I had never actually seen Driving Miss Daisy before, and I knew it mostly by its reputation. Said reputation these days isn’t exactly good, due mostly to the movie’s depiction of race relations. I also recall that, not only did it win Best Picture the year it came out, the far superior and more nuanced look at race in America, Do the Right Thing, didn’t even score a nomination. Now, a Best Picture win isn’t exactly a guaranteed sign of quality as just about everyone, myself included, can if not name a movie that deserved “Best Picture” more than one that actually won, and how some winners aren’t even all that great. Still, I like to judge these things for myself and then make a decision.
If anything, I generally enjoy Morgan Freeman’s work. So, at least there would be that.
Driving Miss Daisy seems to be one of those movies where the plot is generally known even if you haven’t seen it. An older woman in the Jim Crow-era South can’t drive anymore, so her adult son hires a black man to drive her around, and the two eventually become friends. And that is more or less what happens here. Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy) backs her car into a ditch, so her son Boolie (Dan Aykroyd) hires Hoke Colburn (Freeman) to drive his stubborn mother around. There were two things I did not know about this movie. The first is Miss Daisy (and Boolie) are Jewish. The second is…my God, Hoke’s speech pattern.
Now, I know Freeman actually originated this role in a stage play, and it isn’t that he necessarily plays the role badly, but he sure does come across as subservient to Miss Daisy and Boolie, particularly in the early scenes. Yes, there are many moments when he stands up for himself, but the way the character was played seemed very dated to me. But this is, perhaps, the sort of movie that makes overcoming racism more of a personal as opposed to a systemic issue. Miss Daisy frequently says she isn’t prejudiced whenever Boolie suggested she might be bothered by the color of Hoke’s skin, but she does so in the same way that reminded me of any time I have ever heard anyone real or fictional who say things like, “I am not racist, but…” To the character’s credit, the movie seems to play her as less unknowingly prejudiced as someone who doesn’t like much of anyone. Hoke’s biggest gift is being very patient with her until she finally relents to let him drive her places, and she still insists on giving him many, many directions on where and how to go to places.
As far as movies about getting over prejudice and the like, this one came across as, at best, inconsequential. I tend to personally prefer movies about overcoming racism that do so from a more nuanced and complex seat. James Baldwin suggested that movies where both the black and white people had to “forgive” each other was bunk because the oppressed are justified in their feelings towards their oppressors, and the mutual forgiveness thing is done to make white liberals feel better about themselves. I tend to agree. This movie doesn’t go quite that far. If anything, it’s just about two people becoming friends while the woman learns how bad it can be for black people, and then realizing it can be bad for a Jewish person like herself as well.
In the end, this movie didn’t really do much for me one way or the other. I’d wonder how it won Best Picture, but the competition that year included Dead Poets Society and Field of Dreams, and while I wouldn’t call either of them bad movies, I don’t know that I would call them great ones either. The other two, Born on the Fourth of July and My Left Foot, I haven’t seen yet. But for this one? It was…there. I suspect about all I will really remember about this movie is that I watched it. Ignoring any racial controversy about this movie, there wasn’t really anything wrong with it, but I wouldn’t say there was anything great about it either. Factoring in the racial controversy…well, I don’t know where to go from there.
That said, is Spike Lee cursed? Twice he’s made movies that got a lot of Oscar buzz, and twice the winner that year was a so-so movie about people of different races driving around together in cars, both of which were elevated by strong actors in rote roles. At least Blackkklansman got a nomination…
Grade: C+
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