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 protestors 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 protestors). 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.
"In oranges and women, courage is often mistaken for insanity"
Breathing life into the relationships between Paul, Burns and others, the movie makes the women feel like complete characters instead of one-dimensional figures from a distant past. Although the protagonists have different personalities and backgrounds - Alice is a Quaker and Lucy an Irish Brooklynite - they are united in their fierce devotion to women's suffrage. In a country dominated by chauvinism, this is no easy fight, as the women and their volunteers clash with older, conservative activists, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt (Angelica Huston). They also battle public opinion in a tumultuous time of war, not to mention the most powerful men in the country, including President Woodrow Wilson (Bob Gunton). Along the way, sacrifices are made: Alice gives up a chance for love, and colleague Inez Mulholland (Julia Ormond) gives up her life. The women are thrown in jail, with an ensuing hunger strike making headline news. The women's resistance to being force-fed earns them the nickname "The Iron Jawed Angels." However, it is truly their wills that are made of iron, and their courage inspires a nation and changes it forever.
There are a lot of things I learned from the movie. I figured that, the courage of the women is often mistaken for insanity. This was when the NWP's picketing directly outside the White House. The onlookers who passed by the gate, particularly the men reacted violently upon reading the message challenging the well-loved president Wilson on its action towards the amendment of the nineteenth constitution. I find it savage for the men to attack motionless women who are standing for their cause. They were even called "Iron jawed angels!" which was for me a very encouraging remark even if the Times considered them no better than anarchists and draft dodgers.
Another thing I figured is that "To pay the fine would be admitting guilt". The NWP's in the movie did not concede in the judge's decision to let them pay the fine of obstruction of traffic. I simply cannot understand how the men during that time can be very unreasonable. For me, there was really no offense committed. I learned that the men don't trust themselves enough to trust the women.
The message that moved me was Alice Paul's line which said, "We're legitimate citizens. We're taxed without representation. We're not allowed to serve on juries so we're not tried by our peers. It's unconscionable, not to mention unconstitutional. We don't make the laws but we have to obey them like children". This line I believe tells us the point of why women must be allowed to vote and enter the public sphere. I believe with what Woodrow Wilson said, "America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us".
I now understand that the history of liberty is a history of resistance.
Breathing life into the relationships between Paul, Burns and others, the movie makes the women feel like complete characters instead of one-dimensional figures from a distant past. Although the protagonists have different personalities and backgrounds - Alice is a Quaker and Lucy an Irish Brooklynite - they are united in their fierce devotion to women's suffrage. In a country dominated by chauvinism, this is no easy fight, as the women and their volunteers clash with older, conservative activists, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt (Angelica Huston). They also battle public opinion in a tumultuous time of war, not to mention the most powerful men in the country, including President Woodrow Wilson (Bob Gunton). Along the way, sacrifices are made: Alice gives up a chance for love, and colleague Inez Mulholland (Julia Ormond) gives up her life. The women are thrown in jail, with an ensuing hunger strike making headline news. The women's resistance to being force-fed earns them the nickname "The Iron Jawed Angels." However, it is truly their wills that are made of iron, and their courage inspires a nation and changes it forever.
There are a lot of things I learned from the movie. I figured that, the courage of the women is often mistaken for insanity. This was when the NWP's picketing directly outside the White House. The onlookers who passed by the gate, particularly the men reacted violently upon reading the message challenging the well-loved president Wilson on its action towards the amendment of the nineteenth constitution. I find it savage for the men to attack motionless women who are standing for their cause. They were even called "Iron jawed angels!" which was for me a very encouraging remark even if the Times considered them no better than anarchists and draft dodgers.
Another thing I figured is that "To pay the fine would be admitting guilt". The NWP's in the movie did not concede in the judge's decision to let them pay the fine of obstruction of traffic. I simply cannot understand how the men during that time can be very unreasonable. For me, there was really no offense committed. I learned that the men don't trust themselves enough to trust the women.
The message that moved me was Alice Paul's line which said, "We're legitimate citizens. We're taxed without representation. We're not allowed to serve on juries so we're not tried by our peers. It's unconscionable, not to mention unconstitutional. We don't make the laws but we have to obey them like children". This line I believe tells us the point of why women must be allowed to vote and enter the public sphere. I believe with what Woodrow Wilson said, "America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us".
I now understand that the history of liberty is a history of resistance.
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