If These Walls Could Talk
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Movie Reviews of If These Walls Could Talk
Movie Review: A decidely rhetorical HBO movie, but unlikely to persuade anyone
Summary: 4 Stars
"If These Walls Could Talk" is one of the most didactic films you are likely to see, but given that there is no issue in contemporary America that is more polarizing than that of abortion it could well be that it is one of the least persuasive films you will see as well. Those who are pro-choice will see it as compelling, while those who are pro-life will see it as offensive, and those who have not made up their minds are too young to watch anything that originally aired on HBO. That is especially true of this film, which has a pair of scenes that will upset you regardless of gender or ideology.
The conceit of "If These Walls Could Talk" is that three women, living in three different times in the past half-century but in the same house, find themselves pregnant. Each faces a different situation, both personally and in terms of the legal and social climate regarding abortion. In 1952, Claire Donnelly (Demi Moore) is a young nurse whose husband had been killed in Korea. She has a moment of weakness and when she discovers she is pregnant she desperately tries to find someone who can perform an illegal abortion. In 1974, Barbara Barrows (Sissy Spacek) is a mother of four older children who has started work on a college degree when she finds herself pregnant. This baby means no early retirement for her husband and that their oldest daughter can forget about going to the college of her choice, so Barbara considers a legal abortion. In 1996, Christine Cullen (Anne Heche) learns she is pregnant by her married college professor. Christine is considering an abortion and discovers the local clinic is besieged by anti-abortion protesters, with volunteers escorting women inside past the gauntlet.
What I find interesting about "If These Walls Could Talk" is the way that the writers have dressed up their rhetoric. The death of each person in this movie, whether they are born or unborn, is tragic because death is inherently tragic, and there is certainly an extent to which you can read things both ways in this 1996 movie. After all, the death of a woman because of a "back alley" abortion can be seen as an argument for making abortion legal so that it does not happen, but it also serves as evidence for the idea that women should not have abortions in the first place.
Yet in the total context of the movie the preferred reading for such a things seems clear. Within that context the decision not to have an abortion is not just a pro-life decision, but a pro-choice one as well (to wit, she chooses life). Plus, we see a world where the people who carry guns and placards are fanatics in the crazy sense of the word instead of the deeply devote meaning. There are two sides to the issue, and in each vignette those two sides are represented, and the common denominator is that the side that is most judgmental is the side that loses in each instance. It is just that from a political perspective, one side of the dispute is inherently more judgmental than the other.
Movie Review: Walls and Bridges
Summary: 4 Stars
When this film was first broadcast on HBO back in 1996, I found it quite compelling. Yes, it had its less than subtle moments, but for a made-for-cable movie, it was pretty darn effective, I thought. The anthology approach--three stories from three different eras in recent history (the 50s, the 70s and the mid-90s)--effectively portrayed the shift in attitudes toward abortion in the US over the past several decades and how its legalization has profoundly altered women's lives. The film's occasional heavyhandedness was not unexpected, but the top flight cast seemed to overcome the script's occasional lapses into preachiness. And overall, it seemed to reflect as balanced a treatment of a complex issue as you could possibly hope for (while definitely maintaining a "pro-choice" perspective throughout).Or so it seemed at the time. On re-viewing the film recently, I found I had less patience with its flaws for some reason. I have little argument with the pro-choice point of view being advanced by the film. Indeed the film's message that such a choice is almost never anything but traumatic is a potent one and one that abortion rights opponents need always to keep in mind.
But it doesn't invalidate the film's message to say that it probably could have been handled with more subtlety. There are a number of moments in all three films that could have used a leavening touch, but I'll limit myself to one from the third installment (SPOILER WARNING): namely the shoot-up in the clinic that serves as the film's climax.
As someone else pointed out below, by the mid-90s most abortion clinics had metal detectors. Gunmen outside the clinics remained a hazard, but there is no reported case of abortion providers getting shot on the premises (none that I am aware of anyway). Yes, yes, there is such a thing as dramatic license, but when you're dealing with such an incendiary topic to begin with, it's hardly necessary to invoke it.
WALLS remains worth watching, to be sure, but if I were to recommend just one film on the topic of abortion, this would probably not be the one. A film like CITIZEN RUTH addresses the same themes with more irony and panache than this sometimes ploddingly earnest effort can muster.
Movie Review: Difficult to watch, yet very powerful
Summary: 4 Stars
Of the three stories, "1952" was the hardest to watch.
