Analysis Of The Movie The Help

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The Help is a movie that was adopted from Kathryn Stockett’s novel by the same name. The film takes place during the 1960s in the seemingly bright and blooming town of Jackson, Mississippi, however as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that beneath this town lays a depressing world of prejudice, hate, and separation. The story of the film is being told from three different women’s perspectives: Skeeter Phelan, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson. The film’s protagonist, Skeeter, is a young white woman that just recently graduated from college and dreams of being a published writer going so far as to contact one of the biggest publishers in New York. As the plot progresses, it becomes clear that Skeeter doesn’t fit into this small town Jackson …show more content…
In the 2011 drama, The Help, the main and most important theme is that the ethnic and racial segregation between the whites and blacks. The director, Tate Taylor, developed this theme by demonstrating that the blacks live in a poverty-stricken and rundown part of Jackson, whereas the whites lived in more privileged suburban areas. This demonstration gives an effect to the audience of how society in the film and reality during that time period were actually overseen and this is also carried out through the film’s lighting and soundtrack. Overall, the lighting throughout the film is bright and lively, much like the surface of Jackson’s society, which contrasts to similar movies such as Malcolm X , which has a darker tone to it. In a blog for AMC movies, Nina Hämmerling Smith states: “The soundtrack for The Help tells the story in song, with choices that represent the disparate currents of the time.” The score for The Help also includes tracks by Thomas Newman, and a song written for the movie entitled “The Living Proof” by Mary J. Blige. James Christopher Monger reviews Thomas Newman’s work as: “His signature blend of long, stoic, and circular string melodies with soft, plaintive piano motifs fits perfectly into director Tate Taylor’s film adaptation of author Kathryn Stockett’s civil rights era dramedy, The Help.” A specific scene that demonstrations this is the scene when multiple black housemaids gather into Aibileen’s home for Skeeter to interview them. As they tell their stories about being mistreated due to the color of their skin and the inequalities they face, the song “November 22” by Thomas Newman plays in the background. This heartfelt scene wouldn’t be the same without the song’s melody, because the acoustics and rhythm of the piano in this song give a melancholy feel to the

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