Customer Reviews

The Handmaid's Tale [VHS]

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I first read Margaret Atwood's book The Handmaid's Tale for a women's studies course at my local community college and I enjoyed it very much. It is a very important work, much in the same vein as Orwell's "1984," but more hopeful, and told from the perspective of a woman. However, the movie was a huge disappointment and loses much of Atwood's message.

A quick overview of the story: Offred is a Handmaid in a futuristic, dystopian society known as Gilead. The birthrate in Gilead is very low due to severe toxic pollution, and so the remaining fertile women are selected to be Handmaids whose sole purpose is to become pregnant by the upper class men (called Commanders). As soon as they provide their Commander with a child, they are packed off to another household to do it all again. If they are ever unable to bear more children, they will more than likely be labeled "Unwomen" and shipped away to a work colony to die. Handmaids are not allowed to read, and can only leave the house with permission. The book consists mostly of Offred's thoughts about her former life and her current position. There are hints of a resistance movement, but no one in this world can ever be sure that anyone else is trustworthy. Offred does not know what is real, or what is safe, and lives in constant fear. The regime has made it illegal for a man to be termed infertile, so if a Handmaid has no children, it is blamed on her without question. Offred's Commander is obviously incapable of fathering children, and she faces relocation to the colonies if she does not conceive. As her time runs out, the suspense builds to a crescendo of urgency and terror.

The film does not capture the full horror of the world Offred, the story's main character, lives in. In the movie she appears to have almost unrestricted freedom of movement, able to wander about the house and even leave it without permission (for example, she just trots off to the Red Center one day and spends the night - this never happened in the original story), whereas in the book she was monitored constantly. There is also absolutely no reference to the Handmaids not being allowed to read, so a viewer that has not read the book would likely wonder at the significance of the scene where the Commander presents Offred with a magazine as a gift. Offred also smiles quite often in the movie, and there are no allusions to her frequent thoughts of suicide, which are readily apparent in the novel.

My biggest disappointment with the movie, however, was the altered ending. Atwood's book leaves us wondering, and actually gives the reader the task of creating the end of the story themself through the way they choose to live their life. The movie, however, provides us with a very neat, tidy, pretty little ending that allows the viewer to forget all about the characters without a twinge of conscience - they're obviously ok, right? So what's that got to do with my life? The movie ending does nothing to make the viewer think or realize that if we aren't careful right here and now in our own lives, everything might not turn out so prettily. There is no lesson, or moral to the story, when Atwood very plainly intended for her work to pack a real punch.

I really don't think the novel is even a good candidate for adaptation into a movie, because the book is very slow, centering mostly around Offred's thoughts. She cannot do much, so most of the time she just sits in her room, and it is her contemplations during this time that make up the bulk of the writing. It would be very hard to accurately represent the novel in film without making the movie boring. The director of this film obviously realized this and so he spiced it up and tried to make it into an action movie. It just doesn't work.

To make matters worse, the acting in the film is very wooden. Natasha Richardson, who plays the main character, is particularly unconvincing. It is hard to feel for the characters because they just don't seem real. The whole atmosphere of the film is stiff and unnatural.

Nevertheless, before I close, I would like to point out the few things I actually did like about the movie (and hence why I'm giving it two stars rather than just one):

The scene depicting the monthly "ceremony" is particularly moving. It is rather hard to watch, but I believe it really captures the event as described in the novel. I particularly liked the fact that the camera focuses for a moment on Serena Joy at the end of the scene, showing her emotions as the Wife - something we don't get so much of in the novel.

The movie also does a good job of showing the relationship between Offred and the Commander. The viewer can easily see that the Commander sees Offred as a pet - something fun to play with and indulge, but nothing he really cares about. She is like a toy for him, and one that can easily be replaced, just as Offred has replaced the Handmaid before her.

Overall, though, I would not recommend this movie to anyone. It just doesn't convey the message that Atwood intended, and it's not even very entertaining in and of itself. Read the book instead. You'll get so much more out of it.

The first time I watched The Handmaid's Tale I was hooked! Like Huxley's Brave New World, it is a scary vision of a possible future in which birth is regulated by the government. Unlike Huxley, however, The Handmaid's Tale is also a vision of something far worse--what happens when religion is twisted around and used as a means to force people to do something they don't wish to do, especially if said religion controls the State. Whether it's Christianity or New Age, or any other religion for that matter, a religion-controlled State can be a very bad thing.

