NORTH COUNTRY: A SYNOPSIS
Director: Niki Caro
Producer: Nick Wechsler
Screenwriter: Michael Seitzman
Executive Producers: Helen Bartlett, Nana Greenwald,
Doug Claybourne and Jeff Skoll
Director of Photography: Chris Menges
Production Designer: Richard Hoover
Film Editor: David Coulson
Music: Gustavo Santaolalla
Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) became a single mom after finally deciding to run off from his ferocious husband. Because she was left with two children, Josey needed to work to give them a better life. Glory (Frances McDormand) as one of the female miners in Northern Minnesota persuaded Josey to take the same job. Wanting to lay down a better future for her family despite the censorious father and children, Josey Aimes labored hard and often functioned perilous work. As a female worker at the male dominated local mine, Josey Aimes was a product of sexual harassment and copious humiliations. With immense bravery, she filed a class action suit against the mining company. This endeavor of Josey situated herself and her family to embarrassment as the court scrutinized her personal life and the harsh details of her past were dredged up. Josey’s determination to win the case led her to cope with all the intricacies- even to the point of just being on her own. Josey Aimes would absolutely stand for what she believes is right.
ANALYSIS OF NORTH COUNTRY
BASED ON THE FEMINIST FILM THEORY
The film, North Country is a based on a true story on female empowerment. This is a harsh story which centers on how women were treated unfairly in the Minnesota Mines. It recounts how one woman opened up and won the first sexual harassment class action suit in the United States, thus setting better working conditions for American women.
Before Josey became an iron miner, a flashback on how she was first molested by her highschool teacher and how she became a mother during her teenage years was one proof of how she first experienced the abuse from a man. The start of the film showcasing Josey’s sadistic husband made her feel unimportant and unloved. That was the second time, she felt the abuse again from another man. Josey was beaten several times but these scenes were concealed to the audience. But the bruises and her bloody faced were revealed.
When Josey got the job, she first experienced harassment in the workplace during a humiliating medical check-up done by a male doctor. She, together with the other women working in the mines was victims of harassment. Josey found herself the growing target of sexist jokes and abhorrent behavior by men workers. Though the other women also received this kind of pestering, they chose to be blind and deaf of the brutality because they were afraid of losing a good-paying job. Other kinds of harassment received by women were: rough language, semen left inside the locker, pressing her onto a pile of rocks and leaving her dirty and bruised and locking her up inside the comfort room where she was wet of urine and dipped of human wastes. The mining industry was long dominated by men where they were impracticable to change. The men were uncomfortable working with women where they see the latter as barriers in the workplace. Men supposed that a mining company is only apt for them – women have no business in driving trucks and hauling rocks.
Because of the many instances Josey got insulted and disrespected by men, she brought the case to the higher officials in the mining company hoping to back her up. But the conversation only turned out adding more rudeness and degradation on her part as a woman. The most abusive moment in the story is not when Josey is physically attacked, but it was when she stepped towards the women miners to ask for for their help and support but they turned away from her.
Although loosely based on Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler's novel "Class Action" about a real sexual harassment lawsuit, there's no denying that artistic license was taken to make Josey Aimes' story more cinematic, and it's sometimes surprising that this script was written by a man.
What makes a film more enthralling are the actors and actresses chosen for a particular character. Charlize Theron as the lead actress was setting aside both her beauty and glamour for a very mannish role working at the mine.
The last parts of the movie, particularly in the court room were emotionally exhausting as the female lawyer of the mining company was probing Josey to be a depraved woman. Instead of giving us an emotional and sobbing Josey as she would give a testimony, what we saw instead was several flashbacks focusing on the tragic events of Josey’s life with poignant music replacing dialogues and regular cuts to show the reaction of those in the courtroom.
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