The Help

One challenge that the filmmaker might face is trying to make it seem like it took place in the 1960’s. The story is set during the civil rights movement and the Jim Crow era, and all the racial tension, not only in the town they live but everywhere in the South, might be difficult to portray.

The three scenes I think are essential for the movie are:

1. The whole “bathroom” situation. Mrs. Hilly advises her best friend Elizabeth to build a “separate but equal” bathroom for her maid Aibileen because she is convinced that black people carry dangerous diseases. This part of the book is essential in it’s representation of racism and life in the South. It makes us hate Hilly and sympathize The Help.
2. I would definitely include the scene where Skeeter meets with Minnie and Aibileen to interview them for the book she wants to write. This scene is important because it shows how little black and white people interacted and how dangerous it was.
3. Another essential scene is when Skeeter finds out that her black maid Constantine (who raised her) was fired by her mom before she came home from college. She is very upset because no one will tell her what happened or how to get in contact with her. This shows how Skeeter is different from most other white people because she isn’t prejudiced/ racist against black people and wants to help them by showing the community The Help’s point of view in her book.

In order to show just the most important events and characters in the book, I would cut out the scene where Medgar Evers is killed by the KKK. It’s just another example of racial tension in Jackson and kind of unnecessary since the author is already showing that through the black help/white family relationship. Another thing I would cut out is all of the scenes where Celia goes up to the “creepy rooms upstairs” and she discovers her drinking whiskey which isn’t really whiskey after all. This is followed with a big fight between Minny and Celia where they eventually come to terms and things go on as they did before. This is really pointless because it’s not the most important part of their relationship and actually would take too much time in the movie take away from showing how close they became. Lastly, I would take out some of the scenes of the black people in the church, because we already know that Aibileen and Minny are religious and nothing significant really happens there.

The movie adaptation of this book was really great. It has all the essential scenes, characters and plots. I almost liked it better than the book. The book is really good but I feel like I’m just reading a reference guide or something.