Suffragette (2015)

In 1912 London, a young working mother is galvanized into radical political activism supporting the right for women to vote, and is willing to meet violence with violence to achieve this end.

Director:

Sarah Gavron

Writer:

Abi Morgan

Stars:

Carey Mulligan, Anne-Marie Duff, Helena Bonham Carter

17 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anne-Marie Duff	...	Violet Miller
Grace Stottor	...	Maggie Miller
Geoff Bell	...	Norman Taylor
Carey Mulligan	...	Maud Watts
Amanda Lawrence	...	Miss Withers
Shelley Longworth	...	Miss Samson
Adam Michael Dodd	...	George Watts
Ben Whishaw	...	Sonny Watts
Sarah Finigan	...	Mrs Garston
Drew Edwards	...	Male Laundry Worker
Lorraine Stanley	...	Mrs Coleman
Romola Garai	...	Alice Haughton
Adam Nagaitis	...	Mr Cummins
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Edith Ellyn
Finbar Lynch	...	Hugh Ellyn

Storyline

A drama that tracks the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State. These women were not primarily from the genteel educated classes, they were working women who had seen peaceful protest achieve nothing. Radicalized and turning to violence as the only route to change, they were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality - their jobs, their homes, their children and their lives. Maud was one such foot soldier. The story of her fight for dignity is as gripping and visceral as any thriller, it is also heart-breaking and inspirational.

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Plot Keywords:

f rated | anarchy | terrorism | suffragette | women's equality | 

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Taglines:

Find your voice

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some intense violence, thematic elements, brief strong language and partial nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

UK France

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 October 2015 (UK)

Also Known As:

Las Sufragistas

Filming Locations:

Chatham Docks, Chatham, Kent, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$76,244, 23 October 2015, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$4,693,356, 10 January 2016

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ruby Films, Pathé, Film4

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color Black and White (archive footage)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Carey Mulligan didn't wash her hair for weeks during the shoot and wore very little make up to give her character a real feel.

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Goofs

The film shows police Inspector Arthur Steed speeding towards Epsom Race Course in a 1912 De Dion Bouton 8hp Torpedo. This brand of Italian motorcar would have been,probably, too expensive for him to own personally or the British government to purchase for use by an ordinary government official.

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Quotes

Maud Watts: Your mother's name is Maud Watts. Don't forget that name. Because, I'll be waiting for you to find me. Will you find me George? Don't forget it.

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Connections

Referenced in Countdown: Episode #73.69 (2015)

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Soundtracks

March of the Women
By Ethel Smyth and Cicely Hamilton
Publisher: Chester Music Ltd trading as J Curwen and Sons

User Reviews

Ticks some boxes

The first feature film I can remember dealing with the fight for women's voting rights in the United Kingdom, puts its subject across respectfully, if carefully. Most of the major events I've read about historically on the movement's road to enfranchisement are covered in the film, like the letterbox campaign, attack on Lloyd George's house, their hunger strike and resultant force-feeding in prison and most famously the shocking martyrdom of Emily Davidson who ran onto Epsom racecourse on Derby Day in front of the King's horse, the latter very realistically.

The device used by the writer and director to get the viewer close to the action is through the invented Carey Mulligan character Maud Watts, a young factory worker, docilely married to her husband and the doting mother of their infant son, who develops an interest in the suffragette movement through a work colleague. Stepping in for the latter at an important consultation with a UK Government committee on votes for women, she finds herself, initially unwillingly, drawn into activism on behalf of the cause.

I did feel the film somewhat overdid her travails and some of the coincidental events in her life. We learn indirectly that her male employer has abused her at work since she was a child and is now doing so to another pre-teen girl at the factory. Her husband doesn't understand her new found politicism and in short order expels her from their house, denies her access to her son and eventually has him adopted without her knowledge. She too is the one accompanying Davidson to the Derby. While I laud the equally important political point of maternal rights to their children in the event of marital separation being argued along with voter's rights, I did feel that the world seemed to revolve too much around Mulligan's character. She thus comes across more as a cipher than a real person and the film might have played better if she had been based on a real person.

I also felt the sub-plot about the child-molesting boss jarred somewhat and belonged in a different film entirely, the two main causes didn't need this extra justification, heinous as the crimes are. While I'm criticising, I also felt the cliff-hanging direction style employed (especially in the build-up to the Derby climax) was overdone with looming orchestral swells in the background and a virtual countdown to the incident itself, to be somewhat inconsistent with the seriousness of the subject matter.

The acting is good by most of the leads, Mulligan in particular. Quite why they rolled out the barrel to find a place in the cast for Meryl Streep to deliver a brief but showy cameo as the cause's figurehead Emmeline Pankhurst, I don't know. Nevertheless in its gritty depiction of the privations and struggles of the brave women who challenged the male-dominated political landscape of the day, this film deserves admiration and recognition for its subject matter if not quite for its execution.