Cady's Take:

"Iron Jawed Angels" tells the remarkable story of a group of young women, led by Alice Paul (Hilary Swank), who founded the separatist National Woman's Party and wrote the first equal rights amendment to be presented before Congress, and her friend Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor). These women put their lives on the line to fight for American women's right to vote.

Iron Jawed Angels is an accomplished biopic that excels at depicting the real sacrifices of the women involved, especially in the harrowing prison scenes where Paul leads a hunger strike after a dubious arrest for "obstruction of traffic" when picketing the White House. Prison officials pried open her mouth with a metal contraption, forced a feeding tube into her stomach and poured food down a funnel into her belly. She vomited constantly throughout the process, yet still refused to eat. Why? Because she wanted a voice in her government.

Many people of that time believed that the women should give up their picketing of Woodrow Wilson. The film feels particularly relevant in showing the dangers that come from voicing any opposition to a wartime president. 

Iron Jawed Angels also stars other major talents, Julia Ormond, Anjelica Huston, and Molly Parker. Oh, and I could never forget Patrick Dempsey. He plays Benjamin Weissman, a Washington Post illustrator who serves as what might have been a token "love interest" in a lesser film, but here he symbolizes the choice Alice must make between the cause and her personal life.

By 1920, 35 states have ratified the amendment, but one more state is needed. Tennessee becomes that state when a headstrong legislator casts the deciding vote after receiving a telegram from his mother (a real life event). On Aug. 26, 1920, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment becomes law, and 20 million American women win the right to vote.

Iron Jawed Angels is both engaging and artistic.  It is a gorgeous marriage of 21st Century style and 1920's elegance. Every woman and girl in this country should see this movie.

The story of Alice Paul is compelling on many levels: her devotion to securing women the right to vote, her singular vision, and her inability to accept defeat in the face of, well, men. "Iron Jawed Angels" is the story of the women's movement, more accurately the last four years before the vote was granted in 1920. Paul's breakaway faction (National Woman's Party) of the National American Women Suffrage Association was deemed too radical by its established and somewhat complacent counterpart. Carrie Chapman Catt (Houston) views Paul and her cohorts as detrimental to her cause (she thinks suffrage focus should be state by state, not national) and we spend much of the movie watching Catt discourage, and in some cases foil, the plans of Paul.

Frances O'Connor plays Lucy Burns, who by turns becomes frustrated and then, when Alice Paul needs her, is strong and the two women have a bond that brings them through the taunting, violence, and arrests that follow their protests. This movie really hinges, however, on the performance of Hillary Swank, as Alice Paul a determined Quaker-born activist who sees the hypocrisy between US involvement in WWII and the disenfranchisement of American women. Swank is at once strong and vulnerable in a role that brings an abstract page of history to life.

Even with just one or two early references to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, this movie will hit home for any woman living in our area. I lost count of how many times I realized during the course of this movie just how lucky I am. This is a must-rent for every woman and I think there are more than a few men who will enjoy this story as well. Of course, a small but charming appearance by Patrick Dempsey does not hurt either. All around the best movie Cady and I have reviewed in months.