The film His Girl Friday is all fun and games -- but there is some sharp social satire at the same time. Major social institutions such as journalism, politics, criminal justice and marriage are skewered with clever lines and absurd situations. What is the film telling us about at least one of these institutions (if you want to write about marriage and divorce see the the companion post)? Is it corrupt or crooked? Under siege? What, exactly, is the problem or critique?
The film His Girl Friday represents politics and the criminal justice system as corrupt and the people in it as so power hungry to disregard human life in pursuit of their goals. The primary example of this through the course of the movie is the Mayor. With the election only a few days away and desperately trying to hold on to the vote, he is pursuing the execution of Earl Williams. When shown a reprieve by the governor that would save Williams' life, he tries to bribe Joe Pettibone, the messenger sent by the governor telling him he can get a job as a city sealer and move with his wife if he instead delivers the reprieve the next day, too late to save Williams. There every step of the way relaying and executing the mayor's orders is Sheriff Peter B. Hartwell. Every time that he believes that he has Willams in his grasp, he immediately escalates to trying to use lethal force in order to kill him before more people realize he is insane and he hurts the chances of the Mayor's reelection. The reprieve sent by the governor was not made out of genuine belief that he was insane, instead it was a ploy to sabotage the mayor and his political career and further added to the complete disregard for human life presented by the people in power. Despite saving Williams, the Governor does not actually care about his life and he is just a pawn in this feud for power and control.
ReplyDeleteHis Girl Friday highlights and critiques political elections that highlight the corrupt injustices that go on behind the scenes. Particularly, this is shown through the case of Earl Willaims and bribery. First, the Earl Willaims case displayed how corrupt political elections can get. In the film, the Mayor wants to win the election, and it’s made clear he’ll do anything to secure voters. This just so happens to include executing Earl Willaims for murder, despite not warranting such a penalty, as Willaims is insane, which would make him immune to the death penalty. Hildy even proves this to be true in her conversation with Willaims, as Willaims cites a plethora of ludacris reasons for killing. Despite this obvious problem, the Mayor wants and does execute Willaims because he knows it will give him the votes needed to win the election. This is one example of corrupt injustice, as it is against the law to execute Willaims in this case. Secondly, when an agent of the Governor visits the Mayor with an order, the Mayor chooses to ignore the order from the governor and bribe the agent to tell the Governor that the order got lost in the mail. This is another instance of corrupt injustice, as he is directly refusing the power above him and once again violating the law by bribing someone. Both of these cases are examples of corrupt injustice and are very common tactics politicians and people with power use all the time. His Girl Friday highlights these by showing off how the tactics are used, and what they can lead to, a corrupt and fraudulent leader willing to use underhanded and evil methods to get power.
ReplyDeleteHis Girl Friday is a romantic comedy, so naturally it will play into tropes and satires. One prominent trope through the movie is journalism and the morals of newspaper men. One of the prominent scenes of this is when we meet Mollie Molloy. She comes into the news room and starts yelling about how the newsmen got her story wrong. They refused to listen to her, just trying to make her say what they wanted her to hear. This paints them as people who only want to make a narrative to fit a story that may not be true, but is appealing to readers. Another time the reporters bother Molly is after Earl’s escape. They corner Molly when they believe she has seen him, trying to get information out of her. Molly responds to them by telling them that they did not want to listen to her before, and proceeds to “give you a story to write about” and jumps out a window. Luckily she survives, but they pressured her to the point where she felt like that was her only escape. Another example of the newsmen spinning a story to fit their agenda is when they all try to find information on Earl’s escape. They all have different stories most likely coming from different places, but when they all see him about to be arrested there’s drastically different versions. The versions of the story ranged from he went peacefully to he resisted the entire way. All versions benefitting one person, the newspaper men.
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