BOT stands for Back on Track and this is this feature’s eighth post.
This movie wasn’t originally on my list but I stumbled upon it while doing some extensive reading on the Oscars and collecting valuable data I’m most likely not going to use. Anyway, Driving Miss Daisy won the Best Picture in 1990 against one of my favorites, Dead Poets Society which I re-watched a couple of weeks ago. Surely I had to know what an amazing movie had taken the golden statue over my favorite, well, as it turns out, comedy trumps tragedy.
Though, I doubt viewing Driving Miss Daisy as a comedy isn’t quite the way to go, the movie has some deep drama moments, especially in the end, as well. But mostly, the story is about an older lady Daisy (Jessica Tandy) and her driver Hoke (Morgan Freeman) who in the beginning don’t seem to get along at all. Daisy is stubborn and opinionated and having Hoke driving her around due to her old age, isn’t something she is very thrilled about at all. Still, the movie continues to show their bond getting stronger and stronger, even showing Daisy admiring Martin Luther King for obvious reasons.
I liked the movie, I enjoyed its moments where Daisy had weird systems and rules and Hoke, despite them being unrealistic, listening to her. Other than that, the movie left me a bit distant from the whole plot that unraveled in the end – not that it was a bad movie, I just didn’t have anything to connect to and that is just purely because I’m young. Compared to Dead Poets Society, which was about youth, Driving Miss Daisy will probably have a stronger meaning to me later in my life but the context will then be totally different.
It’s hard to talk about such a movie for long, I feel like I’ve said all I wanted to say and that doesn’t feel good to me at all. Especially since this one won the Best Picture and should be, in my ideal Oscar world, amazing for generations to come. Driving Miss Daisy isn’t as suitable for that purpose, its topics have now become the topics of movies for sure (racial matters) but the movie itself doesn’t really touch upon it as significantly as it does with friendship. And that kind of relationship is difficult for me to understand, may it be for my lack of years in this world or whatever. Still, for a single moment of entertainment, Driving Miss Daisy works but sadly, not further than that.
Not the perfect movie everybody makes it seem, but still a wonderful flick that gets you happy and in the right mood. Good review Ray.
I do prefer Dead Poets over this as a Best Picture but.. oh well..
I love Driving Miss Daisy. There’s a lot of hate going around for it, mainly from people who had other preferred Best Picture winners of 1989. I don’t think DMD is a masterpiece, but I would call it a near-perfect film. Of the five nominees that year, it was a pretty solid choice. I agree with you though, Dead Poet’s Society is a better film, and most of all, I think My Left Foot was the best of the nominees.
Haven’t seen My Left Foot yet but I’ll add it to my never ending list.