The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173989 Message #4220418
Posted By: Helen
07-Apr-25 - 05:16 AM
Thread Name: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Musk coup 2
Subject: RE: Convicted felon US 47 Pres /Musk coup 2
This week I watched the 1990 movie of The Handmaid's Tale, starring Natasha Richardson and based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel which I read when it was first published. When I first read it and first saw the movie back in the '90's I really didn't think it was possible for that situation to become a reality.
With Trump's moves to build up the power of rich, white men and reduce the power of poorer people and specifically target women with his dystopian policies I have to admit that the situation in the novel and movie is not as far-fetched as I once thought. One of the key premises for the story is that climate change has had a negative impact on the ability of women to have children so fertile women are used as commodities to help rich powerful couples to have children and are subject to the power of those couples, and especially to the power of the man of the house.
I had to watch the movie in stages because it was so confronting. It's a different ballgame reading the book or watching the movie and thinking that it is so far out of the realms of possibility that it is just a fantasy, compared with seeing some of those dystopian fantasies becoming a reality IRL.
The whole basis of the story is scary.
The final series of the TV show will begin airing this week in Oz. I didn't like the TV show because I thought they dragged it out to great lengths and over-played the cruelty and torture, compared with Margaret Atwood's book which is cleverly subtle.
I'll watch the final TV series, but I'm not really expecting much compared with the original book and movie. It is being billed as the women fighting back and hopefully regaining control over their own lives.
The reason I am posting this in this thread is because I blame Trump and his cronies for bringing these types of dystopian fantasies into real life and watching the old movie again makes that realisation hit home with me even more.