suffragette: film review

One of the first univocal feminist movies I have watched, Suffragette has a very special place in my heart. It is unlike ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and other Austen films I first viewed in my pre-teen years. In these works, witty dialogue and genteel outbursts are the main vehicles for female empowerment. The film ‘Suffragette’ showed me women who were smashing glass, blowing up post boxes, even houses, and being detained in jail. It showed me women in action, unafraid and physically and mentally strong. ‘Deeds not words’, the famous motto circulated by Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep) during the movement, sums up for me the contrast. I went from hearing about female empowerment in conversation to watching women physically and sometimes violently fighting.

As a teenager, some of the film’s visuals were pretty confronting. Scenes such as a manager assaulting a young girl, women being beaten by police, and female prisoners being force fed in jail, immerses the audience in just some of the sickening violations and dreadful hardships these women faced. Maud’s story tells us of another injustice. For many of these women, home was also a dangerous place with controlling and violent husbands who didn’t approve of their views and actions. The famous and ultimate self-sacrifice of Emily Davison (Natalie Press) at the races provides an emotional and impactful end the film. It is a poignant symbol of the length these women had to go to for a basic human right – the right to vote.

This film was a kind of a turning point for me. I remember vowing to never take for granted the voice I have as a privileged white woman in the modern Western world. ‘Suffragette’ had an impact beyond what I expected, and I couldn’t help but bawl my eyes out in sadness and frustration for minutes after it ended.  It is such an emotional film, simultaneously empowering and traumatic.