| Iron Jawed Angels | |
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DVD cover |
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| 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 |
| Editing by | Kunta Kin Tae |
| Distributed by | HBO Films |
| Release date(s) | January 17, 2004 (Sundance) |
| Running time | 125 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Iron Jawed Angels is a 2004 American drama film. It was directed by Katja von Garnier and starred Hilary Swank, Frances O'Connor, Julia Ormond, and Anjelica Huston. It focuses on the American women's suffrage movement during the 1910s. The film received acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.[1] Much of the principal photography was done in Richmond, VA.
The film follows political activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns as they use peaceful and effective strategies, tactics, and dialogues to revolutionize the American feminist movement to grant women the right to vote.
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The film begins as Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) return from England, where they participated in the suffrage movement. Once the pair becomes more active within the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), they begin to understand that their ideas were much too forceful for the established activists, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston). The pair leave the NAWSA and found the National Women's Party (NWP), a better way to fight for women's rights.
Over time, problems occur as NAWSA leaders criticize NWP tactics, such as protesting against a wartime President and picketing outside the White House with "Silent Sentinels." The woman became known famously and infamously (to male supremacists) as "Iron Jawed Angels." Relations between the American government and the NWP protesters also intensify, as many women are arrested for their actions, though the official charge is "obstructing traffic."
The women are sent to the Occoquan Workhouse for 60-day terms where they suffer under unsanitary and inhumane conditions. During this time, Paul and other women undertake a hunger strike, during which paid guards force feed them milk and raw eggs. News of their treatment leaks to the media through the husband of one of the imprisoned women who has been able to lobby for a visit (the suffragists are otherwise unable to see visitors or lawyers) by putting a letter in his shirt. Pressure is put on President Wilson as the NAWSA seizes the opportunity to try for the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution.
Paul, Burns and all of the other women were all pardoned by President Wilson. The Supreme Court ruled that their arrests were, in fact, unconstitutional.
The film was nominated for 5 awards at 2004 Emmys