Year: 2004                              Release Date:  February 15, 2004

Starring: Hilary Swank, Frances O’Connor, Angelica Huston, Brooke Smith, Patrick Dempsey

The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution enfranchised women and this HBO movie tells the story of the women who fought for the right to participate in the most cherished right held by United States citizens.  It’s 1913, and two young suffragists, Alice Paul and Doris Stevens (Hilary Swank and Frances O’Connor), petition Carrie Catt (Angelica Huston) to hold a parade in Washington, D.C. the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.

This movie provides a dichotomy.  First, there is the dichotomy between the old-school suffragists trying to win the vote one state at a time and the new suffragist…young, radical, and hot.  Then there are two parts to this movie.  The first part plays like a 1910’s Sex and the City with these girls concerned with men, drinking, smoking, fashion, and the right to vote.  Throw in a male political cartoonist (Patrick Dempsey) for a little romance and one creepy scene and I wished I had remembered that I could have changed the channel.  The second part, however, picks up steam with the beginning of World War I and the suffragists are picketing the White House.  Riots result and the picketers are arrested for “obstructing traffic.”  Pleading “not guilty” and refusing to pay a fine for a crime they did not commit, the women go to jail where Alice Paul begins a hunger strike.  After being sent to the mental ward and being force fed, public sentiment begins to sway, and Wilson, like any good President, pushes for a change to the Constitution and the movie finishes with the ratification of the 19^th Amendment.

While I cannot recommend this movie, I did appreciate viewing the struggle for a right that is taken for granted in today’s society.  It is hard to imagine with the faces of the present presidential election that less than 100 years ago almost one-half the population was disenfranchised.  I also appreciated the civil disobedience more likely inspired by Thoreau than Martin Luther King and Ghandi.  There is a note at the end of the movie that the U.S. Court of Appeals held the sentences of the women unconstitutional and overturned them.  Also, HBO has a great website for the movie that includes the historical background found here.  It’s just too hard to get past the goofy camera work and ode to Sex and the City and the inclusion of the Patrick Dempsey character.

One and a half Gavels.