The point of this movie is not to advance a plot or develop characters. The point is to explain how a society like Gilead can come into being, and to provide a lens for viewing that dystopia and what a chilling view that is.
The movie explores these major themes:
Language as a tool of power
Women's bodies as political instruments
The complicity, explicit and implicit, of those who are oppressed in supporting totalitarianism
Given the limited time of a movie, A Handmaid's Tale does a remarkably good job of this exploration. As in Nazi society, the oppressed are given derogatory labels: Jews are referred to as "Sons of Jacob;" African-Americans are "Children of Ham,"; feminists are "unwomen." These labels separate them from the rest of society, thereby making it easier to persecute. The naming conventions of handmaids and the ritualized greetings they give each other reinforce their role in their society.
The other two themes are intertwined. There is no way the men of Gilead could control women's reproduction unless they give some bit of privilege to a select group of women, with their price for that privilege being to repress the majority of women. This strategy recalls the use of Jewish police by the Nazi Gestapo in WWII, and the use of "trustys" in modern prisons. The Wives and Aunts serve this function in Gilead, and Faye Dunaway, the Wife in the household in which Offred serves, gives a nuanced performance of a Wife. She is by turns indifferent and cruel to Offred, but shows subtle signs of deep unhappiness with her lot. She is also covertly subversive, willing to let the gardener impregnate Offred, when it becomes clear that her husband cannot, for the status that having a child conveys in Gilead.
Robert Duvall, as the Commander of the household, is the only major figure allowed any individuality, and he turns in a rich performance. Treating Offred like a favored slave, he reveals himself as both a misogynist, unable/unwilling to understand the suffocation of women that his society imposes, and as a lonely man, a victim of the rigid roles that his society requires.
Offred, played by Elizabeth McGovern, presented a bit of a problem for me. Portrayed as someone who is gradually surrendering to her circumstances, I was surprised by the change from her as melancholy and passive to someone who is lively and passionate, leading to a climactic act that seemed completely out of character. I learned that this development diverges from the source book on the which the movie is based. While I understand the desire for dramatic tension on the part of the filmmakers, Offred's continued passivity in the book makes a lot more sense.
Even with this flaw, the movie packed an emotional punch for me, given the parallels with the theocratic-leaning Bush administration and Nazi Germany. I suspect that the film's cautionary messages will resonate with many Americans.
The movie explores these major themes:
Language as a tool of power
Women's bodies as political instruments
The complicity, explicit and implicit, of those who are oppressed in supporting totalitarianism
Given the limited time of a movie, A Handmaid's Tale does a remarkably good job of this exploration. As in Nazi society, the oppressed are given derogatory labels: Jews are referred to as "Sons of Jacob;" African-Americans are "Children of Ham,"; feminists are "unwomen." These labels separate them from the rest of society, thereby making it easier to persecute. The naming conventions of handmaids and the ritualized greetings they give each other reinforce their role in their society.
The other two themes are intertwined. There is no way the men of Gilead could control women's reproduction unless they give some bit of privilege to a select group of women, with their price for that privilege being to repress the majority of women. This strategy recalls the use of Jewish police by the Nazi Gestapo in WWII, and the use of "trustys" in modern prisons. The Wives and Aunts serve this function in Gilead, and Faye Dunaway, the Wife in the household in which Offred serves, gives a nuanced performance of a Wife. She is by turns indifferent and cruel to Offred, but shows subtle signs of deep unhappiness with her lot. She is also covertly subversive, willing to let the gardener impregnate Offred, when it becomes clear that her husband cannot, for the status that having a child conveys in Gilead.
Robert Duvall, as the Commander of the household, is the only major figure allowed any individuality, and he turns in a rich performance. Treating Offred like a favored slave, he reveals himself as both a misogynist, unable/unwilling to understand the suffocation of women that his society imposes, and as a lonely man, a victim of the rigid roles that his society requires.
Offred, played by Elizabeth McGovern, presented a bit of a problem for me. Portrayed as someone who is gradually surrendering to her circumstances, I was surprised by the change from her as melancholy and passive to someone who is lively and passionate, leading to a climactic act that seemed completely out of character. I learned that this development diverges from the source book on the which the movie is based. While I understand the desire for dramatic tension on the part of the filmmakers, Offred's continued passivity in the book makes a lot more sense.
Even with this flaw, the movie packed an emotional punch for me, given the parallels with the theocratic-leaning Bush administration and Nazi Germany. I suspect that the film's cautionary messages will resonate with many Americans.