Iron Jawed Angels

Iron Jawed Angels
DVD cover
Directed by	Katja von Garnier
Produced by	Len Amato Lydia Dean Pilcher Robin Forman Paula Weinstein
Written by	Sally Robinson Eugenia Bostwick-Singer Raymond Singer Jennifer Friedes
Starring	Hilary Swank Frances O'Connor Julia Ormond Anjelica Huston
Music by	Reinhold Heil Johnny Klimek
Cinematography	Robbie Greenberg
Edited by	Hans Funck
Distributed by	HBO Films
Release dates	January 16, 2004 (2004-01-16) (Sundance) February 15, 2004 (2004-02-15) (United States)
Running time	125 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Iron Jawed Angels is a 2004 American historical drama film. It was directed by Katja von Garnier and starred Hilary Swank as suffragist leader Alice Paul, Frances O'Connor as activist Lucy Burns, Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland, and Anjelica Huston as Carrie Chapman Catt. The film received critical acclaim after it premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Much of the principal photography was done in Richmond, Virginia.

The film focuses on the American women's suffrage movement during the 1910s, and follows women's suffrage leaders Alice Paul and Lucy Burns as they use peaceful and effective nonviolent strategies, tactics, and dialogues to revolutionize the American feminist movement to grant women the right to vote. It was released in the United States on February 15, 2004.

Plot

The film begins as Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) return from England where they met while participating in the Women's Social and Political Union started by radical suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and led by her daughter Christabel Pankhurst. The pair presents a plan to the National American Woman's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to push directly in Washington for women's rights to vote nationally. They see that their ideas were much too forceful for the established leaders, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston), but are allowed to lead the NAWSA Congressional Committee in DC. They start by organizing the 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade, on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.

While soliciting donations at an art gallery, Paul convinces labor lawyer Inez Milholland (Julia Ormond) to serve as a figurehead for the parade and meets a Washington newspaper political cartoonist, Ben Weissman (a fictional character, played by Patrick Dempsey), causing romantic fire to start. In a fictional scene, Paul tries to explain to Ida B. Wells why she wants African American women to march in the back of the parade in order to not anger southern Democrats in the movement, but Wells refuses, and joins a white group during the middle of the parade. (Wells did refuse to be segregated and marched with her state delegation but never met with Paul about it.) After disagreements over fundraising, Paul and Burns are pushed out of the NAWSA, and found the National Woman's Party (NWP) to support their approach. Alice Paul briefly explores a romantic relationship with Ben Weissman. He has a child (also a fictional character).

Further conflicts within the movement are portrayed as NAWSA leaders criticize NWP tactics, such as protesting against Wilson and picketing outside the White House in the Silent Sentinels action. Relations between the American government and the NWP protesters also intensify, as many women are arrested for their actions, charged with "obstructing traffic."

The arrested women are sent to the Occoquan Workhouse for 60-day terms. Despite abusive treatment, Paul and other women undertake a hunger strike, during which paid guards force-feed them milk and raw eggs. The suffragists are blocked from seeing visitors or lawyers, until a U.S. Senator (the fictional Tom Leighton) manages to visit his wife Emily (also fictional), one of the imprisoned women. News of their treatment leaks to the media after she secretly passes a letter to him during the visit. Paul, Burns, and all of the other women are released.

Further pressure is put on Wilson as the NAWSA joins in the NWP call for a nineteenth amendment to the Constitution. Finally he accedes to the pressure, rather than be called out in the international press for fighting for democracy in Europe while denying its benefits to half of the U.S. population. Ratification follows in the states, reaching a climax when Harry T. Burn, a member of the Tennessee legislature, receives a telegram from his mother at the last minute and changes his vote, such that the amendment is ratified.

Origin of title

The film derives its title from Massachusetts Representative Joseph Walsh, who in 1917 opposed the creation of a committee to deal with women's suffrage. Walsh thought the creation of a committee would be yielding to "the nagging of iron-jawed angels" and referred to the Silent Sentinels as "bewildered, deluded creatures with short skirts and short hair."

