North Country

This weekend I rented this movie, really because blockbuster was all out of Walk the Line and Pride & Prejudice, which I guess was a good thing because I had seen both of those movies in the theater and hadn't seen this one. There were a bundch of theings theat were really interesting in the movie. (ok, so if you want to watch the movie don't read the rest, it will have spoilers)

The whole movie is about this woman who works at a mine and all of the women that work there are being harassed by the men. On the surface it would seem like the movie was all about the "liberation" of these women to be able to work in a man's enviroment. But that is not what the movie is really about.

Really it's about the story of this woman, who has this reputation of being a whore, but never in the movie do you see her engage in any activity that would be worthy of that description. The reason for that label is because she had two children from different fathers, and she left her husband because he was beating her. Her oldest child, she says that she doesn't know who the father is. And because of that her father is angry with her and alienates her. But in the harassment trial, the prosecution brings up her sexual history. Through that, she finally comes out with the truth that she was raped by her teacher when she was sixteen. And because of that she was pregnant, but instead of telling anyone about the rape, she tells people that she doesn't know who the father is.

So, all I can think about is that if she had told people that she had been raped, her son would have never been born because society would "approve" of an abortion. But she didn't do that, she gave up her reputation and dealt with all of the public criticism to have her son.

I don't know how much of the story was true, but if that part of the story was true, man, I have some kind of respect for that woman.