Douglas Evans

Finally got around to watching this "classic" and it's the most offensive, tone-deaf, torturous film I can ever remember seeing. This film masquerades as a tale of two people from opposite sides of the track who become friends in spite of the cultural climate. In actuality, the black characters in the movie are NEVER seen as equals to their employers and are tolerated as long as they know their place; marginally more than you would tolerate a pet or child. Hoke (played by Morgan Freeman) is the driver for the titular Miss Daisy and spends the majority of the film as the recipient of verbal abuse from her as well as discrimination, prejudice and blatant racism. He is accused of stealing because, as stated by Miss Daisy to her son, "you know they all steal" and offers no apology when she is proven wrong. Hoke is required to stay outside anytime she shops for groceries, runs errands and goes to worship and Miss Daisy openly expresses reluctance to be seen with him in any public capacity by her acquaintances. Hoke is referred to as "boy" by the authorities and she neither comes to his defense nor lends any sense of empathy after they leave. When they get word Martin Luther King Jr. is coming to town to speak at a dinner, Miss Daisy asks if Hoke would like to go, to which he obliges. However, when they arrive at the banquet hall, we find Miss Daisy is granted entry to join the company of the other whites while their colored drivers wait outside and are forced to listen to the speech from the driveway. Years pass, and Miss Daisy's other long-time employee of color, Idela, passes away in the kitchen while preparing food; a woman whom we learn was an employee of Daisy's family for at least 35 years. Miss Daisy does attend the funeral but no tears are shed and little emotion is shown. Seemingly, her only sentiment is shared later with Hoke as she says to him, "I can fix her biscuits, you can make her fried chicken, but only Idela can make her coffee". Showing that this woman who has helped her for almost half of her life was ultimately nothing more than a chef. We never saw them fraternize, never saw Idela invited to play Mahjong and conversation was only held amid Idela's household duties. The movie ends with Hoke, not Miss Daisy's son, feeding her supper as she had become somewhat senile and dependent in her waning years. Every single person of color in this film is an employee and on the clock. We are never introduced to any family or friends of ANY of the black characters. Their purpose on screen is solely to serve the needs of their white employers and never do we see any goodwill reciprocated. Morgan Freeman as Hoke is nothing but a Sambo character; the happy servant ever smiling, ever kow-towing, ever hunched in deference to the white people around him. The moral, seemingly, is if you accept and endure enough racial abuse perhaps one day your superior will endure you enough to allow you to remain employed. It only took 30 min of film time before I was physically ill.