floydianever For a made-for-tv movie it's obviously still intriguing enough to have captured the Millennial generations attention and spawned an updated remake. This is ORIGINAL movie based on Margaret Atwood's novel that pretty much follows her book as originally written.The questionable ensemble of actors chosen seem to give this film a disjointed feel possibly due to the lack of chemistry between them. Faye Dunaway as Serena Joy and Ed Harris as the Commander seem more like abusive grandparents to Natasha Richardson's Offred, (Elizabeth McGoverns' Moira only stands out because of her age and garters at Jezebels) STILL a good movie (for network tv) and enjoyable if you want the original tale as written.

cembalo-91031 For those who think this might be far-fetched I refer to the Christian and very influential theologian, St Augustine of Hippo, who thought sex was disgusting (and he had had quite a bit of it) and only redeemed by its procreative aspect. This ably demonstrates that reducing sex to that function is debased, and totally wrong. Yet sanctions on contraception are still widely upheld. Figure out the implications of that. The series ably illustrates the ridiculous and artificial restrictions on female behavior: women are overly delicate in speech and gesture but when violence is mandated they are expected to, and do, comply. And even for unbelievers, quaint, pious expressions are so successfully inculcated they can't resist mouthing them even when unobserved. It reminded me suddenly of Joan of Arc who saved France as a separate country, but simply had to die, because, what do you do with a talented, heroic female soldier whose existence undermines the male biases of the whole system? This movie is not merely futuristic but a kind of parodic reflection of the status and lives of most women in this so-called civilized world. Traditional religion has not been the only negative factor, but it certainly hasn't helped much.

preppy-3 This is a nightmare vision of the future. It seems 1 out of every 100 women is fertile (for some reason). The ones who aren't perform slave labor. The ones that are are "sold" off to rich families where they have sex with the husband to produce a baby. Kate (the late and missed Natasha Richardson) is one such servant to Serena Joy (Faye Dunaway) and her husband the Commander (Robert Duvall). Kate wants out--but it seems there's no way.The synopsis only scratches the surface of a VERY dark and disturbing movie. It slowly shows how women are treated and used and it just gets more horrifying as it unfolds. The parallels to Hitler's Nazi Germany are fairly obvious but here we have barren women instead of Jews and gays. The good acting by everybody makes this hard to shake off. Aidan Quinn (as Nick) and Duvall are OK; Victoria Tennant is chilling as a leader of the camps; Elizabeth McGovern is just great as a fellow prisoner who befriends Kate; Dunaway is also very good in her role. Best of all is Richardson. This couldn't have been an easy role but she pulls it off beautifully. She died at far too young an age. This is basically an unknown movie and it's easy to see why--it's far too dark and disturbing for a general audience. However the ending is (sort of) uplifting (and changed from the book). Grim, dark and depressing. View it at your own risk. The ceremony sequences are almost impossible to watch and shocked the hell out of me the first time I saw this.

maatmouse-1 This movie is a version of Margaret Atwood's book about a dystopian future society in which society, by virtue of an unseen war, is divided up into the elite who want babies, the establishment who can procure the fertile young women who will give them children and an underclass who do drudgery.The late Natasha Richardson plays Kate or Offred, a young woman who, in the destruction of normal society, is force-ably parted from her husband and family and taken to a military style barracks where all the women in a similar situation are being 'groomed' (brainwashed) for having the babies of the rich (and largely infertile) elite. Kate is placed in an ultra-wealthy household ran by the Commander played easily by Robert Duvall and his beautiful, infertile and cold wife played by Faye Dunaway. Each month Offred is forced to take part in the 'Ceremony', in which her Commander has sex with her in order to conceive his child. To make matters worse, the Commander's wife is also present at the embarrassing and excruciating 'ritual'. Tired with the Commander's unsuccessful copulating, his wife proposes that Offred sleeps with the couple's chauffeur, which she does.There is a lot not explained in the film which can only be drawn from the book. There is the explanations behind the society's class system and Offred's attachment to some phrase she finds written by another woman within her prison. The Commander also tries to establish a kind of relationship with Offred, something which is strongly disapproved of, but he encourages, seeing it as an opportunity not only to achieve his wife's goal of raising a child but also of having more tender sexual encounters with his 'concubine'.Natasha, Faye, Elizabeth McGovern and Robert Duvall along with Victoria are all excellent in this film. Aidan Quinn is really only there for his good looks but it doesn't matter. The film is satisfactory but now sadly is starting to look quite dated.