About Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN

Have you the new LITTLE WOMEN written and directed by Greta Gerwig? Several times have I seen the 1933 adaptation directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo March. I've seen the deluxe 1949 MGM studio remake directed by Mervyn LeRoy a number of times. I've enjoyed the 1994 remake directed by Gillian Armstrong from a screenplay adaptation by Robin Swicord. I admit it. I love the LITTLE WOMEN story. Ailing Beth's goodbye to Jo, Jo getting her hair cut and selling it to get money to help their mother, Jo telling Professor Bhaer that his empty hands are "Not empty now" -- those scenes touch my heart in all those three productions. This new adaptation is worth seeing. It's alive and fresh. It's unexpectedly different. If I had not seen the older versions, I may not have been able to follow the story as well as I did. That's not a criticism of Gerwig's version. She gives a marked modenity to the aged narrative.

Greta Gerwig not only honors what we have loved about those previous big screen versions, she has rearranged the story's molecular structure in order to introduce new information about author Louisa May Alcott that makes the entire film feel like it's based on a contemporary novel. It is so vibrant and complicated and relevant to today. Gerwig takes well-known scenes beloved from the earlier adaptations and gives them a new interpretation. To me, Gerwig's version celebrates women's independence, creative spirit and their need to distinguish themselves in areas other than marriage -- marriage as expected by society. The remarkable Saoirse Ronan stars as Jo March, the determined aspiring writer of the family. Meryl Streep also stars in the film as rich and crotchety Aunt March.

The opening shot. We see a publishing office. The glass door is closed. A woman stands before it, her head bowed as if she's going to charge and ram the door open. She enters the publication office and we see that she is the only woman in it. The office is full of men, all working. To them, she's pretty much invisible. No one stands to welcome her or offer her a seat. The woman is Jo March and she's there to negotiate with the editor, Mr. Dashwood. He wants extensive edits to be made in her story, but he will publish it. She disagrees with his philosophy that "morals don't sell nowadays" in reference to the kind of fiction readers like. She especially disagrees with his editor philosophy that a main female character must be "married by the end. Or dead" in order for the story to sell.

This scene, set in post-Civil War times, is just like Meryl Streep's opening scene in the Steven Spielberg journalism drama, THE POST, set in 1970s Washington, D.C. Streep plays Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham. She has a restaurant breakfast meeting with her male editor, played by Tom Hanks. She's the only woman in the fully-occupied restaurant area. No man stands to greet or help her when she drops some of the paperwork she's carrying. To them, she's pretty much invisible. Katherine will be treated by men as though she's invisible as the story progresses. Her opinion never seems to matter as much to the businessmen around her concerned about the fate of the newspaper. This will change when she finds her voice as groundbreaking female boss battling the Nixon administration.

Gerwig's scene of Jo March in the male-dominated publication office is new. We didn't see that in the 1933, the 1949 or the 1994 versions. Greta Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN gives the story a kinship to Spielberg's THE POST and Craig Brewer's DOLEMITE IS MY NAME starring Eddie Murphy. Her film is about when who have been told by society that they're not good enough, that their opinion don't matter as much, women who have been treated as though their invisible. Think of Lady Reed, the full-figured black woman in the hilarious and touching DOLEMITE IS MY NAME. She's played beautifully by Da'Vine Joy Randolph. When the crew of misfits led by Rudy Ray Moore (Murphy) actually gets their movie made and booked for a theater premiere, Lady Reed says to Moore: "I'm so grateful for what you did for me, cause I'd never seen nobody that looks like me up there on that big screen." Gerwig honors the marginalized. She lets them raise their voices.

Laura Dern is a wonderful Marmee, the mother. You feel that she and Saorise Ronan are truly related. When you see this Marmee's social activism in her community, when you hear her admit to having angers in a society that treats women as second class citizens and sold Black people like chattel, you see that Jo is most definitely her mother's daughter.

We're in New England in post-Civil War times. However, Gerwig's version presents the March sisters like they're the offspring of liberal, responsible parents in the San Francisco area in the post-hippie era. Here's a trailer.

I wrote posts last November and December about the late British screenwriter and movie director, Muriel Box. She won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (THE SEVENTH VEIL, 1945). She went behind the camera and directed entertaining films in the 1950s. Unfortunately, critics were dismissive to her trailblazing 1950s films mainly because she was a woman. Muriel Box's favorite theme to focus on in her films was "the female experience." Greta Gerwig is doing that today in a way that would make Muriel proud. Look at her Oscar-nominated LADY BIRD, also starring Saoirse Ronan, and now LITTLE WOMEN. As Amy, Florence Pugh is excellent. Timothee Chalamet, Chris Cooper and Bob Odenkirk co-star.

Robin Swicord, screenwriter of the 1994 LITTLE WOMEN remake, is a producer of this Greta Gerwig version. Robin Swicord also directed a  film. She directed a very smart and entertaining one that deserved more attention than it got. It's the funny and romantic 2007 film, THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB with fine performances from Emily Blunt, Maria Bello, Lynn Redgrave, Jimmy Smits and Hugh Dancy. Swicord also wrote the screenplay based on a novel of the same name. Check out that movie sometime. Check out LITTLE WOMEN. Let's support women directors.