MovieChat Forums > Little Women (2019) Discussion > The biggest issue with historical films ...

The biggest issue with historical films like this....


...whether fictional or based on actual events, is the fact that you have a bunch of writers and actors who forget that they are portraying people who had never heard of the concepts we talk about all the time today. Such ideas (such as women being independent and being treated equal to men) had only been barely touched on in the Victorian Era. Some women wanted a life that was different than the narrow role they were stuck with, but others didn't question it. Many women were content with their roles as wives and mothers, and others saw it as normal.

The trouble is, you've got a bunch of feminist writers that forget how people (particularly women) in the past thought and viewed the world and society around them. They act as if everyone in the story has the power of foresight, with the attitude of "We know women in the future will be more independent, allowed to make their own choices, don't have to get married to support themselves, are not seen as "property" of their husbands, and can vote---and we want it right now! We want it all NOW in this time in history, when nobody had even thought of it!" Or worse, they insert their views and beliefs into the story, without ever considering how anachronistic it is. It ruins the story and makes it look like a badly-written political propaganda play some angry liberal high school student wrote to "stick it to the establishment."

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AmeriGirl, you have expressed the issue perfectly. Imposing any present-day ideological agenda on a work from the 1860s is ridiculous. Ironically, the film makers who alter Alcott's novel to promote their 21st century feminism aren't showing much respect for this female author.

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That is ironic, considering Alcott was one of the earliest modern feminists ever to grace the pages of literary history. She was a very independent, forward-thinking woman and ahead of her time, but she still understood how things were in her world and time. She even showed that women could still fill traditional roles in the past, but also find happiness in being different.

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Early feminism was mainly about freedom. Modern woke feminism is a different ideology and freedom is not required anymore. Modern women are not supposed to be free. They're supposed to fill some specific role and no other. The role is different, of course, but it's a defined role nonetheless. Anything but the approved role is "rewarded" with social shame.

Indeed, most modern woke Hollywood movies work as 'educational' tool to teach people their roles. That's very similar to how XVIIIth and XIXth century literature used to be. Books and movies are very effective tools to compel people into their expected social roles. Writers like Jane Austen and Alcott seem to be representative of their century, but (in some ways) they were the exception, not the rule.

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That's why I think that Gangs Of New York is one of the all time underrated period pieces - it actually gets the zeitgeist at the time right!

The scene where Bill just crashes the stage and the audience cheers while he throws knives at Cameron Diaz, is an example that comes to mind. Someone like him wasn't seen as a tyrant at that time, and had the support of the crowd.

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Are you saying it's one of those rare scenarios where what actually happened in history is so crazy, people today wouldn't believe it? I mean, I've heard of stuff like that. TV Tropes call it "Reality is Unrealistic," or we can also call it "The truth is stranger than fiction."

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Yep pretty much, and it's often overlooked because these subtle more nuanced cultural differences of each period are often ignored :)

Reality is Unrealistic is a good way to describe, or at least the perception of it. Stranger Things is another thing that gets it right in regards to the 80s. Actually the decades from the 1950s and up is something that we regularly apply it to, but for some reason these nuances in language and interactions don't get any attention for anything else. I've love to see it applied to period pieces, and even medieval stories (instead we always get the bland everyone speaks like Shakespeare tone).

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