Review of Suffragette (2015) by Kenr — 26 Mar 2023

Suffragette – There’s more to this Story.

What could have been a strong historical statement is given a somewhat ‘them against us’ treatment, which unfortunately has become typical of the feminist driven B.F.I. of recent years. Here, the writers focus on the fictional character played by Carey Mulligan, to draw a generally manipulative view of the hard-earned plight of voting rights for women. It seems that history sees it differently from the BFI and too many details of these events have been left un-examined (this can be researched by anyone interested in history) What this story needs is a fact-based treatment by a documentarian of the caliber of Ken Burns. Director Sarah Gavron and writer Abi Morgan spend too much time focusing on one aspect of this event in history and leave too much unexplored. We are treated to only one brief scene involving any political discussion surrounding this tumultuous time, and too much on the struggle of a fictional character. As for the films design, it’s too claustrophobic to become fully engaged. Every scene is shot using dark murky fog filters with overuse of close-ups, all created using a cheap wobble-cam-hand-held-camera style. Those not concerned with cinematic technicalities may not be overly bothered with this but others will, and have been left disappointed. As a plus, young Adam Michael is superb as Mulligan’s son. Many men of the day supported the votes for women’s movement, but here we are lucky to find only one. It’s a reasonably engaging opus but could have and should have been far better. It’s interesting that we don’t know if Emily Davison suicided or only wanted to display her banner on the king's horse and was trampled in the attempt. There are two schools of thought on this.