Driving Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly nine years since we saw the film ‘Driving Miss Daisy’. We vaguely remembered the storyline - that an elderly white woman in the United States, back in the 1950s, employs a black driver - but we had forgotten everything else about it. Well, almost everything. I had recalled that it took me a good five minutes to start understanding the very strong Southern American accents.  But I knew it would be worth watching anyway.

We tried - and failed - to switch on subtitles at the beginning of the film, since, once again, I found it very difficult to understand more than about one word in three in the first few minutes of re-watching this. But it didn’t matter too much.

The story itself is relatively straightforward. Miss Daisy - brilliantly portrayed by Jessica Tandy - is a Jewish widow, living in the state of Georgia. She is such a bad driver that insurance companies will no longer insure her. So her son Boolie (Dan Aykroyd) who is a businessman employs a man called Hoke (Morgan Freeman) who is clearly an expert with everything mechanical, as well as an excellent driver.

Miss Daisy doesn’t want a driver, and determines to walk everywhere at first. She insists that she is not prejudiced, and has, for the era, basically a good relationship with her housekeeper and cook Idella (Esther Rolle). But the class consciousness is as strong as that of the upper classes in 18th century Britain. Idella and Hoke can never eat with Miss Daisy, for instance.

Morgan Freeman, as ever, is superb in the role of Hoke. He’s good-natured, and determined to break through the initial hostility displayed. He has a sense of humour, and strong integrity; so there are some quite amusing scenes here and there. But we also see just how difficult it was for people with dark skin in this era; Hoke had never travelled, and had lacked even a basic education as a child.

The story covers a span of twenty-five years, and both the main characters age, Miss Daisy becoming more forgetful and Hoke remaining faithful and strong. There isn’t a great deal of action, although there are some very sad scenes as well as some that are quite uplifting. The point is made that even though Miss Daisy is white and wealthy, and thus privileged in many ways, being Jewish makes her a minority. Gradually she begins to understand some of what Hoke has to cope with daily.

Once my ears had attuned to the strong accents, I was completely immersed in this beautifully made film, which is thought-provoking, revealing, and ultimately - even if it’s a cliche - heartwarming. The rating is U, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to see a little of what Southern US culture was like in the 1950s and subsequent decades.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Driving Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman)

(Amazon UK link)

This is another of those films which Amazon must have recommended to me - possibly because of the actors in it - and which I was given by one of my relatives. It's sat on our unwatched-DVD-shelf for some time, but we decided to see it with a friend a couple of evenings ago. I don't usually watch this many films in a month, but the blurb on the back suggested that this would be a gentle and undemanding story.

'Driving Miss Daisy' proved to be exactly that. We first meet Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy), an elderly Jewish widow, when she has a little prang with her car. She wants to keep her independence, but cannot get car insurance. Her son (Dan Aykroyd) tries in vain to reason with her, then goes ahead and employs an African-American chauffeur called Hoke (Morgan Freeman) for her.

The film is set initially in the 1940s, in the American South. While Miss Daisy insists that she is not prejudiced, there's an overt difference between her and her black cook Idella (Esther Rolle), and she really does not want a chauffeur of any kind. She reluctantly agrees to let him drive her car, but the relationship is often rather strained at first.

Jessica Tandy is superb in the title role, which she filmed when she was 80 according to the brief ‘making of’ extra. During the course of the movie she starts as a sprightly woman of around 70 and eventually becomes very frail, approaching 90. She is entirely believable as both. Freeman, too, is excellent as Hoke, surprisingly confident and determined, while aware all the time of his 'place'.

There's not much action, or indeed plot. However, this is a wonderful, character-driven gentle film that was engrossing. There were a few humorous moments too, and some poignancy when it became clear (though never fully spelled out) that both the main characters were sometimes the subjecs of prejudice.

My one problem with this film was that the Southern accents were so strong that I could not understand a lot of the dialogue, particularly that spoken by Hoke. As it turned out, it didn’t matter too much, but was frustrating at first; so much so that we even wondered if we could switch on sub-titles, but they were not available with the DVD.

Definitely recommended.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews