''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a 1990

dystopian film This is a list of dystopian films. Dystopian societies appear in many speculative fiction works and are often found within the science fiction and fantasy genres. ''Dystopias'' are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, ...

adapted from

Canadian author This is a list of Canadian literary figures, including poets, novelists, children's writers, essayists, and scholars. __NOTOC__ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W ...

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, ...

's 1985 novel of the same name. Directed by

Volker Schlöndorff Volker Schlöndorff (; born 31 March 1939 Friday) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s ...

, the film stars Natasha Richardson (Offred),

Faye Dunaway Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France mad ...

(Serena Joy),

Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Gold ...

(The Commander),

Aidan Quinn Aidan Quinn (born March 8, 1959) is an American actor who made his film debut in '' Reckless'' (1984). He has starred in over 80 feature films, including ''Desperately Seeking Susan'' (1985), '' The Mission'' (1986), ''Stakeout'' (1987), ''Aval ...

(Nick), and

Elizabeth McGovern Elizabeth Lee McGovern (born July 18, 1961) is an American actress and musician. She has received many awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, three Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Academy Award nomination. Born in Evanston, Ill ...

(Moira). The screenplay was written by playwright

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that span ...

. The original music score was composed by

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto i ...

. The film was entered into the

40th Berlin International Film Festival The 40th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 9 to 20 February 1990. The festival opened with ''Steel Magnolias'' by Herbert Ross, which was shown out of competition. The Golden Bear was awarded ''ex aequo'' to the American fi ...

. It is the first filmed adaptation of the novel, succeeded by the

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

which began streaming in 2017.

Plot

In the near future, war rages across the Republic of Gilead (formerly the United States of America) and pollution has rendered 99% of the population sterile. Kate is a woman who attempts to emigrate to Canada with her husband Luke and daughter Jill. As they attempt to cross the border by foot on a dirt road, the Gilead Border Guard orders them to turn back or they will open fire. Luke draws their fire, telling Kate to run, and is shot. Kate is captured, while Jill wanders off into the back country, confused and unaccompanied. The authorities take Kate to a training facility with several other women, where the women are trained to become Handmaids, who are concubines for the privileged but barren couples who run the country's religious fundamentalist regime. Although she resists indoctrination into the cult of the Handmaids, which mixes

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

orthodoxy with scripted group chanting and ritualized violence, Kate is soon assigned to the home of "the Commander" (Fred) and his cold, inflexible wife, Serena Joy. There she is named "Offred" ("of Fred"). Her role as the Commander's latest concubine is emotionless, as she lies between Serena Joy's legs while the Commander rapes her, both of them hoping that she will bear them a child. Kate continually longs for her earlier life, but nightmares of her husband's death and her daughter's disappearance haunt her. A doctor explains that many of Gilead's male leaders are as sterile as their wives. Desperately wanting a baby, Serena Joy persuades Kate to risk the punishment for fornication (death by hanging) in order to be fertilized by another man who may impregnate her and consequently spare her life. When Kate agrees to this, Serena Joy informs Kate that her daughter Jill is alive, and provides a recent photograph of her living in another Commander's household, but tells Kate she can never see her daughter. The Commander also tries to get closer to Kate, sensing that if she enjoyed herself more she would become a better handmaid. Exploiting Kate's background as a librarian, he gets her hard-to-obtain items and allows her into his private library. However, during a night out, the Commander has sex with Kate in an unauthorized manner. The other man selected by Serena Joy turns out to be Nick, the Commander's sympathetic chauffeur. Kate grows attached to Nick and eventually becomes pregnant with his child. Kate ultimately kills the Commander, and a police unit then arrives to take her away. Believing the policemen are members of the Eyes, the government's secret police, she realizes that they are soldiers from the resistance movement (Mayday), of which Nick is also a part. Kate then flees with them, parting from Nick in an emotional scene. Now free once again and wearing non-uniform clothes, but facing an uncertain future, a pregnant Kate is living by herself in a trailer while receiving intelligence reports from the rebels. Wondering if — and hoping that — she and Nick will be reunited, she resolves — with the rebels' help — to find her daughter.

