Tommy Nelson "Iron Jawed Angels" only has a couple positives going for it. The story seems pretty true to what actually happened, and the actors were fairly competent. Other than that, this is an unnecessarily "hipper" version of women fighting for their rights to vote.Several women begin fighting against President Woodrow Wilson to earn the right to vote. They fight tooth and nail, and they suffer (hence women suffrage), and they go through much pain, similar to what happens to the audience as they watch this. Of course, we all know how it ends. This could have been a powerful film, but it was too hip. Many techniques used constantly were time lapse photography, slow motion, switch to black and white, contemporary music and bad synthesizer music. The newer music does not fit with the time period, and the synthesizer music is horrible sounding and nonstop, even in scenes that need no music. The actors do what they can with an okay script, but awful director. It could've been good, but ended up quite a mess.My rating: * 1/2 out of ****. 120 mins. Contains nudity and violence.

robert_a_ruiz I've been studying the fight for women's voting rights in U.S. History class and the real story is much more interesting than what's portrayed here. For the sake of creating tension in Alice Paul's story the Angelica Houston character (Carrie Chapman Catt) is vilified and reduced from shades of gray to black and white, and President Woodrow Wilson (who is so responsible for so many good things in our lives today) is portrayed as a one-note cardboard character and anti-women. It's true that the force-feeding of Alice Paul and her friends and their tactics got press and forced Wilson to act at that particular time, but the tide was progressing anyway -- in large part due to the efforts of Carrie Chapman Catt (vilified here) and Susan B. Anthony and their contemporaries, long before Alice Paul came on the scene.Carrie Chapman Catt and Woodrow Wilson were not the villains at all in reality, and yet here they're portrayed as such. That's absolutely criminal in my mind, and at the very least highly irresponsible.The film also has a VERY annoying soundtrack -- faux Madonna-like -- and nonsense image manipulation to comtemporize the story (in ten years this will seem absolutely amateurish). If the director trusted her own work and the truth of what was being portrayed she wouldn't have felt she needed to "jazz it up" by resorting to these tactics.This music is totally out of context, jarring, and fails to capture or support the mood of the era the film is set in. Besides that the director uses WAY too many film class 101 "oh wouldn't this be neat" techniques (like the shots of one tray after another in rapid succession to show Alice Paul isn't eating in jail). This is absolutely amateurish and annoying.The love story was also glommed on to this without regard for the facts. I asked my much-admired history teacher today what she thought of the film and she wasn't a fan either. This was like watching children play acting with a script very dumbed down for the masses. There was no depth to the characterizations, no shades of gray, no powerful silences, no subtext -- nothing.The period is fascinating and the cause of women's rights deserves to be told in a vehicle far better than this, but again my point is it is absolutely wrong to vilify good people.The period is fascinating and the cause of women's rights deserves to be told in a vehicle far better than this -- one that doesn't twist the facts to the degree this piece of garbage does. (If you don't believe me go pick up a history book and read.)

Ric Simmons I viewed this film at the Sundance Film Festival and was quite impressed, especially after listening to Katja von Garnier, the director. HBO Films purchased the film just before it debuted at Sundance. The film was released to the public in 2004 on HBO. Only those who went to Sundance or subscribe to HBO actually had a chance to see this incredible and historically-based work of art. Hilary Swank was great as usual, with Francis O'Connor and Agelica Houston rounding out a very talented and well-selected cast. And you could not help but dislike the political environment lead by Bob Gunton as President Woodrow Wilson - not one of America's greatest moments.From a man's perspective, every woman and man who thinks voting is not an obligation to our democratic process needs to see this film. HBO Films has done a disservice to the American public by pigeon-holing this work on only HBO networks. Every red-blooded U.S. citizen should see this film. In fact, it should be required viewing in every U.S. high-school. If you can get your hands on this film or know when it is playing, I challenge you to see how many Americans you can share it with. As seen in this film, many suffered in many ways, so all Americans would have the right to vote.

shizzcrizz707 I forced to watch this movie in school, for school, and write a two-page paper on it. It was horrible. funny, but horrible. The only part of this movie i enjoyed was the amazing jokes about Hellen Keller. "She's deaf and blind. If she can find it, so can you." IT'S A CLASSIC. While I approve the message this movie tries to get out, I don't approve of the method used to portray it. Is it just me, or did I see two women making out in a montage about talking to senators? Very confusing. And there's a little girl playing chess in the intro? What's up with that? seriously. But if you're one of the people first in line to see "Snakes on a Plane," you'd probably LOVE this movie. best quote in this movie: "I'm not feeding anybody's babies." I think that defines this movie more than anything else. "Iron-Jawed Angels" gets one star from me.