Less than
100 years after all adult women in the UK were finally granted the vote, a film
about the struggle to gain that basic democratic right emerges. With a dream
team of female talent in front of and behind the camera, Sarah Gavron's
Suffragette is a gripping start, but it becomes clear that there is far more of
this true story of tremendous sacrifice left to be told.
Suffragette
makes the interesting decision to follow fictional character Maud Watts (Carey
Mulligan) from washer woman and poverty-stricken working mother to militant suffragette
engaged in escalating actions against the government. To the detriment of her
own family life, she joins Edith Ellyn’s (Helena Bonham Carter) group of East
London women who are spurred on by the currently in-hiding Emmeline Pankhurst
(Meryl Streep). As Inspector Steed (Brendon Gleeson) keeps a close eye on the
women, their civil disobedience becomes more volatile and threatens to land
them all in prison.
To a young
audience raised in a world increasingly full of strong women who may never have
even questioned their right to vote, the suffragette's struggle looks at once
completely ludicrous, and at the same time teeth-grindingly infuriating. How
dare men decide that women didn't deserve the vote? It’s an unimaginable
situation that seems preposterous, but is still sadly relevant. The closing
crawl of the film indicates the year that women got the vote in other countries
of the world, and unbelievably the UK was far from the most recent.
Suffragette
sits neatly alongside 12 Years a Slave as a document of the Western world's
recent history where depressing barbarity was carried out in the name of old
white men who were desperate to never let any power slip from their hands. The
working class washer women in Suffragette are little more than slaves, being
paid far less and working longer hours than their male counterparts. Those that
speak out against the unfairness of the system are beaten, threatened,
humiliated, ridiculed and made to feel ashamed.
And this is
where the true tragedy of Suffragette lies. Because while it covers the famous
incident involving Emily Davison's brave sacrifice involving the King's horse,
it's really the story of ordinary women engaged in everyday action. Even
Streep's Pankhurst only appears for a single scene, though her inspiration and
influence is felt throughout. Maud sacrifices so much for the cause, including
her beloved son and her job, and it is this tension between doing what she
wants (to see her son) and what she must do (make the world a better place for
future generations of women) that is so heart-wrenching.
Suffragette
feels just as relevant today as it would have been in 1912. Women are abused,
belittled and laughed at by men. But they also face the impossibly difficult
choice of often wanting to manage a family with a desire to do something potentially
more fulfilling outside of the home. It's a choice which Suffragette pointedly
shows a single father tragically failing to consider. It also deals with the
notion of what is basically terrorist action, as the women have become fed up
with not being listened to, and decide on a policy of non-violent but
destructive disobedience. In its mentions of police surveillance and brutality,
and the media's tendency to ridicule those who threaten the status quo,
Suffragette constantly reminds of none-more-contemporary issues.
For a
period drama, Suffragette feels righteous and urgent in its fury. The
performances are uniformly excellent, particularly Mulligan and Anne-Marie
Duff, while Gavron's direction is best when highlighting the horrors of hard
labour in the laundry and more so, the barbarity of the women's treatment
during prison stints. It’s a shame not to learn more about Emily Davison as she
plays such a fundamental role in the climax, but Suffragette's focus on the
fictional Maud makes for an incredibly emotive journey.
Watch the trailer:
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