Of course Bernadette was "one of the strongest female characters in film history". She was a real person, which is why they made a movie about her, the same way filmmakers have always made movies about other strong, real-life characters. In the 1940s alone there were films celebrating such real-life women as Madame Curie, Sister Kenny, Joan of Arc and another Greer Garson real-life character, Edna Gladney, in Blossoms in the Dust. There were also strong fictional females in other 40s movies like The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, Flight for Freedom, Mrs. Parkington and scores of other films of all genres and with characters of all values.
I agree about Bernadette, but she was hardly unique in being a strong woman in movie history.
What amazed me was that such a simple girl always had the right answers. She made the authorities who were questioning look ridiculous at times.
Sorry, but to insert a reality check, this was a
movie with invented dialogue designed to convey that impression. It's an obvious technique and works well, but whether things were so neat and tidy in the actual Bernadette's life is another matter. It'd be nice to think it was so, but real life is rarely so simple, or simplistic.
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Innsmouth
8 years ago
Of course Bernadette was "one of the strongest female characters in film history". She was a real person, which is why they made a movie about her, the same way filmmakers have always made movies about other strong, real-life characters. In the 1940s alone there were films celebrating such real-life women as Madame Curie, Sister Kenny, Joan of Arc and another Greer Garson real-life character, Edna Gladney, in Blossoms in the Dust. There were also strong fictional females in other 40s movies like The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, Flight for Freedom, Mrs. Parkington and scores of other films of all genres and with characters of all values.
I agree about Bernadette, but she was hardly unique in being a strong woman in movie history.
I agree, I meant to write more in the OP, but the early film decades seemingly get a bad wrap for being one way or another, but the truth is people who today complain about the lack of this or that in film simply have not seen enough movies.
Arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhBWDzkqEPY
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hobnob53
8 years ago
I'm not quite sure if I follow you, Innsmouth, but if you mean that many people today give a bad rap to older films (about their characters or other issues) due to ignorance about those films, I entirely agree with you.
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Molly-31
7 years ago
"Sorry, but to insert a reality check, this was a movie with invented dialogue designed to convey that impression. It's an obvious technique and works well, but whether things were so neat and tidy in the actual Bernadette's life is another matter. It'd be nice to think it was so, but real life is rarely so simple, or simplistic."
Well, check the official transcripts of the inquest and all the interviews with her. A lot of the answers you see in the book/film were real. She's pretty sharp.
I'm not here to make you believe me, only to tell you what I saw.
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hobnob53
7 years ago
That may be so, but the OP didn't say he was referring to her "inquisition". His statement was actually rather broad and vague, so he might have meant that, but it isn't at all clear. He may well have been speaking more generally. In any event, what does "the right answers" even mean? "Right" by whose definition? In this case, the very concept is debatable and subjective.
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