Member review

‘The Help’, is a powerful film about the equality in 1960’s and how it only takes one caring person to make a difference that can affect so many people.

In 1960’s Mississippi, Southern society girl Skeeter (Emma Stone) returns from college with dreams of being a writer. She turns her small town on its ear by choosing to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent white families.

The film, ‘The Help’, is based on a book from 2009 by Kathryn Stockett, and is an extremely powerful, but also emotional film about equality in the 1960’s, and even though in the 1960’s owning a slave is illegal, black and white americans are still segregated from each other, with ‘jim crow laws’ and the constant fear of shootings. Becoming a maid in the 1960’s was the only job for a black american woman which made white mothers distant from their own children and could barely interact with them, because it was important to still be social, so the black american maids would have to look after the white children, more so than their own. Even though black americans were still repressed, they were fighting for equality in using freedom riots with one of the most memorable black american figure heads as Martin Luther King Jr. and in fact in 1963 250,000 people, black and white, came to see his, ‘I have a dream’, speech, which influenced many in the fight for equality, however on the 3rd of april in 1968 he was assassinated due to what he was supporting. Even though he died his legacy lived on, so much so that, even if for a brief moment, he is mentioned in the film, to give honour to his name and what he accomplished for black americans in the fight for their civil rights.

However, there has been a lot of controversy around both the book, written by Kathryn Stockett, and the film by Tate Taylor, both white americans. It is not difficult to see why people would feel a bit odd about white americans writing a book and producing a film about black americans being oppressed in the 1960’s, when they would never even though what it would be like to be treated the way black americans where. Another point to make would be that the film mentions people like Martin Luther King Jr. and other figure heads towards the rights of black americans, however it doesn’t explicitly mention the tackle at civil rights, except for more of a side note, which can be seen as avoiding the issue of society at the time the film is based on.

After reviewing the film, it is easy to see to how the film won many awards such as Paul Selvin Award, National Board of Review Award for Best Cast and BET Award for Best Movie. I can guarantee that after watching this film you will find yourself having a different outlook, appreciating the history of which it is representing and understanding how far we have come as a society today.