1989 Driving Miss Daisy & When Harry Met Sally

1989 Driving Miss Daisy

 

Critics be damned, I liked this one, even though it makes a lot of the "Worst Best Picture" lists for some reason.  It was subtle, well acted, and meaningful.  I was very pleased with it. 

It sheds light on racism, without being in your face about like Crash was, and also tells the story of an unlikely friendship developing between two people from very different backgrounds and walks of life.  It is a friendship that will span more than twenty years.

Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy) has crashed her car.  She shouldn't be driving anymore, but she won't admit it:Daisy: You should have let me keep my old LaSalle.  It never would've behaved this way and you know it.
Boolie: Mama, cars don't behave.  They are behaved upon.  Fact is, you demolished that Chrysler all by yourself.

Her son, Boolie (Dan Aykroyd -very good in this role), hires her a driver: Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman).  Hoke is an illiterate, but intelligent and hard-working African American man.  Daisy is a widowed Jewish lady who used to be a teacher and is very set in her ways.

Daisy resents having a driver, and refuses to be driven by Hoke.  On his first day of work, the maid, Idella, tells him: "I wouldn't be in your shoes if the Sweet Lord Jesus come down and asked me himself."  He tries to make himself useful by taking care of things around the house, which she resents, but he is getting paid and is determined to earn his money.

Finally, Hoke resorts to following Daisy with the car as she walks to the supermarket, until she agrees to get in the car.

Daisy Werthan: What are you doing?
Hoke Colburn: I'm tryin' to drive you to the store!

They begin to get to know each other, and Daisy teaches Hoke to read.  They both have to deal with prejudice in different ways -him with the racist laws in the South, her with anti-semitism, including the bombing of her synagogue.  One time when they are on a road trip and stop for a break, they are interrupted by two officers:

Daisy: I was thinking about the first time I went to Mobile.  It was Walter's wedding: 1888.
Hoke: 1888!  You were nothing but a little bitty thing.
Daisy: I was 12.  We went on the train.  Oh, I was so excited.  I'd never been in a wedding party.  I had never seen the ocean.  Papa said it was the Gulf of Mexico, not the ocean, but it was all the same to me.  I asked Papa if it was all right for me to dip my hand in the water.  And he laughed because I was so timid.  And then I tasted the salt water on my fingers.  Isn't that a silly thing to remember?
Hoke: No sillier than most of what folks remember.
Officer: Boy!  What are you doing with this car?
Daisy: This is my car, officer.
Officer: Can I see your registration, please, and your license, boy.  What's this name?  Wertheran?
Daisy: Werthan.
Office: Never heard that one.  What is it?
Daisy: It is of German derivation.
Officer: German derivation. Thank you, ma'am...An old nigger and an old Jew woman riding down the road together.  Now that is one sorry sight. 

Hoke isn't afraid to tell Daisy what he thinks, and sticks up for himself, which I think is good for her.  She needs somebody that will stand up to her and tell her like it is, and will call her on things when she's wrong:
 
Hoke: I got to be excused.  I got to go make water.
Daisy: You should have thought of that at the service station.
Hoke: You know colored can't use the toilet at any service station, Miss Daisy.
Daisy: There's no time to stop. We'll be in Mobile soon. You can wait.
Hoke: No, ma'am.
Daisy: I told you to wait!
Hoke: I heard what you said.  How do you think I feel having to ask you can I go make water like I am some child.  I'd be ashamed.  I ain't no child, Miss Daisy.  And I ain't just a back of the neck you look at while you go where you got to go.  I am a man.  I'm near 70 years old.  And I know when my bladder's full.  Now I'm going to get out of this car and go over there and do what I got to do.  And I'm taking the key with me, too.  Now that's all there is to it! 

 

She's acting like an entitled pill, and he doesn't let her get away with it. 

Though they bicker and disagree sometimes, they also talk and laugh and become very close over the years: 

Daisy: Hoke?
Hoke: Yes'm.
Daisy: You're my best friend.
Hoke: No, go on Miss Daisy.
Daisy: No, really, you are.  You are.
Hoke: Yes'm. 

