Women have had to fight for years to be able to do certain things, like vote, or even be considered for certain jobs. Even after laws were passed that were supposed to help women, they still had fight for rights. Over the years, many women fought long and hard to improve things for future generations of women. North Country tells the story of a group of women and their fight that ultimately impacted businesses across the country.
Josey Aimes took her children, Sam and Karen, and left her abusive husband. Her parents, Alice and Hank Aimes, took them in though they didn’t seem that supportive of Josey. Hank actually asked her if she brought it on by having an affair. Josey met up with Glory, a woman she knew that was working at the mine. Glory mentioned that the mine was hiring and after thinking about it for a while Josey decided to work there, which made her relationship with Hank even worse. She and her kids moved in with Glory and her husband Kyle for a while. A few other women started the same time that Josey did. They subjected to lewd comments and behavior from some of the men from the first day they started that only got worse the longer they were there.
Glory had worked at the mine for a while and managed to get a spot as a union representative. She tried to get things done that would help the women. She had to fight to get porta potties set up just so the women could take care of a basic necessity. Once they were actually on the site, some men found it amusing to tip one over when a woman was inside. Women found sex toys (Epinions won't let me use the actual word) in their lunch boxes, semen on clothes inside their lockers, obscenities written on the walls of their locker room, and went to work fearing for their safety. Some of the men would take every opportunity to grope the women. When Josey tried to talk to someone at the mine about what was happening, she was told she had no business even working there to begin with so she should shut up and take it like a man. Some of the other women felt that Josey was stirring up trouble and making things worse for them by speaking up. Josey was eventually pushed too far and she filed a lawsuit against the mine.
North Country was inspired by the true story of the first women to work in an iron mine in northern Minnesota. After watching the movie I did some research about the real events. The movie was based on Class Action: The Story of Lois Jensen and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law, a book that covered the real events. The names of the characters are different and some of the characters seemed to be a combination of more than one real person. The real events started in 1975 when the first women were hired to work in the mines while the movie started in 1989. The lawsuit was first filed in 1984 and took years to be settled. The movie didn’t make it clear just how long the case took to be settled. Josey was mostly based on Lois Jensen, though some things were added for the movie. Jensen was one of the first women hired at a mine and she stayed there putting up with various forms of harassment for almost twenty years. She and some of the other women weren’t happy with the book because it made it seem like all the men were involved when that wasn’t the case. The movie did show that it was a small group of men that were responsible. It wasn’t really shown how any of the men tried to help until very late in the movie. I did read that Jensen has seen the movie and is happy with the way it turned out.
Sexual harassment is a very unpleasant, serious subject. I think that North Country handled this subject well, though some scenes dealing with what happened were somewhat graphic, which is why the movie is rated R. This is not a movie for children. There were several sexual situations, some more disturbing than others to see. No one should ever have to go through what the women did at that mine. It happened to all the women, not just Josey, day after day because the men just didn’t want them there. The women didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly decide that they wanted to go work in an iron mine for the heck of it. Many of them had some kind of family to support and needed the jobs just as much as the men. They didn’t ask for special treatment, think they should have easier work than the men, or want to shut the mine down. They just wanted to go to work and not have to worry about what they would find in their lockers, written on the walls, or if they would be raped. Personally, I don’t think they were asking for that much. One scene of the movie pointed out how the same men that treated the women miners so horribly would never think of talking to other women away from the mine in the same way.
The things that happened at the mine went beyond offensive comments and graffiti around the mine. The information I read about the real woman shared that physical assaults happened at the mine more than once. That was brought up in the movie, though it was only shown once or twice. Some of the women were denied the basic necessity of going to the bathroom because they couldn’t just whip it out anywhere like a man. A difference in female anatomy and the way their urinary system worked was used against them in an attempt to force them out of the mine. The fact that it takes a woman longer in the bathroom has nothing to do with her ability to work and should have no impact on a job. At one point in the movie Glory said how one woman had developed a urinary tract infection because she was forced to wait all day to go to the bathroom. Josey was told to take what was being down to the women like a man when no man there was being treated even remotely the same way. I don’t think men would put up with what those women did. I also don’t think it is likely that one man would do to another what was done to the women. This movie dealt with an unpleasant subject but I think the story needed to be shared. I’ve known that women have had to deal with harassment on the job, but I never realized it was this bad for anyone. No person, regardless of sex, race, or age, should ever have to deal with anything like what was depicted in this movie.
North Country focused on Josey and what she went through after deciding to work at the mine. Josey didn’t set out to change the world when she went to work there. She just wanted a job where she could make enough money to support herself and her kids. She didn’t want to be taken care of by a man. After working at the mine for a while, she was able to actually buy a house. It wasn’t fancy and needed some work but she owned it. She was so happy to be able to do that and buy her kids something fun without it being a birthday or Christmas. When the movie started, very little of Josey’s past was shared beyond the fact that she was leaving an abusive husband and her children had different fathers. At one point her husband showed up wanting to take her home. Instead the two had an argument and he stormed off alone. He wasn’t shown after that. I did wonder if they got a divorce or were just separated. A few flashbacks showed some important events that happened when Josey was a teenager. The complete story related to one thing that happened to her didn’t come out until the trial. I did wonder exactly how much of that event her parents had known before it came out in court. Hank was surprised by at least one bit of information.
