Confirmation

Confirmation

2016 "It Only Takes One Choice To Change History."
Confirmation
Confirmation

Confirmation

6.8 | 1h50m | en | Drama

Judge Clarence Thomas' nomination to the United States' Supreme Court is called into question when former colleague, Anita Hill, testifies that he had sexually harassed her.

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6.8 | 1h50m | en | Drama , History , TV Movie | More Info
Released: April. 16,2016 | Released Producted By: Groundswell Productions , HBO Films Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website: https://confirmationhbo.com
Synopsis

Judge Clarence Thomas' nomination to the United States' Supreme Court is called into question when former colleague, Anita Hill, testifies that he had sexually harassed her.

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Cast

Kerry Washington , Wendell Pierce , Greg Kinnear

Director

Stephen Altman

Producted By

Groundswell Productions , HBO Films

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Reviews

lavatch This well-produced film from HBO offers a good recreation of the contentious and sensational congressional confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991. The acting was superb with the performances of Wendell Pierce as Thomas and Kerry Washington as Anita Hill. Still, the film dragged at the end and did not fully convey the emotional impact of the tense hearings.The strength of the film was that it sought to adopt a balanced and fair-minded approach to the portrayal of Thomas and Hill. With the hindsight of fifteen years, the HBO production had the opportunity to examine the case impartially. In this regard, the film was successful in not "taking sides." For the viewer who may not have lived through the televised hearings, the film allows everyone to come to terms with the controversy of who was telling the truth in the serious allegations of sexual harassment. With little doubt, it is clear that Thomas perjured himself in denying all of Hill's allegations and cleverly moving on the offense to accuse the Senate judiciary committee members of "a high-tech lynching." In the end, politics prevailed over ethics, Thomas was confirmed, and is still sitting on the Supreme Court bench in 2017. Hill concluded that she never received a fair hearing from the politically-driven committee presided over by Joe Biden. The film points to this case as a watershed moment when Anita Hill's voice empowered women to come out of the shadows in matters of sexual harassment. There followed greater freedom and opportunities for women in the workplace and even in Congress.Overall, the film was successful in walking a historical tightrope and allowing viewers to make up their own minds about essential themes of culture, race, and politics.
diana-y-paul Almost twenty-five years ago, Anita Hill testified in front of an all-white male congressional hearing presided over by Senator Joe Biden, accusing Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, a legal concept that did not, as yet, resonate with the American public. In "Confirmation", an HBO mini-series, we see the reliving of the riveting testimony: Anita Hill's accusations and Clarence Thomas's defense with almost exact wording from the hearing transcripts. At times the hearing seems to deal with race – particularly after Thomas's "high tech lynching" comment, which struck an emotional chord for some and a signal for others that Hill's testimony would be discounted. What "Confirmation" actually zeroes in on is how Anita Hill's world on the job was radically different from a male colleague's. Although sexual harassment had been defined as a form of sexual discrimination in 1977, almost fifteen years later the term "sexual harassment" was still not in the public conscience. The Anita Hill testimony changed that. Read the entire review at: www.unhealedwound.com
Danny Blankenship As always I enjoy HBO original movies as they are well done and in deep and direct and informative with terrific cast simply the best around as most of the pictures involve real life happenings in the world of politics, people, famous and historical times, and with this film "Confirmation" HBO stands out and does it again. I'm sure everyone can remember in 1991 being glued to the TV to hear the hearings of one Clarence Thomas(well acted by Wendell Pierce) the first African American man to be nominated as a justice to the United States Supreme Court. As he was a conservative with his views and politics being to that of the right and many felt he was not qualified, still then president George Bush stood by his man. As the film will shed light on race and gender it was still more than just a black man being up for nomination it was the fact that sexual harassment charges were brought against him from a former office employee that being a now Oklahoma law professor a black female in Anita Hill(in a strong and attention grabbing performance from Kerry Washington). It was in front of the U.S. Senate that this legal and political drama played out as you can remember and the film shows it was a lot of he said she said with drama about witnesses not being called and hard questions from senators. With Thomas feeling this was a race case because he was the first black appointee to the USSC, and Hill feeling the cold shoulder being questioned all by political men as it was tough to believe a black female and her allegations. Thru it all this case would pave the wave for awareness about sexual harassment and open the door for more women to enter politics. "Confirmation" is one legal political drama to see and appreciate for the fact that it brought change and awareness.
MisterWhiplash The bottom line with Confirmation is that it's not complex as far as the plot goes, and this is particularly if you know the history. In fall of 1991 Thurgood Marshall retired from SCOTUS, and, feeling the pressure to nominate a black man to the court, Bush picked Clarence Thomas, a man who many felt wasn't qualified for the court (as Jeffrey Wright's character says at one point, "I have students who are better qualified than Clarence Thomas"). But when asked by someone from Senator Biden's office about whether or not he should be confirmed, Anita Hill couldn't hold back and be silent and told the truth: she was sexually harassed, as far as having to hear vulgar talk about sex (i.e. "Long Dong Silver" is a thing in a court of public record, I mean Jesus), and asked out on multiple occasions. It got out to the press, she had to go testify, as did Thomas, and all this before a seemingly immovable date for the man's confirmation.This all could have made for a compelling mini-series, or an even longer movie. What is a little disappointing about is that this is probably the best this kind of movie could be, but it's still not quite good enough, or I should say that the detail isn't exactly strong enough. Mostly I found that the depiction of Clarence Thomas not exactly weak but basic: for such a man who I may find reprehensible (from before and during his 25 past years on the court), Wendell Pierce gives Thomas as a person, and character in this story, some dignity, and Anita Wright as Clarence Thomas' wife as well. But what about anything else aside from his indignation and sad faces? What else was/is there to Thomas? Maybe that just wasn't the focus, and director Fumiyama (of last year's surprise critical hit Dope), wanted to keep it on the politics and especially the media - many figures who you might recognize from CNN and elsewhere in cable news pop up as younger selves - certainly keeps a good eye on that. But what does make an impact and what is certainly good to look past the flaws here, are a) Kerry Washington's performance, which is so unwavering in making Anita Hill a figure of sympathy but also aching empathy, completely stripping anything else except this woman and having to put up being solid in front of the committee. And b) how the story and movie treats the whole aspect of how equal rights were not there in 1991, and may still not be (or, to put it another way, despite the changes the struggle is ongoing), for women in this country.Like the recent People vs OJ series, we get a story that seems to deal a lot in race - Thomas' "High tech lynching" comment that struck an emotional chord for some but was seen as being disingenuous by others - and yet it's really about how women fit it, or certainly do not, in a world full of men. Images of women and how they talk and react, every little thing that they say, is under the kind of scrutiny here that men just don't have to face, at least not to this level. Confirmation is about the representation of a woman's image in politics, in the media, in the public at large, and what that does when up against a "street fight" as one of the raging white male Republican senators says. You can read a lot into what the hearings, as seen in this story, say about the national public character, and yet it's displayed for us to see in those hearings, and the behind-the-scenes fights and digging for dirt via the Republican senators, as opposed to spelled out all the time.Confirmation doesn't stretch entirely too far for it to be great, or quite on the level of Recount or Game Change as far as HBO original movies about hot-button/controversial political stories in this country from the modern age, but within what it tries to do, and from the acting from all the players that is never less than convincing (Kinnear, who plays a rather unsympathetic Senator Biden, who screwed up things in the hearing just as far as scheduling people to testify, is one of those), it works. I'd even watch it again if just to see how Washington pulls off the majority of her scenes.