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Actors: Natasha Richardson, Aidan Quinn, Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth McGovern
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Handmaid's Tale |
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In the near future, pollution and radiation have reduced female fertility to 1 in 100. A religious and fascistic state -- the Republic of Gilead -- determines that the few women who are capable of bearing children are chosen as "handmaids" to breed with the rich and powerful. Kate (Richardson), a former librarian whose husband was killed and daughter lost while they were trying to escape over the border, is picked by the barren Serena Joy (Dunaway) to bear a child with her powerful husband, "the Commander" (Duvall). An underground rebel force makes contact with Kate as she learns the cross-currents and treacheries of her household. This bleak and sometimes painful film is a decent adaptation of Margaret Atwood's feminist dystopian sci-fi novel, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. The principals are excellent, Aidan Quinn appears as a chauffeur-soldier in the Commander's household, and McGovern has a meaty supporting role as a lesbian handmaid-in-training who escapes into the prostitute underworld (and ends up looking a bit like Tim Curry in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"). A real downer, but worth watching.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzle - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 50%
**Fantasy or Science Fiction?**
- science fiction story
Romance
Yes
Repressive Society
Yes
Repression:
- controls your sex
Inner Struggle
Yes
Plotlet:
- one culture tries to impose its culture on another group
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- prostitute/concubine
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- blonde
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlng, wavy
Unclothed?
- Chest
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Body type
- muscular (man)
Unclothed?
- chest
How much in movie?
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- govt employee
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
Body type
- average (man)
Ethnicity
- White
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physical condition
- average physique
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Setting
Earth setting:
- near future (later in 21st century)
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Misc settings
- prison
- mansion
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Tone of movie
- depressed/sad
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- impregnation/reproduction
- actual description of sex
- seeing breasts
- society controls main character's sexuality
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
Kinds of F/X
- exploding bombs
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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