The other women that worked at the mine didn’t receive as much attention as Josey did even though they were all on the receiving end of the harassment. It was never said how long Glory had worked there and what exactly had happened to her personally while working there. I did wonder about those things and just how hard it was for her to get a spot as a union representative. On Josey’s first day, Glory told her to check her lunch, saying they never know what might be in it there. She said other things at times that made it seem like she didn’t think there was anything wrong with the harassment and that Josey should stay quiet. Sherry also started the same day as Josey. Sherry was only nineteen and one of the more attractive women working there. She didn’t like what happened but was worried it would get worse. The other women were barely shown. Big Betty sided with the mine even though she’d been on the receiving end of harassment as well. Sherry and Betty both made comments about how they needed their jobs, like they were implying that Josey didn’t need hers. I think the other women characters did need more attention.
Really the only problem I had with North Country was with the way Hank was portrayed. He started off thinking his daughter did something to deserve getting beaten. He had been disappointed with her when she was a teenager and he never forgot that. He didn’t think she should work at the mine and he stopped talking to her when she took the job. He didn’t think any women should work at the mine, though he was never shown doing any of the harassment. He had to know it was going on though and he didn’t seem concerned that his daughter was involved. During a conversation with Josey she pointed out how he didn’t have to worry about finding things in his locker or be afraid of getting raped at work and he didn’t even respond to that. Hank chose to believe lies some of the men started about her instead of what she said happened. Then later in the movie the workers were together for a meeting and one of the men that did a lot of the harassment was running Josey down. She arrived to talk and was treated horribly yet again. Then Hank decided to defend her and even got emotional. He did a complete turn around so suddenly that it wasn’t as believable as it could have been. I suppose it may have finally gotten through to him what Josey had been going through when he saw it with his own eyes even though he had heard about other things before that. Alice wasn’t much better, but she did change her thinking earlier than he did.
North Country has an amazing cast. Charlize Theron was amazing and very believable as Josey. In some scenes she looked very nice and others she was covered in grime from whatever work in the mine she had been doing. Theron proves that her performance in Monster wasn’t just a fluke. I also enjoyed her in The Italian Job. This is probably the best performance from an actress that I’ve seen so far this year and I would be very surprised if she isn’t nominated for several awards for it. Josey’s daughter Karen really wasn’t shown too much and didn’t seem to be affected by what was happening to her mother. Sammy was shown more and knew more about what was going on. He got very upset with his mother, and even called her some of the same names others did. Elle Peterson and Thomas Curtis were fine in the parts.
Frances McDormand didn’t have as big of a part as Glory, but she was wonderful in the part. Glory was tough most of the time, but she did have a softer side that McDormand brought though. Glory went though a massive change over the course of the movie. McDormand played a more fun character in Something's Gotta Give. Glory’s husband Kyle was only in a few scenes, mostly just with her. The couple had a strong relationship. Sean Bean did a very good job with the part which was very different from most of the other parts I’ve seen him play like in National Treasure or Flightplan.
Sissy Spacek was under used as Alice, who only turned up in a few scenes. It wasn’t said for sure, but I got the impression that Alice had never worked outside of the home and tended to go along with what Hank decided. Alice had her own strong streak that she did eventually show when she started to support Josey. The problems I felt there were with Hank wasn’t because of the performance Richard Jenkins gave. It was with the way the character was written. He did well with what he had to work with. Bill White, the lawyer that took Josey’s case, was an old friend of Kyle’s. Bill had been living in New York and just recently returned to Minnesota. He didn’t want to handle the case at first but later changed his mind. I think this is one of the better performances I’ve seen Woody Harrelson give. I also enjoyed his performance in After the Sunset, a less serious movie. Bobby Sharp was one of the men that seemed to be involved in most of the harassment. He and Josey had gone to high school together but something had happened to end their friendship. He was a huge jerk as an adult. There wasn’t a bad performance in the movie.
CAST
Sean Bean - Kyle
Thomas Curtis - Sammy
Woody Harrelson - Bill White
Richard Jenkins - Hank Aimes
Frances McDormand - Glory
Michelle Monaghan - Sherry
Elle Peterson - Karen Aimes
Jeremy Renner - Bobby Sharp
Sissy Spacek - Alice Aimes
Charlize Theron - Josey Aimes
Niki Caro - Director
North Country was a very well done, powerful movie. It handled a serious, touchy subject without getting preachy. This is a story that needs to be told and is worth seeing at least once.
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