Hearing the scraping during the illegal abortion was the worse of all, although the ending scene where she is bleeding all over the floor and trying to get help is pretty gruesome and indeed gets its point across.
A couple of small flaws in this segment: I imagine getting a kitchen table abortion would have been horrifically painful, yet Demi Moore's character is seen moaning softly. That was not a realistic depiction--she would have been screaming her head off. I also wonder why a nurse would go through this, knowing the extreme risks and unsanitary conditions--I would find it more credible if the character's occupation had been changed to a nonmedical profession. Still, the scenes are indelible and very powerful, and a painful reminder of what women had to go through back in the fifties to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
The 1970s segment was an excellent illustration of how women are able to have a choice, and it is a reprieve from the more intense 1952 and 1996 segments.
The 1996 segment depicts how the abortion issue has created strong divides within two college friends, played by Anne Heche and Jada Pinkett. Their difference is but a microcosm of the heated debate within communities at large over abortion, which has spawned demented extremists who think the only way to stop abortion is to kill the physicians who perform the procedure at the women's clinic.
The viewer can see how far women have come over control of their own bodies, yet the 1996 segment is a painful reminder of how much things are going backwards, especially after hearing about the latest anti-abortion legislation passed in South Dakota, which even protects rapists. This legislation will force Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling in the 1973 Roe vs. Wade case that legalized abortion in the U.S., with conservatives hoping that the court will overturn this historic decision. Thank you, Governor Rounds, for trying to force women back into the 1950s again.
This film provides an excellent argument to uphold Roe vs. Wade.
Movie Review: A Powerful Argument for the Pro-Choice Camp
Summary: 4 Stars
Alright...I'm not going to pretend that this film is unbiased. It certainly is. IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK is a powerful argument, divided amongst three independent segments, for providing a safe & secure means for women to seek abortions if they so choose. In the first chapter, a women in the 1950s, cornered by guilt and shame, is forced to seek a back-alley abortion--a method that leaves her devastated. The closing scene of this first chapter is absolutely horrific and a powerful argument for being pro-choice in and of itself.
In the second chapter, set in the 1970s, the film tries to provide a balanced perspective on abortion by having the protagonist (a tired mother of five who has finally begun her own life again) choose to keep her child. While it may have been intended as a half-argument for the pro-life side, it comes across as a martyr story. The liberal audience will ignore her decision and wish that the mother were not so confined by her moral beliefs and indecision.
The final chapter grants us a young female in the 1990s who comes across as a foolish girl, a girl who has become involved with her professor. There's no real sympathy for this girl, but rather some anger at the professor's dismissive attitude. No sympathy, that is, until the powerful scenes depicting the radical nature of the far-right of the pro-life movement.
While this film may not be a "balanced" perspective on abortion, I believe that it does a nice job at humanizing the pro-choice movement. IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK is not selling permiscuous sex without consequences. Rather, it documents the hard-choices and horrible circumstances of unwanted pregnancy--a position that no one wants to be in. In the end, the film delivers a powerful sentiment: One way or another, women are going to seek abortions. They always have and always will. Thus, we must ask ourselves if we should provide a safe & secure place for women to seek them. My recommendation is for you to watch IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK a before you decide, regardless of your leanings.
Movie Review: Good movie, but biased...
Summary: 4 Stars
I'll start off saying that even as an abortion supporter, I found the movie biased. The one segment of three, which was set in the 70s and acted brilliantly by Sissy Spacek, where the woman chose not to have an abortion was the weakest. The story focused more on her life rather than the abortion, and I jus felt it didn't speak to me as much as the first and last segments. It was still good, but that segment seemed out of place. I also found the 70s segemnt out of place in the sequel, but that's a different subject. The first segment, set in the 50s spoke to me the most. You could feel Demi's pain. I wanted to just strangle her sister. As I said before, the 70s segment was acted well, but lacked a moving story for me. I just didnt feel for Sissy's character like the other two. The last segment, set in the 90s, ws my favorite. Maybe it was because it is more relevent to me, since it's when I grew up. The end was really an unexpected turn, and superbly acted by Matthew Lillard. He reeked of ignorance and to what me seemed like insanity. Props to Cher (flashback to clueless with that...) for directing that scene as well as acting in it. It was wonderful. That last shot form above was amazing...
Overalll, a good movie. I agree with an earlier reviewer in the fact that it should be shown in a health class to show girls about the options they have now, and educate them.