By Melissa Antoinette Garza
The fact that this movie only has a 6.9 on IMDB infuriates me. This is one of the greatest films of all time! It’s a brilliant flick that celebrates feminism while examining the horrific notion of all advances being stomped away by an insane and selfish patriarchal society. You can keep THE HANDMAID’S TALE (2017), I will find my female empowerment within the finely interwoven madness of the 1970s masterpiece THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975).
It opens with our lady protagonist Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross). She is a photographer, a wife and a mother. She’s a kick-ass 1970s fem who is strong-willed, assertive and knows who she is. She has full autonomy. I adore her. As a girl when I saw this film, I wanted to be Joanna. Regardless of her fear and apprehension, she’s a tigress that fights to the end.
Just to show how badass she is, when her husband asks “Have you ever made it in front of a fire?” she answers while sipping brandy, “not with you.” Masterfully played! She is in control and gives zero fucks.
Joanna’s douchebag husband Walter (Peter Masterson) moves to the small town of Stepford. Together with Joanna they bring their two small children. Joanna goes along with the move, but much prefers the city life.
Immediately, she begins to see the oddities that exist in Stepford. All the goddamn women seem like mindless drones. They’re always happy, they love to cook and clean and sacrifice for their husbands. They’re always ready with their legs open,their mouths shut and their hands cleaning. Yeah, that’s a whole lotta Go Fuck Yourself right there.
Well, Walter is just tickled pink with the way Stepford is run. He has the audacity to say that Joanna should clean more. Yeah, fuck that guy. Walter is an asshole.
Wally-boy starts off the time at Stepford in typical asshole fashion. He joins the Men’s Association, a gentleman’s only club where the male residents of Stepford all congregate and the women aren’t permitted to go. Joanna gets rightfully pissed, but she has bigger things to momentarily worry about. She’s dealing with the new move, the kids and not having anyone to talk to.
Thankfully, she gets someone to talk to. She meets her best friend Bobbie (Paula Prentiss). Bobbie is just as tough as Joanna and has a Lucille Ball comedic charm. Bobbie actually chases her down and fills her with compliments. The two hit it off fabulously as Bobbie one of the only gals in town who understands they’re fully in charge of both their voices and their vaginae. Together they complain about their husbands and the Men’s Association. They also remark on how strange and backwards the women seem.
Things get odder still when Joanna notices an injured woman at a grocery store is taken by ambulance in a different direction than the hospital. Still not fully understanding the gravity of the situation, Joanna and Bobby decide to put together a liberation meeting.
The other Stepford women go, but rather than talk about real issues they discuss cleaning products and act as though they’re on commercials. There is no doubt about it, the men in Stepford are doing something and need to be destroyed!
That becomes even clearer when Joanna and Bobbie’s only other friend, the sexy vamp Charmaine (Tina Louise) changes. Charmaine is a force-to-be-reckoned with from jump and overnight she becomes a YES-Gal domesticated housewife.
At this point of the film, I am always screaming the following at my TV. “NO! Not Charmaine. I loved Charmaine! Those bastards got to Charmaine! For the love of God, Bobbie and Joanna get out! Get out!”
They don’t get out, but they’re not stupid. They know there’s something wrong in the town, but they have kids. Those damn men use the kids against them.
Joanna figures out that the women seem to turn on the third month. As her third month approaches she is compelled to go to a psychiatrist because Wally is gas-lighting her and making her think she’s crazy. Joanna remains in control of her destiny by choosing her doctor. She refuses to go to the one he suggests and instead goes to female protagonist #4 Dr. Fancher (Carol Eve Rossen).
Dr. Fancher has such a small role, but is in my favorite scene and the most pivotal scene of the production. Fancher doesn’t call Joanna paranoid or act like other doctors in horror films. She’s a fucking Goddess. She gives Joanna the best advice. She tells her to leave Stepford and wait for her.
Joanna plans to go, but when the kids are taken and she’s lured back the house a conclusion culminates that haunts me to this day.
