Iron Jawed Angels
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Iron Jawed Angels is a highly acclaimed film about the American women's suffrage movement during the early 1900s. It was filmed in Virginia, produced by HBO Films, and released in 2004. It received a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival. [1]
The film, directed by Katja von Garnier follows political activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns as they revolutionize the American feminist movement to grant women the right to vote.
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[edit] Synopsis
Note: The following synopsis tells the events portrayed in the story, but is not categorized as a spoiler since the film is a direct representation of historic events.
The film opens as Alice and Lucy return to the United States from England where they have been actively involved in the suffrage movement. As the duo becomes more active within the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), they begin to realize that their ideas were much too radical for the established activists (particularly Carrie Chapman Catt). Both women eventually leave NAWSA and create the National Woman's Party (NWP), a much more radical organization dedicated to the fight for women's rights.
Over time, tension between the NWP and NAWSA grows as NAWSA leaders criticize NWP tactics such as direct protesting of the President and picketing directly outside the White House. Relations between the American government and the NWP protesters also intensify, as hundreds of women are arrested for their actions, and treated under horrible conditions. During this time, Alice Paul and other women undergo a hunger strike during which prison authorities force feed them through a tube. News of their treatment leaks to the media through a Senator and husband of one of the imprisoned women (who, prior to this event, pushed for the arrest of protesters). As a result, pressure is put on President Wilson as NAWSA seizes the opportunity to lobby tirelessly for the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution.
Paul, Burns, and all of the other women are eventually pardoned by the President and the Supreme Court rules that their arrests were, in fact, unconstitutional.
[edit] Title
The title of this film is derived from the name given to these women by the media upon hearing of their courage during the prison conditions. Starring Hilary Swank as Alice Paul, Frances O'Connor as Lucy Burns, Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland and Anjelica Huston as Carrie Chapman Catt along with Patrick Dempsey as Ben Weissman, a fictional character created for the movie.
