Everyone loves an underdog tale. Where an ordinary person sets out to right a wrong. Where the seemingly impossible is made possible. Where the undefeatable is somehow defeated.
The new big screen docudrama Conviction chronicles the amazing and inspirational story of an underdog by the name of Betty Anne Waters (wonderfully played by two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank), a real-life wife and mother who embarked on an 18-year quest to exonerate her imprisoned older brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell), who had been convicted of the savage murder of a female neighbor. Check out my review here.
Conviction, formerly titled Betty Anne Waters, has drawn comparisons to other big screen David vs. Goliath tales with strong female protagonists. These comparisons beg the question: Considering how well-received these female-driven inspirational tales typically are, why are they so few and far in-between? You could argue that they don’t perform well at the box office. But that doesn’t seem to stop Hollywood from cranking out films where male stars take on the establishment in far greater numbers. Recent examples include Milk, Michael Clayton, and the Bourne trilogy, not to mention slightly older examples like Jerry Maguire, The People vs. Larry Flynt and The Insider.
Whatever the reason, these sort of films – and the performances in them – tend to get noticed come awards season, which bodes well for Conviction regardless of what sort of box office it generates.
Here are five other female-driven “taking on the establishment” films that are worth checking out, all of which are available on DVD.
Norma Rae (1979)
Sally Field won the first of her two best actress Oscars for her signature performance as the title character, a poor, single mom working under deplorable conditions at a local textile plant. After being approached by a Jewish union organizer (Ron Liebman) from New York, Rae leads the charge for unionization while enduring a great deal of vitriol from her superiors and some of her fellow workers as a result. This film was inspired by the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton, a textile worker from North Carolina who died in 2009 at the age of 68.
Silkwood (1983)
This Mike Nichols-directed, Nora Ephron-scripted account of the life and mysterious death of whistle blower Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep), a wild child divorcee and mother who was employed at an Oklahoma nuclear power plant, proves to be a thought-provoking character study and disturbing examination of corporate malfeasance. Like Norma Rae, Karen’s fight to improve working conditions for herself and her co-workers resulted in her being made a target; she was purposely contaminated with plutonium on more than one occasion. Unlike Norma Rae, her campaign for workplace reform may have resulted in her murder – the circumstances surrounding her death following a car accident when she was en route to speak with a reporter from the New York Times remain a mystery. Both Streep and Cher (who played Silkwood’s best friend) were Oscar-nominated for their emotionally-rich and complex performances. Nichols’ direction and Ephron’s script (co-written with Alice Arlen) were also recognized.
Working Girl (1988)
In yet another Mike Nichols-directed tale, this comedy centers on Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith), a secretary from Long Island with dreams of breaking into the executive rat race. Unfairly pigeonholed because of her looks, she’s sent for a loop when she discovers that her new female boss (Sigourney Weaver) has secretly taken sole credit for an ambitious business deal that Tess pitched to her on good faith.
Fate intervenes when her boss is unable to travel back to the city following a skiing mishap. Seizing the opportunity, Tess pretends to be her boss’ colleague and teams up with an investment banker (Harrison Ford) from another firm to iron out the kinks and close the deal. Things get complicated when Griffith and Ford fall for one another and Weaver returns. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including best picture, best director, best actress for Griffith, and best supporting actress for both Weaver and Joan Cusack, who’s a riot (“Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Me?) as Tess’ supportive, yet concerned, best friend.
Lorenzo’s Oil (1992)
Susan Sarandon was Oscar-nominated for her searing performance (one of her very best) as Michaela Odone, a real-life American linguist who, along with her Italian economist husband Augusto (Nick Nolte, very good in his own right, despite sporting an oddball accent that’s supposed to be Italian), fought tooth and nail during the Reagan administration to increase public awareness of an extremely rare and fatal degenerative brain disorder that their young son Lorenzo was diagnosed with. Before the Odones’ efforts, boys with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD, for short) typically died within two years of diagnosis. So it was a race against time for the Odones to find a cure and save their son. The film reunited Sarandon with her Witches of Eastwick director George Miller (Mad Max), who was a licensed medical doctor in his native Australia before segueing into filmmaking. His medical expertise likely proved invaluable when deciding how to present the Odones’ story. Lorenzo’s Oil is a harrowing, deliberately-paced medical thriller instead of a trite disease-movie-of-the-week. It’s hard to watch but Sarandon and Nolte (despite the accent) make it worth the effort.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Julia Roberts famously broke into the $20-million-per-film club with her crowd-pleasing turn as the film’s title character, a former beauty queen and unemployed divorcee with three kids who’s broke following a car accident. She manages to talk her way into a legal assistant job at her attorney’s (Albert Finney) law office and while investigating a real estate case involving a prominent California power company, she discovers that they’ve been knowingly polluting the water supply of a local community for years, poisoning residents in the process and leaving them suffering from a myriad health problems. Erin’s investigation into this corporate cover-up results in one of the largest class action lawsuits in U.S. history. Director Steven Soderbergh (sex, lies and videotape, The Limey, Ché) had a remarkable run in 2000: Erin Brockovich was up for five Oscars, including best picture, supporting actor for Finney, and original screenplay for Susannah Grant, with Roberts winning for best actress. Soderbergh actually took home a best director award that year, too, but for his other hit film, Traffic.