The actors in The Handmaid's Tale are a very good bunch. Natasha Richardson as Kate/Offred turned in a stunning performance, as did Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall as Serena Joy and the Commander. Aidan Quinn was excellent as Nick, and I loved Elizabeth McGovern's scheming, wily Moira. Victoria Tennant gave me the chills in her role of Aunt Lydia, and the role of Ofglen, though small, was wonderfully handled by Blanche Baker.

All in all, The Handmaid's Tale is a good movie. My only gripe with the DVD is that it didn't have any extras apart from the trailer, but the film itself is definitely worth watching.

Taken on its own, this is a reasonably enjoyable movie. Some social collapse turns the US in the Nation of Gilead, a brutal theocratic oligarchy. With the social collapse, there was some ecological collapse as well, leaving "one in a hundred" (so they say) women able to conceive. Those fertile few are forced into service, to ensure heirs to oligarchs - male ones, of course - with barren marriages.

Fay Dunaway plays the scheming wife behind The Commander (Robert Duvall). Natasha Richardson takes the role of Kate, or "offred" as she is called in her position as human brood mare. The cover of this DVD gives a hint of what's inside. Richardson has an unusual face, with equal parts strength and fragility in it. It makes her unique - not "pretty", but beautiful in a way all her own. The cover picture has airbrushed Richardson's charm into a standard, Barbie-doll look, and lost everything in that face that made it real. That's kind of what they did to Atwood's book, too. They jammed it into the conventional mold with a happy ending (or happy enough). That Procrustean fit required a fair bit of trimming - as with Richardson's face on the cover, they discarded everything about the book that made it so memorable.

If you haven't read the book, it's a fair movie. If you have read it, don't get your hopes up.

//wiredweird

Margaret Atwood, a Canadian novelist (and poet) wrote the dark fantasy novel upon which this DVD is loosely based. The novel is set in The Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, or at least the parts of the US that are not radioactive. The radioactive parts are called the colonies, where bad girls are sent to die of radiation poisoning. The time is the near future, after the inevitable nuclear war, and the breakdown of government as we know it.

The society depicted in The Handmaid's Tale, DVD and novel, is a nightmare: everyone is watched by the Eyes, ,women are strictly controlled. They are forbidden to have jobs. They may have no money of their own. They are irrevocably assigned to classes.. There are, at the top, the chaste, but morally superior, Wives, almost all of whom have been rendered infertile by the inevitable nuclear war. At the bottom are the housekeepers, or Marthas, who are non-entities. In the middle are the Handmaids of the title, who are fertile, but tightly controlled.

Handmaids are forced to have sex with the Commanders, the husbands of the Wives. During this sex, the Wives are intimately present to take in any "love" their Commanders have to give.

The Handmaids are trained to remain unattached to the Commanders. They are prohibited from using makeup or doing anything to make themselves attractive. Handmaids are forced to turn their offspring over to the Wives. And Handmaids are never taught to read. They are left illiterate.

Kate is a Handmaid who, despite her training (read brainwashing), recalls her past, her loving husband, and her adored daughter. She tells with sparkling, and terrifying clarity, how the society came to be the way it is.

The governmental aspect of the story is instructive, but that part of the novel is almost entirely missing from the DVD.

The government is totalitarian and monotheistic. The one god is very strict, and has His Eyes everywhere. Robert Duvall, in the role of a Commander into whose home Kate is introduced, gives a Bible reading performance on this DVD that will chill the truly religious to the core.

Kate's personal story is heartrending. It reminds one of the miseries of, say, the women of Darfur. When the government breaks down, she and her husband and daughter attempt to flee to Canada. Unfortunately, they are caught. Her daughter is "confiscated." Her husband is taken away. She never sees her husband again.

Her "training" is depicted in gory detail, which is more vivid on the screen than in the book.

The DVD is a must-see for anyone who cares about women's rights.

This review was written by my wife: This is one of my all time favorite movies. I think that the plot was well described by other posters, but I have to say that I find this movie so interesting, thought provoking and moving. I own it and have watched it at least 10 times.

As entertainment, it's completely captivating from start to finish. The characters are well developed and you really feel strongly for Natasha Richardson's character. I see where someone else didn't like the acting, but I find it very believable. The story has a sci-fi twist, but it actually seems like something that could really take place. As in every good sci-fi, the culture and look of this world is very well defined so that the movie is believable. It's just simply fascinating on so many levels to watch this story play out.

I haven't read the book, and I can understand that the movie doesn't necessarily stay true to it. However it's still a fantastic movie. It's a major cautionary tale about what could happen if people full of hate, racism and religious ideas that twist the bible for their own purposes were to gain control of this country.

I highly recommend this movie to sci-fi fans, drama fans and to those who are interested in the message of this movie.

