hollywood & women's lib

In absolute terms, The Stepford Wives is clearly not the most sexist movie of all time, but for a 1975 movie, it's not exactly liberating.

In structure and theme, Stepford Wives, based on a novel by Ira Levin, is a slight twist on Rosemary's Baby, also based on an Ira Levin novel. Like Rosemary's Baby, Stepford Wives is about a Manhattan housewife who moves into a spooky neighborhood full of impossibly innocent people, who turn out to be the embodiment of evil. The twist is that, rather than dealing with occult themes, Stepford Wives deals with the hottest topic of its time: women's lib.

How is a movie about women's lib a sexist movie? First of all, the screenplay was written by William Goldman, famous writer of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, The Princess Bride, and Misery. In his famous book Adventures in the Screen Trade, Goldman claims director Bryan Forbes completely rewrote the first three-quarters of the screenplay, after dubiously casting his wife, Nanette Newman, in one of the lead roles. Whether it was Levin's, Goldman's, or Forbes' fault, the result is a cardboard main character who is a victim, albeit an active one.

This is unfortunate because the powers-that-be cast Katharine Ross (of The Graduate and Butch Cassidy fame) as the heroine, Joanna Eberhart. Her robotic acting is not well suited to a story where her character is the one real human in a town of robots. Joanna pursues a career as a professional photographer. This career ends with a whimper in a scene where she begs a man to take her pictures of her kids as serious artwork.

Ross' performance fatally weakens the emotional impact of the movie. The stake is driven in further by Paula Prentiss' OTT awkwardness and Peter Masterson's weak imitation of John Cassavetes' powerful performance in Rosemary's Baby. (BTW, Stepford Wives marked the debut of Masterson's daughter, Mary Stuart Masterson, as his character's daughter.)

The filmmakers were obviously trying to make a statement about women's lib, but it is so ham-handed and conventional, it seems more like propaganda for the sexual equivalent of ethnic cleansing.

Stepford Wives was released in February 1975. Later that year, the FBI finally caught up with Patty Hearst, carbine-toting sweetheart of the Symbionese Liberation Army, while the Secret Service apprehended Squeaky Fromme, head of the Manson Family after Charlie got put away for the Tate-LaBianca murders, for attempting to assassinate President Ford in protest of environmental damage. (Was it a coincidence that Sharon Tate had a small part in Rosemary's Baby, directed by her husband, Roman Polanski?) Hearst's alleged brainwashing was the hottest story of the year, hotter, judging by the frequency she made magazine covers, than Watergate. Forbes clearly has brainwashing in mind in his depiction of the Stepford wives. He also has Joanna Eberhart rant against polluting hi-tech industries.

When up against a wall, Patty Hearst and Squeaky Fromme took up guns. But when Joanna Eberhart finds all her friends turned into robots, she sees a psychiatrist. Reality truly is stranger, or at least more interesting, than Hollywood.