Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best of the best, December 24, 2003
Superb casting of Jessica Tandy as a stubborn elderly Southern woman of privilege and Morgan Freeman as her loyal and capable and patient chauffeur makes this one of the best dramas and character studies of all time. Tandy won an Oscar for this 1989 performance and Freeman was nominated for one. This is a movie of wonderful spirited characters, people who demonstrate sassiness, independence, tolerance, admiration, and respect for each other - but only after a few years of working together. It all started when Miss Daisy crashed her car and her son, Dan Aykroyd, a pompous banker type, declared she absolutely could drive no more. So he hired a chauffeur for her. At first, all the old Southern prejudices came into plan, prejudices of class, race, and education. But gradually the wisdom and quiet patience of Freeman's character won her over.
At its core, this is the story of an unlikely friendship that shows it's possible to transcend prejudice and appreciate the human being within.Highest marks.
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This Widescreen shows less picture than Fullscreen!, September 25, 2004
Driving Miss Daisy is one of my all-time favorites. I bought the Special Edition widescreen DVD (ISBN 0-7907-7237-X, UPC 0-85392-33402-5) and was horribly disappointed. It shows less picture than does my old fullscreen VHS tape (and I seem to be the only one who has noticed)! Although the image is with a widescreen aspect ratio, the left & right sides of the picture do not extend beyond those of the VHS. And the top & bottom letterbox black bars on the DVD image are actually covering up parts of the picture that I can see on the VHS. In other words, THE PICTURE BETWEEN WIDESCREEN DVD AND FULLSCREEN VHS IS IDENTICAL, EXCEPT THAT THE DVD HAS BLACK BARS LITERALLY COVERING UP THE TOP & BOTTOM. For instance, at the end of the movie, the VHS tape clearly shows Miss Daisy's hand fumbling with the fork, and her slice of pie sitting there on the table. On the widescreen DVD, this is all covered up by the bottom black bar, so all you see of the pie is the few bites that Hoke raises (out of the void) to Miss Daisy's mouth. The touching scene is completely ruined. I'm not exactly sure what's up with this pseudo-widescreen version, but it stinks.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Old Friends., July 16, 2004
Lovely is such an old fashioned word, I know. But that's the word that describes this film, for me. The story of the developing friendship over many years between the black chaueffeur and the older Jewish woman is very heartwarming in its simplicity. Jessica Tandy is marvelous as "Miss Daisy" the fiercely independant, irascible widow, whose advancing age requires her son to employ, against her wishes, a driver/companion for her. Miss Tandy, who originated the role of Blanche DuBois on Broadway in "A Streetcar Named Desire", was a wonderful actress. This was one of her last films, and all the skill, sublety, and experience of her life-long craft come together to create a living, breathing "Miss Daisy." Morgan Freeman meets her skill in his portrayal of "Hoag", the accomodating chaueffeur. He has the manner of a certain resignation that an older black man may have felt in the turbulent, prejudiced south in which he lived, yet exudes dignity. He has the manner of "Hoag" down pat, right down to the closed mouth laugh that I have seen in the old black men who hang out on the corner. This is not a caricature, he IS "Hoag." His relationship with Miss Daisy starts out very rocky, to say the least, but, as time passes, their places in each others lives develope into almost a "marriage", with a quiet understanding of, and dependence on, each other. And though Miss Daisy insists she was not prejudiced, and inherently wasn't, it is touching to see her slowly let go of her last universally accepted beliefs of peoples place in society, where the "colored" help were always servants of some sort, and the line was just never crossed. Scenes such as the one where she and "Hoag" are both eating their dinner in the house, she in the dining room, he , alone in the kitchen, express this. The very thought of them dining together, it just wasn't done. As time goes on, and she becomes quietly aware of the similarities of the prejudices against her religion and the prejudices and injustice against Hoags race, the differences that seperate them become insignicant. Dan Akroyd and Patti Lupone are fine as Miss Daisy's son and his typically '50s wife, who admonishes her black maid for the unforgivable sin of forgetting to tell her she was out of coconut for the ambrosia she was serving to her guests... a '50s hostess' nightmare. There are a few moments when their performances threaten to lapse into parody, but one is only aware of this because this is basically a two person play, and the skill and realism of Tandys and Freemans performances just eclipse the others, they are basically props compared to the skill and, yes, sublety of the leads . The exception is Esther Rolle as "Idella" , Miss Daisys black maid. Though her part is small, and her lines few, she manages to convey a resigned dignity also, and her dead-pan delivery of several one liners is very humorous. Miss Daisys affection and respect for Idella is clearly etched upon her face, however, at Idella's funeral. This is just a wonderfully simple, beautiful film. It never treads into being overly sentimental, thanks to the casting of two very special stars. This film took many by surprise by winning the Oscar for best film of the year, proving that a movie with no special effects, and, that actually tells a story, can still move audiences. The final scene, where their years-long friendship comes full circle, will have tears in your eyes, as Miss Daisy conveys the sweet sad wisdom of the old, who know that "all shall soon pass...."
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