Please note that this movie does have scenes where sex acts are taking place that are not consentual. Although body parts are not revealed, it's explicit and clear about what's happening.

This is a haunting, psychologically compelling story about what the United States might be like under a right wing, fundamentalist theocracy. Adapted by the acclaimed playwright Harold Pinter from the novel by Margaret Atwood, this is a tale of the suppression of women by a totalitarian state called the "Republic of Gilead." In some respects one is reminded of Orwell's 1984: the endless war from without, designed to keep the populace preoccupied and beholden to the state; the paucity of basic food stuffs and consumer goods expect for the ruling class, the general hopelessness, etc. There is horrendous pollution so that most women are not fertile, yet the state needs babies for the war effort and the economy. Consequently women's bodies are taken over by the state, and those women that are fertile are made to bear children for the sterile leaders. Those who are not fertile are reduced to servitude. All overt sexual expression and any kind of activity not in keeping with the strict dictates of the fundamentalist religion is forbidden, and transgressions are punishable by death, sometimes in public hangings. In one ugly scene the handmaids themselves are made to pull the rope that attaches to the noose that strangles a wayward handmaid. This is followed by a man accused of rape being thrown to the handmaids, who literally rip him apart with their bare hands.

Natasha Richardson has the starring role as a fertile handmaid for the Commander (Robert Duvall). She is not artificially inseminated (presumably since that would be against the dictates of the religion, which is, by the way, a kind of repressive fundamentalist Christianity), instead there is a "ceremony" in which the Commander's wife (Faye Dunaway) holds her hands (as they both wear veils) while the Commander with his clothes still on--Well, one can imagine.

I read the novel some years ago and was struck not by Atwood's attack on fundamentalist Christianity as much as I was by her attack on men, period. Harold Pinter's screenplay and Volker Schlondorff's direction emphasize the hypocrisy, willful ignorance and anti-human aspects of fundamentalism while attributing the sexism to the patriarchal religion. What is stunningly topical (viewing this in the year of Our Lord 2002) is the parallel between the repressive fundamentalist theocracy of Atwood's vision and that of the Taliban. The subjugation of women, using them strictly as servants or as reproductive machines, their bodies covered and their heads veiled (in bright red), is a striking bit of dead-on foresight by Atwood, Pinter and Schlondorff. This movie was perhaps made a decade ahead of its time.

Richardson is very good in her characteristic way. She has a quality unlike most movie stars in that she projects primarily not her looks or charisma or even her vitality, but instead her individual will, a quality that is exactly right for the part. Faye Dunaway as the commander's wife acts out (in contrasting blue) a kind of Daughters of the American Revolution club woman mentality to a tee. Duvall is wonderfully slimy as a warlord hypocrite always claiming to act in the name of God. (Seems familiar.) Elizabeth McGovern is believable as a sexy lesbian handmaid (a "gender criminal") while Victoria Tennant ("Aunt Lydia") is a kind of drill sergeant housemother to the handmaids. Aidan Quinn gets to be Richardson's heroic lover.

This may not be entirely faithful to the book, but it is a fine work in its own right. The direction is intelligent and focused and the script by Pinter excellent. The acting is superior all around and the story is true psychologically. This movie is also a warning that it could happen here.

I remember watching this a few years ago and thinking of it some times scares me. It's like 1984 meets The Story of O. To me this shows that yes women can be strong in such situations. Duval and Henderson give masterful performances which truly inhance the quality of this wonderful film.

This movie is scary. This could happen if the religious right gets a hold of this country more than it has now. This movie also reminds me of the quiverfull life style. Just scary. Don't kid yourself if you think this can't happen. I'm going to have nightmares tonight. I may also sleep with my lights on.

The movie has a surprising but great ending.

I read this book a couple of years ago and did not realizethere was a movie until I happened to notice it in the video store.

The movie is nothing like the book. The book was much better. The movie drags way too much, and the focus of the movie is on "romance,"--not so much on the society of Gilead. However, even without the book, it is an interesting story and sobering to consider. Beautiful Faye Dunaway was an improvement over the dumpy Serena Joy portrayed in the book, and was very good at portraying the "Bondage" that existed for all women in this society--even the supposedly "privileged." Robert Duvall is amazing, as always, and in spite of his "corrupt" character,(...).

Overall, a movie worth watching. END

I first saw this movie many years ago. I thought it was a great story similar to 'A Brave New World" and "1984". After the Impeachment vote it looks like it may really be coming true. This movie may have been made in 1990 but it pertains well to 1998. I hope people will watch this movie again before the next election. "The Handmaid's Tale" shows how dangerous it could be to mix religon and politics in the USA.