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The Handmaid's Tale Movie Review Summary

Actors: Natasha Richardson, Aidan Quinn, Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth McGovern

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Handmaid's Tale


In the near future, pollution and radiation have reduced female fertility to 1 in 100. A religious and fascistic state -- the Republic of Gilead -- determines that the few women who are capable of bearing children are chosen as "handmaids" to breed with the rich and powerful. Kate (Richardson), a former librarian whose husband was killed and daughter lost while they were trying to escape over the border, is picked by the barren Serena Joy (Dunaway) to bear a child with her powerful husband, "the Commander" (Duvall). An underground rebel force makes contact with Kate as she learns the cross-currents and treacheries of her household. This bleak and sometimes painful film is a decent adaptation of Margaret Atwood's feminist dystopian sci-fi novel, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. The principals are excellent, Aidan Quinn appears as a chauffeur-soldier in the Commander's household, and McGovern has a meaty supporting role as a lesbian handmaid-in-training who escapes into the prostitute underworld (and ends up looking a bit like Tim Curry in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"). A real downer, but worth watching.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus



Script Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale

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Plot & Themes

Composition of Book Actual chase scenes or violence 10%Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzle 40%Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 50% **Fantasy or Science Fiction?**    -   science fiction story Romance    -   Yes Repressive Society    -   Yes Repression:    -   controls your sex Inner Struggle    -   Yes Plotlet:    -   one culture tries to impose its culture on another group

Main Character

Identity:    -   Female Profession/status:    -   prostitute/concubine Age:    -   20's-30's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   White (American)

Setting

Earth setting:    -   near future (later in 21st century) Takes place on Earth?    -   Yes Misc settings    -   prison    -   mansion

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   moderately detailed references to deaths Tone of movie    -   depressed/sad Sex/nudity in movie?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   impregnation/reproduction    -   actual description of sex    -   seeing breasts    -   society controls main character's sexuality Kinds of F/X    -   exploding bombs Is this movie based on a    -   book

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