Even when Daisy begins to show signs of dementia -he continues to visit her in the nursing home.  Though not talking at first, she sends Boolie away when Hoke arrives: 

Daisy: Hoke came to see me, not you!
Hoke: Look like one o' her good days!
Daisy: Boolie, go charm the nurses!
Boolie: She wants you all to herself. 
 
It's a really sweet, touching movie, and I wouldn't mind watching it again.  Also, great music.

1989 When Harry Met Sally 

"I'll have what she's having."

Of course, I would have been happy to see When Harry Met Sally win -probably one of the smartest romantic comedies made, in my opinion.  Amazingly funny dialogue.  It explores the differences between men and women, and whether or not men and women can be friends.  It centers on two characters, Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan), as they go from acquaintances to friends to lovers.

I'm not going to analyze the movie in depth -I'm just going to put some quotes and let it speak for itself as I did with Star Wars: 

Harry: You realize of course that we could never be friends.
Sally: Why not?
Harry: What I'm saying is - and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form - is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally: That's not true.  I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry: No you don't.
Sally: Yes I do.
Harry: No you don't.
Sally: Yes I do.
Harry: You only think you do.
Sally: You say I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry: No, what I'm saying is they all WANT to have sex with you.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: How do you know?
Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive.  He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally: So, you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?
Harry: No.  You pretty much want to nail 'em too.
Sally: What if THEY don't want to have sex with YOU?
Harry: Doesn't matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story. 

Harry: You know you just get to a certain point where you get tired of the whole thing.Sally: What "whole thing"?
Harry: The whole life-of-a-single-guy thing.  You meet someone, you have the safe lunch, you decide you like each other enough to move on to dinner.  You go dancing, you do the white-man's over-bite, go back to her place, you have sex and the minute you're finished you know what goes through your mind?  How long do I have to lie here and hold her before I can get up and go home.  Is thirty seconds enough?
Sally: That's what you're thinking?  Is that true?
Harry: Sure!  All men think that.  How long do you want to be held afterwards?  All night, right?  See there's your problem, somewhere between thirty seconds and all night is your problem.
Sally: I don't have a problem.
Harry: Yes, you do. 

Harry: Would you like to have dinner?  Just friends.
Sally: I thought you didn't believe men and women could be friends.
Harry: When did I say that?
Sally: On the ride to New York.
Harry: No, no, no, I never said that...Yes, that's right, they can't be friends.  Unless both of them are involved with other people, then they can.  This is an amendment to the earlier rule.   If the two people are in relationships, the pressure of possible involvement is lifted...That doesn't work either, because what happens then is, the person you're involved with can't understand why you need to be friends with the person you're just friends with.  Like it means something is missing from the relationship and why do you have to go outside to get it?  And when you say "No, no, no it's not true, nothing is missing from the relationship," the person you're involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the person you're just friends with, which you probably are.  I mean, come on, who the hell are we kidding, let's face it.  Which brings us back to the earlier rule before the amendment, which is men and women can't be friends. 

Harry: And was it worth it?  The sacrifice for a friend you don't even keep in touch with?
Sally: Harry, you might not believe this, but I never considered not sleeping with you a sacrifice.

Harry: You know, you may be the first attractive woman I've not wanted to sleep with in my entire life.
Sally: That's wonderful, Harry.

Harry: There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.
Sally: Which one am I?
Harry: You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance.
Sally: I don't see that.
Harry: You don't see that?  Waiter, I'll begin with a house salad, but I don't want the regular dressing.  I'll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side.  And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side.  "On the side" is a very big thing for you.
Sally: Well, I just want it the way I want it.
Harry: I know; high maintenance. 

 Sally: You know, I'm so glad I never got involved with you.  I just would have ended up being some woman you had to get up out of bed and leave at 3:00 in the morning and go clean your andirons, and you don't even have a fireplace, not that I would know this.

Jess: "Baby talk"? That's not a saying. [Playing Pictionary]
Harry: Oh, but "baby fish mouth" is sweeping the nation?