I cant stand Miss Millie who Sofia ends up working as a maid for. She's a total nightmare. Whenever I see her appear in the film I get so mad at her spoilt bitch of a face.
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I actually don't despise Miss Millie. I think she was a frightened, unenlightened woman but one who meant well.
I mean, she wasn't perfect but I thought it was at least nice of her to allow Sophia to see her kids on Xmas (or Thanksgiving, I can't remember) and she seemed to delight at seeing how cute her kids were at first meeting. She just didn't know any better and couldn't overcome her conditioning.
I can't stand that woman! Even when I see her in other movies I think of Miss Millie.
shareYeah me too.
Spoilt little bitch but saying that at the start Sofia should have said no thank you when she asked her to be her maid.
What are you talking about? She's supposed to be the hero of the film! You didn't like her?? :o
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Whether they find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be considered an enemy planet.
I don't dislike her because she really isn't the super villain of the story.
Her only fault is that she is terribly uneducated and happily unaware of the state of things. She lives somewhere in her own world without wanting to know what's going on with other people.
Another fault is that she was frightened. She was afraid of black people and that sometimes took overhand.
But none of that is actually a reason to despise someone.
Miss Millie is neck-in-neck with Simon Legree in black culture in terms of fictional villains.
shareDana Ivey is an accomplished actress with half a dozen Tony nominations to her name. I just saw her last week in "School For Scandal" and she was hysterical as an aging gossip who gets her come-uppance as do the other gossips. As far as Miss Millie is concerned, her eyes show compassion, horror, joy, terror and anger in her three scenes. She's happy about being "good to you people", shows initial horror and shock when her husband hits Sofia, anger when Sofia strikes him back, joy when she learns (badly) how to drive, fear when she can't turn the car around, and anger and unjustified resentment when she makes false accusations. Is Miss Millie any less needlessly filled with good intentions that go wrong than Maude Findlay's determination to help black housekeeper Florida better herself? The only difference is that there was a 40 something year gap in between Miss Millie and Maude and the do-gooder intentions were condescending to the blacks they proclaimed to want to help. Miss Millie serves a necessary purpose here to show the times accurately. Certainly, she is not at all sympathetic, but the nuances Dana Ivey gives her makes her believable, no matter how much you hate her.
"Great theater makes you smile. Outstanding theater may make you weep."
This is such a coincidence, but I just studied both The Color Purple and School for Scandal at school, but in two different units. Did Dana Ivey play Mrs Candour in School for Scandal by any chance, because she would have been perfect for her after Miss Millie. She is a great actress for making us hate her so much in this film, and she even played a similar character to Miss Millie in The Help if anyone has seen it.
Sorry to get off-topic a bit, but I was so stunned to see The Color Purple and School for Scandal in the same post given I had studied both of them in English Literature.
"You better call my agent" "You don't have an agent..." "Then call my cableman!" - Bewitched (2005)
Just another question: what exactly was the problem with the car in the film? I haven't seen it in a while. They changed it from the novel because in it the problem is that she doesn't know how to reverse the car, but i remember seeing her do it in town in the film.
"You better call my agent" "You don't have an agent..." "Then call my cableman!" - Bewitched (2005)
Yes, she did play Mrs. Candour, and when she walked out, I really thought I was looking at Lady Violet Crawley from "Downton Abbey". Every word out of her mouth was pure Maggie Smith, and every line brought the house down. I also saw her in "The Importance of Being Earnest" playing Miss Prism. She had earlier played Lady Bracknell, a part in this production played by Brian Bedford. I read that somebody once thought she was Dame Maggie, and she gave them a look that was pure Vera Charles/Auntie Mame, as in "Did you my dear? That was Helen Hayes!" when they got her confused. (Sort of like character actress Fran Ryan being confused for Marjorie Main and saying, "Yes I am, and I died 15 years ago!) But if I was Ms. Ivey, if I were to be confused for somebody, I guess Maggie Smith would be my first choice, even though she has a fabulous career all her own.
I just saw "The Color Purple" on Broadway (the revival), having seen the original 10 years ago. Miss Millie is not a character in the musical, only mentioned. My guess is that Miss Millie gets a bit nervous with all the black men around her, more frazzled by the fact that they try to help her (which her gentle southern ways don't understand), and eventually angry and hateful. She doesn't understand that these men are really trying to be kind, not at all threatening or vengeful about the issues she started with Sophia, and in her own ignorance really goes ballistic. You see dozens of characters like her in old films who think they mean well, but really end up causing more problems than they should. She reminds me of an older version of what Sandy Duncan might have become in the original "Roots", and it's ironic that Kizzy spits in Duncan's water while Celie spits in Mister's father's water.
"Great theater makes you smile. Outstanding theater may make you weep."
Lol😄 Dana Ivey was amazing as Miss Millie and I would have loved to see her as Mrs Candour because she had all the best lines!
Thanks for answering my questions mark.waltz, I was little confused about why they changed the situation with the car but I can understand now what was going on instead.
"You better call my agent" "You don't have an agent..." "Then call my cableman!" - Bewitched (2005)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/dana-ivey-the-big-c-maggie-smith_n_3148131.html
This article is three years old, but it has some very interesting comments on it. After seeing "School For Scandal", I researched Ms. Ivey, but did not find this.
Glad to have been of help!
"Great theater makes you smile. Outstanding theater may make you weep."
You and the rest of the world. LOL. But, yeah; the entitlement is sickening.
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