The Help (2011)
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Overview
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.
Show notes
jump ↓(Deep Dive begins at 53:00) Were you dropped on your head as an infant? Or were you just born stupid? Join your favourite TransAtlantic podcasters, Ian and Liam (Megs and Kev have gone to bring Georgia home) as we're heading to Jackson, Mississippi to uncover what really happens in wealthy white households in literary …
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(Deep Dive begins at 53:00)
Were you dropped on your head as an infant? Or were you just born stupid? Join your favourite TransAtlantic podcasters, Ian and Liam (Megs and Kev have gone to bring Georgia home) as we're heading to Jackson, Mississippi to uncover what really happens in wealthy white households in literary adaptation, The Help. This episode, we're joined by special guest author, Juleen as she brings us a film of her choosing for the deep dive treatment. We're feeding each other chocolate pie in our 245th episode as we discuss:
- Does this film suffer from the white saviour trope?
- Is unequal distribution of pay between co-stars necessarily a sign of gender inequity
- Ian shares some of his history degree as he talks American civil rights and the story of Emmett Till
- Where do Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis sit in the rankings of the great actresses of our time?
- Why did they feel the need to stuff a romantic storyline in this film and then undercook it?
- Ian again goes on about narrative sequencing and the importance of enigma establishment and deferred fulfilment
- Is the babyface turn by Alison Janney acceptable or far too easy of a rescue job?
- What character motivation floored us in leading to one of the big mysteries being solved?
- Whether or not The Help is the Best Film Ever
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