>Yoshie Furuhashi sez:
>
> >_Erin Brockovich_ is also a story of upward mobility (a check for $2
> >million for Erin at the end of the movie) & evils of frumpy women.
> >The main villain & butt of the joke in the movie is not Pacific Gas &
> >Electric (much less capitalism) but Erin's female co-workers at Ed
> >Masry's law firm & a female lawyer at a more prestigious firm than
> >Ed's. The audience are to understand that a woman's upward mobility
> >in large part depends on her beauty & willingness to put down less
> >beautiful women than herself.
>
>I sez:
>
>Absolutely. I watched the film in the company of 500 or so mainly "middle
>class" (sic) first-year California university students. They howled with
>delight
>when Erin cussed out the busybody female secretaries and the upscale cold
>fish
>female lawyer. The gossipping secretaries represent the mediocrity -- the
>homely, small-minded provincialism -- of the working class life Erin so
>dreams
>of escaping. The lawyer is painted unfavorably not b/c she represents the
>"professional class" (sic) in toto, but b/c her personal qualities -- i.e.
>her
>frigid uptightness as contrasted to Erin's sexy charisma -- somehow make
>her
>undeserving of her social station (and by implication make Erin deserving
>of
>a higher social station). You can bet that if the actress who played Erin
>Brockovich had stringy bleach-blonde hair, chain-smoked cigarettes, and
>wore
>acid-washed jeans she'd hardly merit the same sort of audience response.
>
>The propensity of the Hollywood liberals (and, sad to say, Steven
>Soderbergh)
>to narcissisticly present a vision of the world that is a projection of
>their
>hopes and fears and then label it "realism" is truly astounding. They pat
>themselves on the back for conceiving and adulating what they conceive to
>be
>a socially relevant and populist film. But its "populism" consists in
>constructing a character who crystallizes some of the worst traits of the
>working class (i.e. desire for individual escape from social misery via
>tits
>and ass and ambition) and then disguising this construction in the
>politically-correct package of an environmental activist. You can detect
>the
>Hollywood liberals' subtle guilt about the bad faith involved in this
>maneuver -- they overcompensate by presenting overly sentimentalized,
>eccentric, and "human" working class charcters (like Erin's "sensitive
>biker" love interest).
>
>Anyway, _Erin Brockovich_ certainly qualifies as one of your notorious
>"Talented
>Tenth" movies.
>
>John G.
>
>
>
>
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