Driving Miss Daisy

     Driving Miss Daisy was released in 1989. It was originally a play of the same name by Alfred Uhry who also wrote the screenplay. The film is directed by Bruce Beresford and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Three others including Best Actress for Jessica Tandy, Best Makeup, and Best Adapted Screenplay were awarded. The score of the film was written and produced by Hans Zimmer. He performed the score entirely on his own using electronic instruments. It has become a well known score and is a tribute to Daisy’s impetuous sassiness.  

  Jessica Tandy plays Daisy Werthan, a wealthy Jewish widow living in Atlanta in the fifties. After she becomes unable to drive, her son Boolie Werthan (Dan Aykroyd) hires her a chauffeur. The driver is a black man named Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman). Daisy also has a black maid named Idella (Esther Rolle).  Daisy is very set in her ways and refuses to allow Hoke to drive her anywhere at first, but by the end of the film they become close friends, developing a love for each other that transcends all racial, ethnic, and age boundaries.  

Although the Southern Jews had arrived at the end of the 17th century and were common in cities like Atlanta and Charleston throughout early American history, the civil rights movement brought about an antisemitic sentiment.  Jews are less than 1 percent of the South`s population and the  first Jewish settlements were those of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina.  By the beginning of the 19th century  there were more Jews in Charleston than in any other U.S. city.  The Jewish people of the south were neither more nor less likely to own slaves than their Christians peers, though it is said that they were more likely to show empathy for blacks.  Around 40,000 Jews, most of them German immigrants, made their way to the South in years between the end of the Civil War and the start of World War I. As Jews became more accepted, intermarriage and assimilation helped to lessen their cultural presence. This resulted in many synagogue closings in the South after 1950. In the scene when Daisy is in Temple, we can see disproportionate amount of empty seats in the grand building.

       As a Jewish family, the Werthan’s break the shopkeeper stereotypes of southern Jews at the time such as Neiman and Marcus from Texas. The family owns a textile plant in Atlanta that is now run by Boolie. Boolie is like many southern jews who are very different from the northern jews because historically they intermarried and assimilated more frequently and quickly. This is seen through Boolies marriage and his mother’s disgust when he embraces his wife’s excessive holiday traditions. 

  As Daisy becomes closer to Hoke, she becomes sympathetic to his struggle as a southern black man. Whether she knows it or not, Daisy’s identity as a southern Jew helps to define her character.  Through the progression of the film she becomes more aware of their similarities.  She is very defensive and feels as if being called rich is an insult. She is very proud of her hard work as a teacher and it shows when she beams with pride as she teaches Hoke to read. On a rainy day Hoke and Diasy are stuck in traffic on the way to Temple. Hoke gets out to see what is going on. He returns to tell her that the Temple has been bombed.  Hoke empathizes with Daisy’s pain by telling her about the hanging of his friend’s father.  Daisy seems to be in denial that the antisemitic bombing is in any way related to the racism that Hoke experienced. As a white woman, it was a very different reality for Hoke than Diasy and she refuses to feel sorry for herself.  Ethnicity is defined as more fluid than race. A white person can chose to be more or less Jewish, but a black person is externally identified and cannot change the color of his skin. 

The congregation bombing is perhaps a reference to the bombing of Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, Atlanta’s oldest and most prominent synagogue. It was the fourth Temple bombing within the time frame. At the time, the congregation was being led by Rabbi Rothschild and it was his support of racial integration that perhaps ignited the hatred that led to the bombing. In 1947 Rothschild had spoken out at the pulpit against segregation in the region. After the Little Rock 9 incident in 1957 Rothschild helped author the Ministers’ Manifesto which asked for communication between racial and ethnic groups. In the months before the bombing Rothschild said, "We must resolve not to surrender to violence, or submit to intimidation”. Later in the film Daisy attends a dinner with another important civil rights figure,  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and hears a speech that resonated with her.  King said, “history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the vitriolic words and violent actions of the bad people but the appalling silence and indifference of the good people. Our generation will not only have to repent the words and  actions of the children of darkness but also the fears and apathy of the children of light.” 

Toward the end of the film Daisy shows signs of dementia. One morning, Hoke shows up to work and Daisy is having an episode where her mind is lost in time. This is the first sign of her degenerating mind. She is looking for school papers and is frustrated. Boolie is called to the house and shortly after she regains her coherency and  is upset at herself. Hoke cheers her up by telling her that she is lucky to not be in a state hospital. Daisy let’s him know that he is her best  friend. Time goes by and her house is sold and Daisy is sent to live in a home for the elderly. Although Boolie never had any children and lived in a large house, she is still sent away. Her condition has come to a point that she can no longer live on her own, as many people with degenerative dementia experience.  In a symbolic gesture, Boolie drives Hoke to visit Daisy and after a biting comment about Boolie’s wife being a republican national committeewoman, Daisy and Hoke share a final intimate moment as Hoke sweetly feeds her.  

This last moment and reference to the republican party speaks to the politics on the way aging Americans are treated and the films theme of aging. Boolie may be a committed son, but his need to succeed in a capitalist society takes over. In the past few decades it has been common for party lines to be drawn on issue of the treatment of aging Americans. Currently the line is drawn on  Medicaid and Social Security programs. Republicans often offer a disgusting sentiment for any social program and speak of it like a it is a free ride that only promotes laziness and takes money from the pockets of job creators (a.k.a. the wealthy). When Americans, black or white, Jewish or Christians have worked hard for the majority of their lives like Hoke and Daisy, they do not deserve to be left out in the cold by the government while capital accumulation of the wealthy continues to drive politics. Driving Miss Daisy is a film that helps bridge the gap between rich and poor, black and white. Aging happens to everyone and all human beings deserve to do it with dignity even if the United States has deprived them of it in the past.