3. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
This film has a legacy around it, but the legacy is probably not one that the people involved in the film anticipated it having. In 1989 this was the picture that won the Oscar for Best Picture, and this victory is interesting because it showed just how divided the perceptions of race relations in America were (are). While this film presented a hokey Oscar baiting friendship story between an old racist woman and her black car driver who become friends, Spike Lee was releasing his own examination of racial conflict in America, which was far more relevant, far more explosive, and tapped into the spirit of the times in a way that means the film is still immensely popular and influential today in fact it was the film that a certain Mr and Mrs Obama saw on their first date. The contrast between the two films, and the formers acceptance by the mainstream stands as a testament to just how divided America can be on the subject of race. Driving Miss Daisy is schmaltz, plain and simple. It is an insulting and misguided attempt to present a story of white redemption and the bridging of cultures, and there are all kinds of problems with how the characters and class issues are presented. We are supposed to appreciate and old bigoted character growing to acknowledge one of her servants, and we are also at the same time supposed to celebrate African American subservience as white Americans figure out themselves that they are wrong. It shouldnt really need to be spelled out why this is problematic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ3wXC5jqKE The film in itself is definitely well made, and it is intriguingly patient in the way it tells its 25 year long story. But it presents itself as social commentary and a celebration of racial unity, which is not reflective of the reality of the situation, or the historical legacy of African American struggles for freedom. It probably would have slipped into relative obscurity if it hadnt been for the fact that its Oscar wins were so glaringly undeserved, and its reception was not so filtered through the white gaze. But at the end of the day, regardless of whether or not it is deserving of it that is the legacy it has now, and will have for the foreseeable future.