Film: The Help

The movie industry has developed tremendously with movies made that are not afraid to address the current social issues in the world. There is also a trend today where more books are made into movies with the list being endless such as the popular hunger games and Harry Potter books. This caters to those who prefer watching the aspects of the book rather than reading and those who have read the book and what their imagination of scenes in the book fulfilled. The Help (2011) is an adaptation from the book with the same title by Kathryn Stockett. The movie is about African American maids and the hardships they had to endure working for white families during the civil rights

Fast forwarding to another era in history that deals with the same type of actions of the Holocaust. The Civil Rights movement started in 1954 and ran through 1968. During this time period many African American men and women protested the treatment of African Americans by the white citizens as well as the government and create a society where all people were equal despite their race and ethnicity. Rallies and protests sprung up to combat not only the idea that blacks and whites must be segregated and separated but also the belief that those of a different color or ethnicity other than white were inferior and should “take a back seat”. The Help is one of the few films that explores this era and time period. Directed by Tate Taylor tells the the story of aspiring journalist

Set in the 1960’s, The Help, emphasizes the societal issues affecting African Americans in the past and shows eerily similar parallels to our society today. The 1960’s consisted of a multitude of protests and movements preaching civil disobedience and resistance. This attitude and behavior, led to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement which is also a major aspect of the film. The Help, delivers a message that stresses the dangers and paranoia that may be associated with a changing society that is focused on retaining it’s original values regardless of what may be occurring around them. Eventually change does take charge and while acceptance is not immediate, slowly but steadily toleration does begin to take root. Released in 2011, the film reflects the alterations in society but also displays the changes that have yet to occur. The Help, showed the move forward and reluctant path to acceptance and lenience. Many White individuals aided African Americans in their fight to gaining full civil rights while others did not bother to hide their disapproval and continued to believe that African Americans were inferior therefore did not deserve civil liberties. While as a society, we have come far, there continue to be many aspects that have yet to change and African Americans continue to face discrimination and inequality today. The film reveals the difficulties of bringing about change and altering the mindsets of deepset individuals.

The film, The Help was a great movie but it was definitely an eye opener for me because as we research different eras we find that circumstances for Black women were always at the hands of someone else. Black women were referred to as Negros in this era and sometimes were called more derogatory names, that we need not mention. Blacks were not allowed to drink cokes, and were punished if they were caught drinking it. Unfortunately, Black women were mothers to their own children and they had to be mothers to the white children that they cared for. Black women had to leave their children with someone else while they cared for the white children. The mothers of those children were so busy doing book clubs, town meeting etc. that they didn’t have time to take care of their own children.

Kathryn Scott’s The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s. This movie emphasizes tense racial conflicts that dominated the South during this post-World War era.  Segregation of whites verse blacks was a prevailing and dominating theme of the decade. The Help attempts to depict this time period by focusing on a white woman, Skeeter Phelan, who aspires to become a journalist. Society considered Skeeter as an oddity for wanting to leave her family and pursue an education. She goes against all social norms and secretly asks her maid, Aibileen, to help her write a book about the lives of maids. Despite the overwhelming danger associated with their relationship Aibileen agrees and even encourages other maids to take part. The intention behind Skeeter Phelan’s book was to spark a movement and change the way white people view their help. The Help suggests that education is the only route to social change.

It was Wednesday choir practice and I was sitting with the director’s wife on the front row waiting for rehearsal to begin. Her husband was on stage arranging his music and making small talk with us. I responded to one of his quips with a “cute”, and I though humorous, quip of my own. I found out immediately that she didn’t appreciate my comment and perceived it as a “territorial dispute” (him being the territory!) when she stomped on my foot with extreme force (I limped for a couple days) and growled in my face, “He’s

The Help is a drama filled movie that portrays inequality, and racial discrimination faced by African American woman, in which Tate Taylor adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s novel and rewrote and directed in the year 2011. This film stereotypes the roles of African American women during this time in history and fails to focus on the crucial reality faced by black women as domestic workers. The Civil Rights movement was very effective for African Americans; however black women still are faced with the double standard of being a black woman. Nonetheless, agreeing with Valerie Smith’s statement, The Help, relative to other films such as Alan Parker’s Mississippi Burning (1988), Martin Davidson’s Heart of Dixie (1989), Richard Pearce’s The Long Walk Home (1990), Rob Reiner’s Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), or Phil Alden Robinson’s Freedom Song (2000) each allow Americans to identify post-emancipation racism.

