Watching: On The Basis Of Sex
Feb. 27th, 2019 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_hartBack to biopics again this week with On The Basis Of Sex, starring Felicity Jones (once best known as Emma Grundy from The Archers) as the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, following her from her first days at Harvard Law School as part of one of the earliest cohorts of women admitted to study, through her years post-graduation teaching law at Rutgers having been unable to find a job practicing law to the tax case which gave her her first victory in her war against sex discrimination.
The film does a good job of depicting the everyday sexism of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, with even progressive men unthinkingly discriminating against women, and I also really liked the way it showed Ginsburg's husband Martin's unwavering support and devotion rather than ever hinting at marital discord resulting from Ginsburg's dedication to the fight for equal rights. I was less happy at the choice to derive narrative tension from depicting Ginsburg as committed, passionate, knowledgable but struggling to present her case to the court and flustered by the judges' questions, right up until the final moment where she stands up, fired with righteousness, to make her big speech; I wished she'd been able to be capable all the way through. To be honest, the film only came alive at the very end, when Jones climbs the steps of the Supreme Court only to be replaced by the real Ginsburg at the top, accompanied by recordings of her speeches. That sent shivers down my spine, but the fictionalised version mostly left me cold.
The film does a good job of depicting the everyday sexism of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, with even progressive men unthinkingly discriminating against women, and I also really liked the way it showed Ginsburg's husband Martin's unwavering support and devotion rather than ever hinting at marital discord resulting from Ginsburg's dedication to the fight for equal rights. I was less happy at the choice to derive narrative tension from depicting Ginsburg as committed, passionate, knowledgable but struggling to present her case to the court and flustered by the judges' questions, right up until the final moment where she stands up, fired with righteousness, to make her big speech; I wished she'd been able to be capable all the way through. To be honest, the film only came alive at the very end, when Jones climbs the steps of the Supreme Court only to be replaced by the real Ginsburg at the top, accompanied by recordings of her speeches. That sent shivers down my spine, but the fictionalised version mostly left me cold.
