TWO ON THE AISLE “DRIVING MISS DAISY” - for May13, 2106
By Joe Kirkish
It all starts when Miss Daisy Werthan, a 72year-old Atlanta widow and former school
teacher, drives her new 1948 Packard into her
neighbor's garden. Daisy steps out of her car
and walks away from the accident without so
much as a scratch on her glasses. She informs her son, Boolie, “It was the car's
fault.” Boolie, knowing that it's futile to argue
with his stubborn, opinionated Mama, decides
simply to go ahead an hire a chauffeur for her.
When Booley hires Hoke Colburn, a black chaufferur who drove for a local judge until he recently died, Miss Daisy at first refuses to let Hoke drive her, but gradually starts to accept
him – with reservations. (Making impossible insistences on very slow speed becomes just
one of several amusing examples, with her new chauffeur patiently obliging.)
Gradually she starts to accept him. When she learns that Hoke, in his early 60s, is illiterate,
the teacher in her comes to the fore and she decides to help him how to read. As the two
spend time together, she gains appreciation for his many skills, and the two become hesitant
friends. When her only servant dies in 1963, Miss Daisy decides, rather than hire a new
maid, to care for her own house and cook her own meals. Hoke assists with the cooking,
and the two plant a vegetable garden with fresh food for the table.
The film almost amusingly explores racism against Blacks, which affects Hoke at the time. It
also touches on anti-semitism in the South. After her synagogue is bombed, Miss Daisy realizes that she is also a victim of prejudice.
But around her, American society is undergoing radical changes, and Miss Daisy goes so far
as to attend a dinner at which Martin Luther King gives a speech. She invites Hoke, but he
politely declines, and she ends up attending the dinner alone while Hoke, insulted by the
manner of her invitation, listens to the speech on the car radio outside.
Hoke arrives at the house one morning in 1971 to find Miss Daisy agitated and showing
signs of dementia. As he calms her down, she admits to him that he is her best
friend. Boolie takes over the situation and arranges for Miss Daisy, now 97, to drive her to a
retirement home. Hoke, now in his 80s, feeds her and reminisces about the many years he
spent driving her. The film closes as the image of a car is seen driving into the distance.
Fortunately, the movie never resorts to rank sentimentality. It has a
dry wit, true nostalgia, and real warmth, turning what might have
been gushingly emotional into what critics called a warm-hearted
feel-good experience. In writing the screenplay from his Pulitzer
Prize-winning 2-person stage play, Alfred Uhry has managed to
open up the play without destroying its simple honesty.
It's the human complexity of these two people – this odd couple –
that makes them, and the film, so endearing and unforgettable.