Review of Suffragette (2015) by Dan L — 05 Jul 2018

The only question I have in regards to Suffragette, why did they put Meryl Streep on the poster? I mean, I know the answer ? she's an A-list star. But I think it's a bummer that Violet Cambridge and Emily Wilding Davison, two actors who had more screen time and whose characters contributed more to the plot. They deserved more.

Other than that, though, Suffragette is a movie that accurately shows just how much women in the UK had to suffer to achieve the rights to vote. It's a lesson we all learned in schools, but the movie allows us to really see how it was, how women were treated as lesser beings than men. Suffragette has weight, because it lets the audience see everything, all the gritty bits of historical fact that some will omit from textbooks. One scene that I was really shocked by was the force-feeding scene. I knew it had happened because I learned about it, but when I saw it reenacted onscreen, it just . . . hit me. The real gravity of the matter, how these forms of oppression and violence existed back then, and still do now. Suffragette, with its strong direction and minimal musical store to emphasize the raw drama, desired to deliver its heavy yet important message to the audience, and it worked.

This, however, would never have happened without the talented cast behind the movie. I first approached this movie because I've seen Carey Mulligan before, in Doctor Who. I finished Suffragette and I kept thinking that this was an amazing performance. Maud's hardships, from being wrongly detained and beaten, to being forcefully separated from her boy, are emphasized through Carey's incredible acting, and I couldn't help but be amazed. Helena Bonham Carter, Violet Cambridge and Emily Wilding Davison all acted incredibly as well. I'd like to give them all a standing ovation.

Here's my honest thought: Suffragette (2015) is just the beginning. Starting from a film about white women fighting for their rights, we need to see movies depicting the fight of women of all skin colors, of all sexualities. We need that, we really do. Therefore, I'm glad Suffragette marked the beginning of that movement. This matters, to everyone.