The one thing that always bothers me about the play/film is Miss Daisy's rudeness in not allowing Freeman to see Martin Luther King speak. What was the big deal? Why couldn't she soften and give him her extra ticket?
shareI'll rent it tomorrow,watch it and hopefully have a good answer for you.
shareEventhough they had formed some type of relationship, she still found it hard to show friendship in public. She did feel bad, because you saw that she kept looking at the empty seat and feeling regret. It was still the time where segregation was the rule and she was in the south. A lot of people in those times claimed that they were "for equal rights", but only a few really stuck their neck out so to speak.
"I'll be your huckleberry"
****Possible Spoilers******
And, her son had given her the speech about possibly losing business if he went. I am sure that was on her mind.
The filmaker did a great job in showing complex character development in both Daisy and Hoke.
Several times in the movie, when Daisy is referring to her black help as "them," Boolie slyly pulls to her attention that might be prejudice. When he does, she always reacts stunned and angry, insisting that he should know better than to say that. She of all people was not prejudice. In her mind, the definition of that was people who used the "N" word or burned crosses.
There's an old saying, "The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference," meaning that the concentration camps were made possible not just by the Nazis, but moreover, by the Germans not direcly involved, who turned their heads as though it wasn't happening.
Martin Luther King basically says the same thing as Daisy is sitting there, staring at the empty seat with guilt. He said that these millions in the south were called upon. He said the great tragedy of this transitional period was not the acts of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
To me, that was an important part of the film. This filmaker did a great job with subtly. I think that part of the story was there to show that she had finally understood that, though she certainly didn't condone cross burning, her concern for what the community thought of her encouraged her to simply overlook these things. You know, don't rock the boat. It is in the very next scene, when she is panicing, looking for school papers when she hadn't taught in decades, that it can be seen her full apreciation of Hoke's love and concern for her. After she gathers herself and realizes her memory had briefly lapsed, she grabs his hands and says, "Hoke, you are my best friend."
And, I think one of the other posters did a good job pointing to her allowing him to feed her in the last scene.
Adding on to this a little more. That scene in the dinner hall I noticed that all the servicemen were black, and those who were seated at tables were all, of course, white. It was really well thought out the way it shows how the entire party was thrown in defense of the rights of black people, yet it also showed a bit of hipocracy(sp) how they were still being served by black people.
shareExactly! Those who had bought tickets to this fundraiser felt that because they were spending money on the cause and being friendly to black people they passed on the street or who worked for them, that they weren't involved in all the injustices being done to them. But, when a racist they did business with or went to church with attacked black people, kept them from living in equal homes and enjoying equal pay, they turned their heads because they didn't want to be resented for attacking the "southern way of life."
Also, your opinion is supported by the conversation Hoke and Daisy have while he is driving her to MLK's speech. She said she thinks its just wonderful how things are changing. In her mind, the good white folks coming out and saying how horrible they think black people have been treated is change.
Then Hoke says that things ain't changed that much. Yes, local white folks were finally hearing the rest of the country and many agreed this treatment was wrong, but the treatment continued anyway.
Actually, just FYI--I just saw this on Hallmark, and there was a black dinner guest at the table behind Miss Daisy.
share[deleted]
LOL! Exactly. Maybe that black guest's 'master' let him attend the dinner. How decent of them.
shareI thought that Hoke was kind of insulted that Miss Daisy didn't invite him properly. In that she had received the tickets a month earlier.
shareAgreed, that plus he was dressed up as a chauffeur. I'm sure he would have appreciated a chance to dress properly for such a momentous occasion.
---
Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the antidote to shame.
You thought correctly. Miss Daisy was supposed to go with her son, who backed out because of the possible business repercussions. He suggests Hoke, an idea that hadn't occurred to her, but when she raises MLK with him he is (one assumes genuinely) not much interested in the political aspects. When she pushes further to ask him if he would still come, he, as you say, reacts the same way any self respecting man would, and is insulted that he was thought of at the last minute.
Importantly, his reaction is that of a MAN, not as a 'black token' as some earlier posters seem not to be able to escape from. If there is any doubt about this, the point is echoed in the 'needing to urinate' scene elsewhere in the film. He's a grown man approaching 70 ffs, a grandfather. To those who think this is about colour, and Miss Daisy would have been correct to ask him on the night if Hoke were white, then think again.
Counting the number and disposition of black faces at the event itself rather misses the point. The story is about two people, not about a clash of races. Reducing the story into such a crude dialectic subverts the entire meaning and intention of the story.
My impression was that if Hoke had kept his mouth shut about how she went about this whole thing she would have asked him to come with her. By questioning her he brought out the extreme stubborn nature of the lady.
I'm not sure if I made the right interpretation, or that this was the only aspect of that segment, but yeah.
I felt that was one of the few moments of real daring on the part of the filmmakers. A black man sitting in the car while white people listen to Martin Luther King Jr. speak in person, I'm sure Hoke was not the only one in that situation.
---
Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the antidote to shame.
I saw in Miss Daisy, to a degree, a genuine streak of bigotry. Early in the film, she suggests all black people are thieves, and refers to them as, "children," not equal to Boolie or herself. She believed the bombing of the temple was not the same as a black man being lynched. She had a measure of blindness, which is why she ended up being spoon-fed at the end. Not that she was all bad. She wanted to do what was right. While doing needle-point, the aria she listens to, "Song to the Moon," is about a water-sprite who longs to be human. Miss Daisy wanted to be human too. She just didn't know how to attain it, how to overcome the bad ideas that had been instilled in her.
share[deleted]
I’m confused here. Is there a different cut of the movie ? Because I just watched it for the first time in probably 32 years and it seemed as though he turned down miss Daisy’s offer to attend the King event with her. He said something like “why are you asking me to go now ? You’ve known it was on for weeks. You could have asked me a long time ago etc so it seemed like it was his decision to me.
share