The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett, is set in the time of the bulk of the United State civil rights movement and protests, the 1960’s. Following the lives of the three main characters, Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter, we experience life in Jackson, Mississippi though their eyes. Aibileen and Minny, both black women working as maids in the homes of white families. Skeeter, a white privileged white woman ahead of her time, uses her voice to project unprivileged voices to challenge civil rights, sexism, equality, and justice in the 1960’s.

Hi. I’m Rose and I just recently finished watching the film entitled The Help directed by Tate Taylor, as well as reading the literary equivalent by Kathryn Stockett from which it was adapted. This movie is set during the civil rights movement of the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. This movie stars Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), a white women fresh out of college who is an aspiring writer. She teams up with Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) to collect stories from the point of view of African-American maids, in an attempt to expose the hardships of being black and inflict change on their little town. Those who have read the book may judge the movie too quickly, but after analysing and comparing the two objectively I have come to the conclusion that Tate Taylor has done an impeccable job at creating an accurate adaptation of the original novel and tries his best to recreate the cast, plot, themes, and setting whilst condensing it into 2 hours of entertainment.

The Help, is a movie about a would-be author named Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan who is caring, courageous, trustworthy, kind, outspoken, smart, a loner and quite different from most of the other women in Jackson, Mississippi. She is a 23-year-old college educated woman who had self-esteem issues growing up, never had a boyfriend or children and was raised primarily by a maid named Constantine Jefferson. While many of the young ladies of Jackson were having babies, Skeeter was going to college as she wanted to become a serious writer. She wanted to write a book and give the African American maids a voice to explain the daily struggles they encounter when taking care of white families during the 1960s civil rights movement.

The film The Help by Kathryn Stockett, the setting took place during an hour of shocking reconstruction of social norms. The center of attention was focused on colored help in the 1960s and their bond to the white employers which they worked with. It was an association of a educated white woman and colored maids who were being treated poorly. Regardless if the intention of Stockett was to portray the work environment for colored people in Jackson, Mississippi during the civil rights movement; The Help received not so favorable criticism. It was understable that in the film, The Help, the picture painted was just a slice of the genuine actuality of  the realism of the south.

“The Help” is a dramatic film filled with love, hope, and a will for change. Mississippi in the 1960’s was no walk in the park for African-Americans and this film shows the struggle of African-American women raising white family’s children and managing their homes. The film uses an unexpected team of black maids and an aspiring white writer trying to make her way to the big leagues. The women along with the help of others set out to show the world the discrimination and unfair ways of life in their town. The film will bring you to tears, wrench your stomach, and leave you biting your nails at the edge of your seat. With deep characters and a historic plot showing change, this film will give you a reason to do good and work for what you believe in.

The Help is a 2011 American period drama film written and directed by Tate Taylor, based on Kathryn Stockett 's 2009. “The film is about a young white woman, Eugenia Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, during the Civil Rights era in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. Eugenia is a journalist who decides to write a book from the point of view of the maids, exposing the racism they are faced with as they work for white families.” (The Help, 2015) The film stars Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Ahna O 'Reilly, Chris Lowell, Sissy Spacek. The Help was produced by DreamWorks Pictures and was released by Touchstone Pictures, the film opened to positive reviews and became a success with a worldwide box office gross of $216 million. The Help has received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress for Viola Davis, and Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer, with the latter winning the award. The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Pictures.

Based upon the 2009 New York Times bestseller novel by Kathryn Stockett, the Help was produced as a film in 2011.The Help is based upon the segregated post-WWII era in the southern town of Jackson, Mississippi. The film depicts the young protagonist, Skeeter, along with her friends, family and white employers. We come to see the challenges and limitations imposed on the domestic servants shown over the the summer of 1963.The viewer is taken on a journey through the steamy and volatile summer months on the cusp of social change in the deep south. The parallel conflict is depicted both internally with each character and externally with the waves of change beginning to roll into our nation. We learn that, as the author subtitles her novel, ‘that change begins with a whisper’. The social revolution is more than the large sweeping policy changes, but is truely found in the bravery and strength of individuals who convey tremendous courage in silent protest. The movies conveys the daily prejudice, abuse, and silent suffering black men and women faced in the 1960’s. It further shows the steps toward, both large and small, toward change.

The Help is a film created to show the relationship between colored maids and their white bosses. This movie originated from a book “The Help” written by Kathryn Stockett, in 2009. This is a true story she wrote about her up childhood growing up with colored help. The movie exudes the idea that colored were beneath the whites. An upcoming journalist Skeeter, in the movie attempted to uncover the truth about how they were being treated. She secretly interviewed black maids about what they experienced and how it affected their life.