Review of North Country (2005) by Millerac — 06 Mar 2016

It’s 1989, women are suppressed in America and lack the respect they need in a ‘man's world’. It use to be when sexual harassment was tried in court, you didn’t have a chance, no cases at the time were successful. In North Country, a single mother named Josey Aimes ad recently gone through a divorce. She was in an abusive relationship, and sought to get away with her two children. They arrive at her parent’s house in Minnesota where she stayed for very little time due to her father’s disapproval of her divorce. She needed money to support her family, and insisted living in her own house. She finds a job at a local iron mine. The story follows her as she deals with intimidation from her male coworkers who believe women don’t have a place with them. As she tries to ignore the problem it only worsens. They constantly harass her, making unwanted advances, and going as far as pushing a porta potty over while she’s still in it. Ouraged by the physical abuse and explicit insults, she tries to end the problem by reporting it to the company manager, only for them to laugh and threaten to fire her if she can’t deal with it on her own.

She tries to get her other female coworkers to aid in ending the situation, but they don’t want to get involved and basically state that they ‘know their place.’ Her family and friends caution her not to file a sexual harassment case, but finds a lawyer and disregards their remarks. In court she is booed by the men, and her female coworkers decide not to act as witness’. Her disapproving father who had also worked at the mines decides to take a stand for his daughter and the crowd falls silent. Still not getting her point across, her ex boyfriend from high school takes the stand and says everything is a lie. They bring up her argument about being sexually assaulted in highschool by her teacher. He was an eyewitness and at first disagreed. After the court recess, he decided to comply and acknowledged that she was in fact ‘taken advantage of.” The case continues for hours. Finally, the historical case was won in the end with the assist of her lawyer, family, and friends.

North Country was based off of a true story and was a crucial part of women’s rights. Not only was is one of the only successful cases at the time, but it lead to other vital events. It generated change in business for women. Not only are women able to work in “men’s jobs”, they’re gaining admiration and respect as company leaders. With further examination of this occurrence, it was a landmark for the woman’s world, giving other females the courage they needed to continue to fight for their rights. As melancholy as this genuine story may be, seeing the emotional events that took place in this film helped show women, and how they were trying to break free from the stereotypical norms of society. I’d recommend this film as it is very educational on civil rights, and emphasizes the historical importance of Josey’s milestone case, and it’s feminine influence in America.