Cast

• Hilary Swank as Alice Paul
• Brett Boseman as Ben Weissman's child
• Frances O'Connor as Lucy Burns
• Molly Parker as Emily Leighton
• Laura Fraser as Doris Stevens
• Lois Smith as Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw
• Vera Farmiga as Ruza Wenclawska, aka Rose Winslow
• Brooke Smith as Mabel Vernon
• Patrick Dempsey as Ben Weissman
• Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland
• Adilah Barnes as Ida Wells-Barnett
• Anjelica Huston as Carrie Chapman Catt
• Margo Martindale as Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch
• Bob Gunton as Woodrow Wilson
• Vinny Genna as Fiorello La Guardia
• Joseph Adams as Senator Thomas "Tom" Leighton

Fictional characters

Fictional characters in the film are Ben Weissman, his child, Emily Leighton, and Tom Leighton.

Reception

Critical response

Film critic Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper gave the film a positive review, writing: "Iron Jawed Angels is an important history lesson told in a fresh, and blazing fashion." Scott Faundas of Variety gave the film a negative review, writing: "HBO's starry suffragette drama, Iron Jawed Angels, latches on to a worthy historical subject and then hopes noble intentions will be enough to carry the day. Alas, there's no such luck in this talky, melodramatic overview of the dawn of equal rights for women in America. Gussied up with a comically anachronistic use of period music on the soundtrack and flashy, MTV-style montage sequences, pic misguidedly strives – but ultimately fails – to belie its instincts as an assembly-line movie-of-the-week."

Robert Pardi of TV Guide gave a mixed review: "All the elements for a splendid film about the early days of the women's rights are in place, but director Katja von Garnier's use of distracting cinematic trickery and jarringly modern music meshes poorly with the period setting... Blessed with a flawless physical production, von Garnier distorts her epic tale with music that belongs on a Lilith Fair tour; it sometimes feels as though she and her writers conceived the fight for women's suffrage as a 1912 version of Sex and the City. Only when the anachronisms finally subside in the film's final third is the moving core is allowed to shine."

Accolades

The film was nominated for five awards at 56th Primetime Emmy Awards, though none of which were won; three awards at the 62nd Golden Globe Awards, winning one; and two awards at the 9th Golden Satellite Awards, winning one. Anjelica Huston won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for her performance in the film.

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2004	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special	Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins, Liz Marks, Kathleen Chopin	Nominated
		Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Movie	Robbie Greenberg	Nominated
		Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special	Caroline Harris, Eric Van Wagoner, Carl Curnutte III	Nominated
		Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie	Anjelica Huston	Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Dramatic Special	Sally Robinson, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, Raymond Singer, Jennifer Friedes	Nominated
	Casting Society of America	Best Casting for TV Movie of the Week	Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins, Liz Marks	Nominated
	Humanitas Prize	90 Minute or Longer Category	Sally Robinson, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, Raymond Singer, Jennifer Friedes	Nominated
	OFTA Television Award	Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries	Anjelica Huston	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries	Brooke Smith	Nominated
		Best Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries	Hilary Swank	Nominated
		Best Motion Picture Made for Television	Iron Jawed Angels	Nominated
2005	Golden Globe Award	Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Anjelica Huston	Won
		Best Miniseries or Television Film	Iron Jawed Angels	Nominated
		Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film	Hilary Swank	Nominated
	American Society of Cinematographers	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Movies of the Week/Mini-Series/Pilot (Basic or Pay)	Robbie Greenberg	Won
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Hilary Swank	Nominated
	Satellite Award	Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Anjelica Huston	Won
		Best Miniseries or Television Film	Iron Jawed Angels	Nominated
	PEN Center USA West Literary Award	Teleplay	Sally Robinson, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, Raymond Singer, Jennifer Friedes	Won
	Costume Designers Guild Award	Outstanding Period/Fantasy Television Series	Caroline Harris	Nominated

See also

• Suffragette (2015 film)

External links

• Official website
• Iron Jawed Angels at IMDb