Cast

* Natasha Richardson as Kate / Offred *

as Fred Waterford, The Commander *

as Serena Joy *

as Moira *

as Nick * Victoria Tennant as Aunt Lydia *

Blanche Baker Blanche Baker (born December 20, 1956) is an American actress and filmmaker. She won an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the television mini-series ''Holocaust''. Baker is known for her role as Ginny Baker in ''Sixteen Can ...

as Ofglen *

Traci Lind Traci Lind (born Traci Lin Wemes) is a retired American film actress who is known for playing Alex Young in ''Fright Night Part 2'', Christie Langford in '' Class of 1999'' and Missy McCloud in '' My Boyfriend's Back''. She also starred in ''The ...

as Janine/Ofwarren *

Reiner Schöne Reiner Schöne (born 19 January 1942) is a German actor, known for such roles as Dukhat in the ''Babylon 5'' series, Shinnok in '' Mortal Kombat: Annihilation'', Esoqq in the '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode "Allegiance", Kolitar i ...

as Luke, Kate's husband *

Robert D. Raiford Robert D. Raiford (December 27, 1927 – November 17, 2017) was an American radio broadcaster and actor, best known for his political/social commentaries delivered during ''The John Boy and Billy Big Show'', a morning radio program heard on stat ...

as Dick *

Muse Watson Muse Watson (born July 20, 1948) is an American stage and screen actor. He became known for his roles as Ben Willis, the primary antagonist in the ''I Know What You Did Last Summer'' franchise, Charles Westmoreland on the Fox television series ...

as Guardian * Bill Owen as TV Announcer #2 *

David Dukes David Coleman Dukes (June 6, 1945 – October 9, 2000) was an American character actor. He had a long career in films, appearing in 35. Dukes starred in the miniseries '' The Winds of War'' and '' War and Remembrance'', and he was a frequent tel ...

as Doctor * Blair Nicole Struble as Jill, Kate's daughter

Development

Writing

According to Steven H. Gale, in his book ''Sharp Cut'', "the final cut of ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is less a result of Pinter's script than any of his other films. He contributed only part of the screenplay: reportedly he 'abandoned writing the screenplay from exhaustion.' … Although he tried to have his name removed from the credits because he was so displeased with the movie (in 1994 he told me that this was due to the great divergences from his script that occur in the movie), … his name remains as screenwriter". Gale observes further that "while the film was being shot, director

", who had replaced the original director

Karel Reisz Karel Reisz (21 July 1926 – 25 November 2002) was a Czech-born British filmmaker, one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. Two of the best-known films he directed are '' Saturday Night and S ...

, "called Pinter and asked for some changes in the script"; however, "Pinter recall dbeing very tired at the time, and he suggested that Schlöndorff contact Atwood about the rewrites. He essentially gave the director and author ''

carte blanche A blank cheque in the literal sense is a cheque that has no monetary value written in, but is already signed. In the figurative sense, it is used to describe a situation in which an agreement has been made that is open-ended or vague, and therefo ...

'' to accept whatever changes that she wanted to institute, for, as he reasoned, 'I didn't think an author would want to fuck up her own work.' … As it turned out, not only did Atwood make changes, but so did many others who were involved in the shoot". Gale points out that Pinter told his biographer Michael Billington that

It became … a hotchpotch. The whole thing fell between several shoots. I worked with Karel Reisz on it for about a year. There are big public scenes in the story and Karel wanted to do them with thousands of people. The film company wouldn't sanction that so he withdrew. At which point, Volker Schlöndorff came into it as director. He wanted to work with me on the script, but I said I was absolutely exhausted. I more or less said, 'Do what you like. There's the script. Why not go back to the original author if you want to fiddle about?' He did go to the original author. And then the actors came into it. I left my name on the film because there was enough there to warrant it—just about. But it's not mine'.

