A Civil Rights Film?
In a Jan. 22 article on the Golden Globe Awards, Elaine Dutka refers to “Driving Miss Daisy” as a civil rights film. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is another in a long line of films that are allegedly about race relations but are filtered through the white world view. It validates and romanticizes the belief that whites and blacks can be genuine friends within the confines of a master-servant relationship.
No matter how lovable the quarrelsome Miss Daisy is, or how much genuine feeling or respect develops between her and her chauffeur, the bottom line is that she is still Miss Daisy to Hoke. Instead of advancing the principles of civil rights, the film serves to reinforce the myth that people who are ordered around by someone else actually like it.
SHIRL BUSS, Venice
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