Iron Jawed Angels Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Informative

I think I borrowed this as Hilary Swank was in it but I'm glad I did. We, in Britain, have heard a great deal about the British suffragettes of the Pankhurst era but nothing much about the same struggles in the USA. This was informative and also entertaining.

It has made us want to look up more on suffrage - eg when did women in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Switzerland etc get the vote and did they all have to go through the same struggles.

Some of the scenes were a wee bit overdone - we could have done without such realistic recreations of forcible feeding - but a good film - basically written, directed, acted by women. Maybe their struggles will come to fruition with a woman president soon!

Watch for educational purposes only

I first saw the first ten minutes of Iron Jawed Angels in a class on Alice Paul and the Suffragists. I wanted to see the rest....well, just as when I saw it in class and most of us laughed at the cringy dialogue, the terrible choice in soundtrack and the absolutely silly cinematography, in the same way, my other half and I watched the whole film, cringing every time a new inappropriate song started.

There is only one reason to see the film – educational purposes: learn about the Suffragists, the differences between the older and younger feminists, the role of the National Woman’s Party in getting the Nineteenth Amendment passed so that women could vote. Iron Jawed Angels is also an insightful look at the domestic experiences of women at the start of the century, as well as at the prison system during the period.

Enjoy the film as a bit of history and try to block out the inappropriate music and cinematography.