The Help

I had avoided going to see the movie, The Help, because of the tepid reviews.  However, we went out of curiosity and out of recommendations of friends who had gone and enjoyed the movie.  I did see, however, what the reviewers were talking about concerning the artistic value of the movie and then, something occurred to me.

A long time ago I had a discussion with my oldest granddaughter about a novel that she had been reading.  It was about the segregated American south.  I asked her how she like the novel.  As an aside, she is an English major at university so that the "ask" was not out of mere curiosity.  She said that she "liked" it.  "Liked", I asked?  "Weren't you scandalized by segregation?"  "No", she said, "that was a long time ago".

And then it struck me.  I had lived through segregation.  I had lived through virulent a Anti-Sematism.  I had lived through the holocaust.  For me, it was not a long time ago.  I can remember when the "coloured" could not drink from the same water fountain as the "whites".  For my granddaughter her novel was historical.  For me, it was visceral.  And the movie, The Help, was visceral too.  I can tell you for sure (without knowing it) that the reviewers had not lived through it.  For them the movie lacked certain artistic values.  For me it made me almost physically sick.

I cannot say that I enjoyed the movie.  I cannot say that I enjoy books and movies about the holocaust.  Enjoy is not the right word.  What I can say, however, that for most of the south, from Georgia through Mississippi through Alabama, much of the attitudes represented in the movie as still in vogue.  True we now call the "coloureds" African Americans, and they can all vote and hold public office.  True that African Americans can now go to integrated schools in the south but, let me tell you, that the social attitudes to the blacks of the region have not changed much from the attitudes in the 60s.  I had occasion to work for an extended period of time in Alabama two years ago and was appalled by the general attitude that whites had against blacks.  I have similarly worked in Georgia and the attitude towards blacks has not changed since the Civil War.  It is more genteel, it is more hidden.  But it's there.

Sometimes it is hard to remember that the American South was first populated by the French.  This part of the land did not go through the French Revolution and aristocracy and hierarchal societies die hard.  These hierarchal divisions can be seen as much among whites as they can be seen among blacks and other minorities.  For black slaves insert Hispanic day labour.  There is still white trash. There are still golf clubs that do not admit women and Jews.  Attitudes die hard.

So, go see the movie.  Not as entertainment but as a reminder of the capability of men and women in modern times want to "own" others.  If you feel sick after watching the movie then it has done its job.

Bernie.