The Handmaid's Tale (1990)

I'm reading Margaret Atwood's The Testaments now, which is a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, which she wrote in 1985. I read that approximately 35 years ago, so I was a bit fuzzy on some of the details that might help me with the new book (as I read on, I'm finding it less confusing and very good). I didn't want to re-read the novel, and the TV series that's on Hulu has far too many episodes for me to catch up. So, like a kid doing a book report, I watched the movie version, released in 1990.

I saw that movie when it came out, but of course remembered little, other than it depicts a version of the United States called Gilead, which is a theocracy where white men have complete control and women are second-class citizens. The Wives, as they are called, have power, as they are married to the powerful men, but environmental disasters have rendered many of them infertile, so young women who have proven they can give birth are deployed as "handmaidens," who fornicate with the men, while the women are there in bed (it's called a "ceremony") and are basically used as vessels for birth.

The society of Gilead is very striated. Some women are called Aunts--these are the teachers of the handmaidens and future wives, and are iron-fisted martinets. Marthas are domestics. A women's existence is very tenuous--hadmaidens who have broken some rule or other can be seen hanging from bridges. Men who rape are destroyed by handmaidens, who tear them apart with their bare hands.

The plot concerns Kate (Natasha Richardson), who is trying to escape Gilead with her husband and daughter. She is captured, he is killed, and her daughter's fate is unknown. She is trained as a handmaiden, though never buys into the brainwashing. She is put in service in the home of the Commander (Robert Duvall), whose wife (Faye Dunaway) is most eager to have a child. So eager, in fact, that when Kate (now called Offred, as in "of Fred" her Commander) doesn't get pregnant right away, Dunaway suspects that Duvall is sterile (men would never be tested or blamed). So she encourages Richardson to sleep with the chauffeur, Aidan Quinn, who is part of the resistance.

The film was directed by Volker Schlondorff and written by Harold Pinter, of all people. It is perfunctory, not obtaining the depth of the longer form TV series--the depiction of the Aunts, in particular, is far harsher in the TV version. Aunt Lydia, in the film, is played by Victorian Tennant, who was too young and attractive to be in such a role.

But the film has its merits, particularly in the performance of Elizabeth McGovern as Moira, who is a lesbian and wants no part of being a handmaiden. Richardson later finds her working as a prostitute, as though the leaders of Gilead preach Old Testament values, they of course indulge in wickedness. Also Duvall is engaging, as he falls in love with Richardson, inviting her into his office to play Scrabble. Blanche Baker, as another handmaiden who is part of the rebellion, asks Richardson to get close to him. "We may need you to kill him," she says.

The film ends as if someone had sounded a siren to end things, very abruptly. Though the film is fine, I can see why those who made the TV series felt it needed reworking. A review of The Testaments will follow in a few weeks.