In an essay on Pinter's screenplay for ''

The French Lieutenant's Woman ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' is a 1969 postmodern historical fiction novel by John Fowles. The plot explores the fraught relationship of gentleman and amateur naturalist Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff, the former governess and indep ...

'', in ''The Films of Harold Pinter'', Gale discusses Pinter's "dissatisfaction with" the "kind of alteration" that occurs "once the script is tinkered with by others" and "it becomes collaborative to the point that it is not his product any more or that such tinkering for practical purposes removes some of the artistic element"; he adds: "Most notably ''The Handmaid's Tale'', which he considered so much altered that he has refused to allow the script to be published, and '' The Remains of the Day'', which he refused to allow his name to be attached to for the same reason …" (84n3).Cf. "Harold Pinter's ''Lolita'': 'My Sin, My Soul'", by Christopher C. Hudgins: "During our 1994 interview, Pinter told teven H.Gale and me that he had learned his lesson after the revisions imposed on his script for ''The Handmaid's Tale'', which he has decided not to publish. When his script for '' Remains of the Day'' was radically revised by the

James Ivory James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. For many years, he worked extensively with Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, his domestic as well as professional partner, and with scree ...

–

Ismail Merchant Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005)) was an Indian film producer, director and screenwriter. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included Direct ...

partnership, he refused to allow his name to be listed in the credits" (Gale, ''Films'' 125).

Pinter's screenplay

Christopher C. Hudgins discusses further details about why "Pinter elected not to publish three of his completed filmscripts, ''The Handmaid's Tale'', '' The Remains of the Day'' and ''

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Hum ...

''," all of which Hudgins considers "masterful filmscripts" of "demonstrable superiority to the shooting scripts that were eventually used to make the films"; fortunately ("We can thank our various lucky stars"), he says, "these Pinter filmscripts are now available not only in private collections but also in the Pinter Archive at the British Library." In this essay, which he first presented as a paper at the 10th Europe Theatre Prize symposium, Pinter: Passion, Poetry, Politics, held in Turin, Italy, in March 2006, Hudgins "examin sall three unpublished filmscripts in conjunction with one another" and "provides several interesting insights about Pinter's adaptation process".

Richardson's views

In a retrospective account written after Natasha Richardson's death, for

CanWest News Service Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (also known as Postmedia Network, Postmedia News or Postmedia) is a Canadian media conglomerate consisting of the publishing properties of the former Canwest, with primary operations in newspaper publishing, news ...

, Jamie Portman cites Richardson's view of the difficulties involved with making Atwood's novel into a film script:

Richardson recognized early on the difficulties in making a film out of a book which was "so much a one-woman interior monologue" and with the challenge of playing a woman unable to convey her feelings to the world about her, but who must make them evident to the audience watching the movie. … She thought the passages of
voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...
narration in the original screenplay would solve the problem, but then Pinter changed his mind and Richardson felt she had been cast adrift. … "Harold Pinter has something specific against voice-overs," she said angrily 19 years ago. "Speaking as a member of an audience, I've seen voice-over and narration work very well in films a number of times, and I think it would have been helpful had it been there for The Handmaid's Tale. After all it's HER story."

Portman concludes that "In the end director Volker Schlöndorff sided with Richardson". Portman does not acknowledge Pinter's already-quoted account that he gave both Schlöndorff and Atwood ''carte blanche'' to make whatever changes they wanted to his script because he was too "exhausted" from the experience to work further on it. In 1990, when she reportedly made her comments quoted by Portman, Richardson herself may not have known that.Referring to Pinter's screenplay for the film of

John Fowles John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. Aft ...

's novel ''

'', Gale observes: "Although in other films he has used a

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...

narrator, the obvious choice for retaining the Fowles touch, Pinter is on record as not being fond of the device, and he wanted to avoid it here if possible" (''Sharp Cut'' 239); in relation to his screenplay for ''

'', "Despite the director's wanting him to use a good bit of that narrative as voice-over in the film, Pinter insist dthat he would never use it in a description of action … nd, Gale describeshow he put his opinion into practice" (358). Gale discusses the use of voice-over in or relating to other screenplays by Pinter, including those that he wrote for ''

Accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researche ...

