Now Playing at a Supreme Court Near You

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By Ken Stokes

Dobbs v. Jackson. If that doesn’t sound familiar, let’s try this: the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that reversed the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision regarding a woman’s right to privacy and personal health decisions. If you didn’t see this coming, then you’ve blinded yourself to the somber realities of contemporary American politics. And you’ve probably also been remiss at keeping up with some of the best contemporary films and TV shows. Awkward segue? Not really. Let me suggest one TV series and five films—all excellent and the tip of the iceberg regarding the extremely individual and complex issue of abortion—that you may have missed and which clearly demonstrate that life imitates art.

The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu 2017-present, based on the Margaret Atwood novel)

Of course this was going to show up on the list, and not simply because of the bleak dystopian vision and the enslavement of fertile women. Trump Supreme Court appointee and darling of the evangelical Christian movement Amy Coney Barrett’s interviews and C.V. certainly indicate she shares some of the aspirations and traits of two of the most reprehensible female villains to appear in literature and on film—monstrous enforcer Aunt Lydia and the cruel, fanatical and very politically-motivated Serena Waterford. From what I’ve seen I have little doubt that, if it served her purposes, ACB would happily watch her husband …, oh I don’t want to be a spoiler. If only ACB’s opinions to-date were even remotely as well-considered and articulate as Atwood’s prose.

Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino dir.)

Speaking of slavery … Everybody seems to know about Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but how many people have actually read it? Uncle Tom has somewhat undeservedly evolved in the collective consciousness as a ‘tool’ of the barbarous slave owner Simon Legree. For the real deal, Tarantino gives us Calvin Candie and his fawning slave Stephen, played to the hilt by Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson, respectively. It’s quite something to behold if you can stomach it. It’s also been quite something to behold Clarence Thomas’ fervent embrace of an agenda set by people who, in the 1950s, would have had no qualms serving Thomas Uncle Tom’s fate. Thomas’ concurring opinion in Dobbs, containing an interesting cherry-picking of rulings he’d like to see reversed, curiously fails to include 1967’s Loving v. Virginia regarding interracial marriage. That the white woman to whom he is married left an electronic trail implicating her in the attempted reversal of a free and fair presidential election, … well, gotta love those family values.

Promising Young Woman (2020, Emerald Fennell dir.)

My personal favorite of the 2020 Oscar contenders (sorry Nomadland), Fennell’s Oscar-winning screenplay sits comfortably with Medea, Titus Andronicus and The Count of Monte Cristo as pillars in the revenge genre. In this case, the revenge is sought against an unrepentant ‘good guy’ with an unsavory past who is to the manor born and will say anything to get ahead. Calling Brett Kavanaugh!

Citizen Ruth (1996, Alexander Payne dir.)

Funny how polite society has a way of ignoring its ‘dregs’ until it is politically convenient to act otherwise. ‘Pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ activists go to war over the fetus carried by a selfish, unrepentant ‘huffer’ (a person who gets high sniffing spray paint) who proves herself quite adept at manipulating both factions to her own advantage. Payne’s writing and Laura Dern’s performance as the woman-in-the-headlines clearly foretell their eventual Oscar triumphs. This is an absolutely hilarious telling of a very sad and sadly very common tale.

Juno (2007, Jason Reitman dir.)

Adoption is a one-size-fits-all solution to unwanted or unexpected pregnancy, or so the anti-abortion movement would have us believe. Diablo Cody’s Oscar-winning first screenplay—a dazzling dramedy noted principally for its very specific and quirky teen jargon—is their fairy tale, complete with a healthy, thoughtful, well-adjusted teenaged mother-to-be, understanding and fully-supportive father and parents, and carefully considered adoptive parents who can provide the child every possible advantage imaginable. And then the bottom drops out. Once again, we return to the havoc a selfish, unrepentant man without responsibility can wreak upon any person. If only the protagonists had seen it coming. .

Speaking of ‘if only they’d seen it coming’…

RBG (2018, Betsy West/Julie Cohen dir.)

Last, and easily the most important, is  the documentary surveying the extraordinary personal and professional life of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The film does an excellent job in chronicling RBG’s ceaseless efforts to protect the rights of women and the disenfranchised. It also glaringly points out two facts which were either ignored, not internalized or foolishly overlooked by those who could have cemented her legacy: her age at appointment and her health issues thereafter. That the Obama administration failed to orchestrate RBG’s retirement early in its first term is unforgivable. A so-called ‘liberal’ (and there is no shame in that term) seat could have been secured for decades and the Merrick Garland debacle cut off at the pass or the fallout greatly diffused.

We see what we want to see until reality sets us straight. The pro-choice movement was woefully outmaneuvered and the pro-life movement has rendered the country woefully unprepared to address the ramifications of its success. The realities that will be served up as a result of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling will be somber indeed, but people with no real skin in the game will no doubt remain blind, and I fear that people intent on restoring Roe V. Wade will continue to fumble around in the dark.