Everything about this movie is perfect. As a woman it definitely strikes a stronger chord than it would with a man. This was made in the 70s. We’re talking about a time when Women’s Rights were just making headway. This is after years of subjugation and being treated like a second class citizen. Finally the acts of the Suffragettes were being fully recognized and felt. Women were being seen for the intelligent amazing people they were. No longer were women forced to see their existence beginning and ending in front of a sink of dirty dishes. Women were FINALLY in charge of their own destiny.
The thought of that being taken away is terrifying. The ability to freely think, feel, love and fuck are the essences of being human. There is nothing scarier than having a free enough mind to know you have one and recognizing the ability of one to take it away.
This movie is perfect. There are so many foreboding clues and warnings tied in from jump. One of my favorites is the crossing of a man holding a mannequin. I always love that touch.
The dialogue is incredible. My favorite line is while Joanna is at the psychiatrist’s office. She says, “If I’m wrong I’m insane and if I’m right it’s worse than if I’m wrong.” That line gives me chills. If you’ve ever been manipulated, you know this emotion. To think of it on the magnitude of Joanna’s experience makes for one of the most tense and gut-wrenching moments in film history.
When I was a little girl and I saw this I wanted Joanna and Dr. Fancher to end up together. I don’t know why I walked away with the two of them vs. Joanna and Bobby or Charmaine, but whatever was going on in my 5 year old mind, I thought Fancher and Joanna were perfect for each other. I think I just loved the scene so much and the women are so brilliant in it that it resonated to me on a youthful romantic level where I felt Fancher was trying to keep Joanna safe and I so wanted her to be safe.
Katharine Ross is my hero. Plain and simple. What she does on camera is magic. You can look to any of her performances and you’ll see the same. That said,this is her greatest work – even up against her most recognizable role in THE GRADUATE (1967). This movie taught me why feminism is important and what real feminism is. In its essence, it is the right to maintain guardianship over one’s own mind and behavior. Ross is brilliant at showing the destruction of human soul and resilience that occurs when one tries to take that away. I do love when she finally strikes Walter. As a teen when watching this scene I’d yell, “I am woman, hear me bash your fucking skull in Wally!”
For me this movie represents the difference between dancing around naked because the music brings it vs. the annual Slut Walk. Whereas getting swept away by music or love of your own body is about freedom, the slut walk wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for people trying to tell women what to do. Joanna, Bobbie and Charmaine were truly living for themselves. They did what they wanted! They didn’t care if people told them not to do something. They did it regardless because they wanted to. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t partake in the Slut Walk. If it’s a fun experience, you should definitely do it! For me, it’s just more-so about the philosophy behind the event and mindset. Sexists don’t deserve my time worrying about what they think. I’m still going to enjoy my freedom and do whatever the hell I want. I don’t need a parade announcing to them that I don’t care. I don’t want to give them any power. They don’t deserve it and THE STEPFORD WIVES recognized that.
The female comradeship within it is just as powerful a message. Women need other women. I’ve had the same best friend for 15+ years. I’d walk thru fire for her. We’re ride-or-die, “where do you need me to bury the body?” type mates. It’s one of the reasons that a certain scene in this movie pangs me so much. When Joanna is faced with her best friend being turned, Prentiss and Ross bring it home. How something can be both so horribly sad and horrifyingly creep at the same time, mystifies. Kudos to these women. They shined.
One thing that I never found explanation to is whether the name of Joanna’s husband “Walter” was coincidence. The main villain, Dale (Patrick O’Neal) goes by the nickname Diz because he worked for Disney. Was this a direct jab to Walt Disney? I don’t know. There are definitely plot points which makes it imperative for Dis to have worked there, but the hubby’s name being Walter always made me raise an eyebrow in wonder.
This is a must own movie. I adore it. I’ve adored it since childhood. Stay as far as you can away from the 2004 remake. That film nearly made me break my television.
Amazon Primers go and watch this if you don’t own it. It’s genius from the first to the last second.
Scared Stiff Rating: 10/10