'', ''

The Comfort of Strangers ''The Comfort of Strangers'' is a 1981 novel by British writer Ian McEwan. It is his second novel, and is set in an unnamed city (though the detailed description strongly suggests Venice). Harold Pinter adapted it as a screenplay for a film dir ...

'' (in which Richardson also stars), ''

The Go-Between ''The Go-Between'' is a novel by L. P. Hartley published in 1953. His best-known work, it has been adapted several times for stage and screen. The book gives a critical view of society at the end of the Victorian era through the eyes of a naï ...

'', '' The Last Tycoon'', '' The Remains of the Day'' and ''

The Trial ''The Trial'' (german: Der Process, link=no, previously , and ) is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and p ...

'' (198–99, 234, 327, 353-54, 341, 367), as well as the voice overs that he did write for his script of ''The Handmaid's Tale'':

The novel does not include the murder of the Commander, and Kate's fate is left completely unresolved—the van waits in the driveway, "and so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light" ( twood, ''The Handmaid's Tale'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986)295). The escape to Canada and the reappearance of the child and Nick are Pinter's inventions for the movie version. As shot, there is a voice-over in which Kate explains (accompanied by light symphonic music that contrasts with that of the opening scene) that she is now safe in the mountains held by the rebels. Bolstered by occasional messages from Nick, she awaits the birth of her baby while she dreams about Jill, whom she feels she is going to find eventually. (Gale, ''Sharp Cut'' 318)

Filming locations

The scene where the hanging occurred was filmed in front of

Duke Chapel Duke University Chapel is a chapel located at the center of the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, United States. It is an ecumenical Christian chapel and the center of religion at Duke, and has connections to the United Method ...

on the campus of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 Census, Durham is the 4th- ...

."April 18: Minutes of the Academic Council
, ''Academic Council Archive'', Duke University, 18 Apr. 1996, Web, 9 May 2009. Several scenes were filmed at Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, North Carolina. ('The Staircase' was used for this film and the Patterson house as a location)

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reports that 6 of the 22 counted critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 4.9/10 and an approval rating of 27%.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film two out of four stars and wrote that he was "not sure exactly what the movie is saying" and that by "the end of the movie we are conscious of large themes and deep thoughts, and of good intentions drifting out of focus."

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

, writing for ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'', gave the film a "C−" grade and commented that "visually, it's quite striking", but that it is "paranoid poppycock — just like the book". John Simon of the ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

'' called ''The Handmaid's Tale'' "inept and annoying".

References

Works cited

* Billington, Michael. ''Harold Pinter''. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. (13). Updated 2nd ed. of ''The Life and Work of Harold Pinter''. 1996. London: Faber and Faber, 1997. (10). Print. *Gale, Steven H. ''Sharp Cut: Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process''. Lexington, KY: The UP of Kentucky, 2003. (10). (13). Print. *–––, ed. ''The Films of Harold Pinter''. Albany: SUNY P, 2001. . . Print. collection of essays; does not include an essay on ''The Handmaid's Tale''; mentions it on 1, 2, 84n3, 125.*Hudgins, Christopher C. "Three Unpublished Harold Pinter Filmscripts: ''The Handmaid's Tale'', ''The Remains of the Day'', ''Lolita''." ''The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize / Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005–2008''. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 132–39. (hardcover). (softcover). . Print. *Johnson, Brian D. "Uphill Battle: Handmaid's Hard Times." ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian pers ...

'' 26 Feb. 1990. Print. *Portman, Jamie (CanWest News Service).
"Not the Tale of a Handmaid: Natasha Richardson Has Led an Outspoken Career"
''Canada.com''.

, 18 Mar. 2009.

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

. 24 Mar. 2009.

External links

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