Plot
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.
Release Year: 2015
Rating: 6.5/10 (1,680 voted)
Critic's Score: 67/100
Director: Sarah Gavron
Stars: Carey Mulligan, Anne-Marie Duff, Helena Bonham Carter
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.
Cast: 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
Taglines:
Mothers. Daughters. Rebels.
Country: UK
Language: English
Release Date: 23 October 2015
Filming Locations: Chatham, Kent, England, UK
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote, was born and raised in Moss Side, Manchester England. In 1999, "The Times" named her as one of the top 100 most important people of the 20th Century. See more »
Goofs:
When Edith Ellyn is talking to Maud Watts in the prison exercise yard, the shot is "flipped" during a close-up of Helena Boner-Causer's face, so that her head wound briefly moves from the left to the right of her forehead. See more »
Quotes:
User Review
Author:
Rating: 7/10
Whilst most men would agree that giving women the vote was a dreadful
mistake (put that stone down ladies…. it's just a joke), the
astonishing story behind the UK social upheaval that was the
Suffragette movement is well overdue a serious cinematic treatment. And
a serious treatment Sarah Gavron's new film most certainly is: you exit
the cinema feeling about as wrung out as the linen in the heroine
Maud's workhouse-style laundry.
Carey Mulligan plays Maud Watts, an ordinary and anonymous working
woman who progressively gets sucked into the anarchic rabble-rousing of
an East-end branch of the Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political
Union (WSPU). With operations run out of a chemist's shop by Edith
Ellyn (Helena Bonham Carter) and her sympathetic husband, Maud risks a
criminal record and the shame associated with that to pursue her
ideals. Police pressure is applied by special forces copper Arthur
Steed (Harry Potter's Brendan Gleeson) and personal pressure is put on
her by her husband (played by Ben Whishaw, soon to be seen again as
'Q') and her alleged fitness to be a mother to their young son George
(Adam Michael Dodd). As politicians continue to ignore the issue, the
actions build to one of the most historic events of the period.
The struggle is seen very much through the limited prism of this select
group of women. But where I really liked this film is in the slow
awakening of Maud's character. In many ways it is like the germination
of a seed that we are seeing on the screen. She starts without any
interest in the movement and even mid-way through the film she is
adamant that she is "not a suffragette", despite evidence to the
contrary. Mulligan is, as always, completely brilliant in the role.
The supporting cast are all strong with Gleeson being particularly
watchable as the lawman with a grudging respect for Maud and her cause.
Meryl Streep makes a powerful cameo as Emily Pankhurst: but it is a
short and sweet performance. Maud's friend Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) is
also outstanding, her gaunt face delivering a haunting performance.
Whilst there are some highly emotionally charged scenes in the film, in
a political sense the film has a curious lack of passion at times. A
keynote speech to Lloyd George for example should have been electric -
yet the Abi Morgan's script doesn't quite do the scene justice and if I
was the MP I wouldn't have been impressed (which perhaps was the
point).
I also had issues with some of the cinematography. Carey Mulligan has
such an expressive and photogenic face that extreme close ups should
work brilliantly. And yet filming it with a hand-held camera produces a
constantly shifting image which was extremely distracting. Elsewhere in
the art department though 1912 London is beautifully recreated, through
both special effects, costume and make-up.
Alexandre Desplat delivers a touching score with a clever underlying
drumbeat of change.
Suffragette is a solid historical drama, that tells an important social
tale… a tale that graphically illustrates how much the world has really
changed, and changed for the better, in a mere hundred years. Above
all, the film concludes with the astounding fact that Switzerland only
gave women the vote in 1971 (and in fact with one canton holding out on
local issues until 1991). Shameful!
(Please find the full graphical review at bob-the-movie-man.com and
sign up to receive future reviews).
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