14 Women
Year: 2008
Director: Mary Lambert
Studio: Screen Media Films
Stars: Annette Bening
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 70 Mins
Official Website: http://www.14womenthemovie.com/
With the political season in full swing, it was appropriate for me to find a political documentary to talk about. I managed to have a title sitting at home that was recently released on DVD a couple of weeks ago.
“14 Women” focuses on 14 female Senators in the historic 109th congress, as the number of females’ skyrocked from nine to fourteen in 2002. The film goes into their struggles with balancing their homelife with relationships and their political party views. The film is directed by Mary Lambert (Pet Cemetery 2, The In-Crowd) and is produced by Nicole Boxer, daughter of Barbara Boxer, one of the female Senators, that’s featured in this film.
I was hoping to get a very interesting look at all fourteen Senators, but instead the film doesn’t to that to some extent. “14 Women” felt like it focused on the people we already know like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Elizabeth Dole, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstien. I would have liked to have known more about the other senators like Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, who was in the Senate when there were only two females back in 1992, Missouri Senator Debbie Stabenow and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. It would have been interesting, because they weren’t household names unlike Clinton and Hutchison. It would have made the film more interesting for me, personally. Why didn't this happen? Well it has to do with the film’s major problem, the seventy minute running time. One of the things that a feature documentary has to do is explore all of the topics and subjects that are being presented in the film. To me, it’s didn’t do that because of the running time. If the film spends another half hour or so, then Director Mary Lambert would have spent more time on the other Senators, not just the household names then maybe all the Senators in the film would have been interesting, because some of their stories felt incomplete to me.
For the major grips that I have with this film, the film still has some good material. One of the things that the film did well was to explore the history of the female Senate and the backstory to the 109th Congress. You do get some interesting information on the Senate and a couple of the committees like the judicial committee and how the Clarence Thomas fiasco helped pave the way for some of these female Senators to run for office. Lambert does that by focusing on that event by going into the history of it and the interview of Senator and Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Biden. The Biden interview provided some insight to the judicial committee and his regret during those proceeding. She also goes into the election process from the behind the scenes of a campaign, from the conventions to the fundraising, which shows the hard work that’s done on the campaign trail. Mary Lambert, I thought, also did a good job getting a female perspective from the group of young female that she interviewed with their thoughts on women that are being Senators and the possible of a female president.
14 Women is a film that should have had more time invested on it’s subjects, but still is a good film if you are interested in women in the Senate, as it’s somewhat educational to people who are in interested in politics.
Review Rating: 3 Stars
DVD Extras:
Additional Scenes
“14 Women” focuses on 14 female Senators in the historic 109th congress, as the number of females’ skyrocked from nine to fourteen in 2002. The film goes into their struggles with balancing their homelife with relationships and their political party views. The film is directed by Mary Lambert (Pet Cemetery 2, The In-Crowd) and is produced by Nicole Boxer, daughter of Barbara Boxer, one of the female Senators, that’s featured in this film.
I was hoping to get a very interesting look at all fourteen Senators, but instead the film doesn’t to that to some extent. “14 Women” felt like it focused on the people we already know like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Elizabeth Dole, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstien. I would have liked to have known more about the other senators like Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, who was in the Senate when there were only two females back in 1992, Missouri Senator Debbie Stabenow and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. It would have been interesting, because they weren’t household names unlike Clinton and Hutchison. It would have made the film more interesting for me, personally. Why didn't this happen? Well it has to do with the film’s major problem, the seventy minute running time. One of the things that a feature documentary has to do is explore all of the topics and subjects that are being presented in the film. To me, it’s didn’t do that because of the running time. If the film spends another half hour or so, then Director Mary Lambert would have spent more time on the other Senators, not just the household names then maybe all the Senators in the film would have been interesting, because some of their stories felt incomplete to me.
For the major grips that I have with this film, the film still has some good material. One of the things that the film did well was to explore the history of the female Senate and the backstory to the 109th Congress. You do get some interesting information on the Senate and a couple of the committees like the judicial committee and how the Clarence Thomas fiasco helped pave the way for some of these female Senators to run for office. Lambert does that by focusing on that event by going into the history of it and the interview of Senator and Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Biden. The Biden interview provided some insight to the judicial committee and his regret during those proceeding. She also goes into the election process from the behind the scenes of a campaign, from the conventions to the fundraising, which shows the hard work that’s done on the campaign trail. Mary Lambert, I thought, also did a good job getting a female perspective from the group of young female that she interviewed with their thoughts on women that are being Senators and the possible of a female president.
14 Women is a film that should have had more time invested on it’s subjects, but still is a good film if you are interested in women in the Senate, as it’s somewhat educational to people who are in interested in politics.
Review Rating: 3 Stars
DVD Extras:
Additional Scenes
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