women actually had no control over any aspect of their lives.Where it was just a little off for me was in its depictions of the activist women themselves, and the vast simplification of events and politics at that time towards the suffrage movement.Whilst it was an entertaining film, and may have the benefit of prompting some people to look into the history, it was another example of Hollywood hanging a narrative around some vague and distorted history.

A beautiful portrait of what these women fought for, our right as women to vote, to be equal to men and to vote. I was shocked to learn how late Britain was, how New Zealand was the first, then Australia, how hard these wonderful women fought for us, and how even now some women wont go an vote.....but they cant be bothered. I hope a new generation of women are touched by this film and realise what a precious gift the suffragettes gave us, fought so hard to allow us the right to vote.I was shocked at how late some countries were to get the vote for women, in early 21st Century?!