Iron Jawed Angels (2003)

[font=Century Gothic]"Iron Jawed Angels" starts out in 1912, as two suffragists return to America from England - Alice Paul(Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns(Frances O'Connor) - and petition the women's central committee to organize and fundraise in Washington, DC. Even though the older generation is wary of the methods of the English suffragists(which included brick throwing), the committee grants permission. Once in the capital, Alice and Lucy organize a march which seemingly goes badly but also gets the activists lots of sympathetic press and an audience with President Wilson(Bob Gunton).[/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Iron Jawed Angels" serves as a valuable history lesson about the suffrage movement.(It is still timely. And even ninety years later, the Democrats are still useless.) I was surprised to realise how little I knew. The movie is not without its faults, though. The film's flashy style clashes with the period in which it is set.(It is best not to speed things up in a time when movement was remarkably slower.) It gets off to an awkward start but ends strongly.(Considering the large amount of ground to be covered, it might have been best to concentrate on the second half of the story.) And a misbegotten romantic subplot does not help.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]The cast including Anjelica Huston, Julia Ormond, Molly Parker, Brooke Smith and Vera Farmiga is excellent with O'Connor and Parker being standouts.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]I realize how brave the suffragists were especially with the misogyny they faced but...I still have to ask: did they go far enough? This was a time when Mother Jones and Emma Goldman were organizing and agitating even without the right to vote. [/font] Basically, the right to vote should be seen as a step, not the end of a movement.