Humane abortion?
VERA DRAKE
Cert. 12A
Director: Mike Leigh
Vera Drake is quite a remarkable film. Mike Leigh has exquisitely captured the 'Old Britain': much of the film's backdrop is shrouded in the once so familiar smog and greyness that seemed to characterise Britain pre mid-1970s.
As a piece of cinematography Vera Drake is wonderful, I could almost smell the boiled cabbage and envisage the brown and mustard cardigans of my early years. However, as an accurate social commentary the film is akin to portraying Marie Stopes as Florence Nightingale or Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair as Ghandi. Like so many before him, Mike Leigh attempts to champion the cause of the 'poor working class' and by doing so shows quite clearly that his pedigree hails not from that stable.
The film smacks of an Islington 'wannabee nouveau working class' and bears all the familiar mistakes that white English middle class film producers often make. Vera Drake is portrayed as a compassionate, nice woman who is so burdened by the plight of the socially disadvantaged that she risks all to help the unfortunate women who 'get themselves in trouble', the film's portrayal of a backstreet abortion by Vera borders on the farcical and gives us a glimpse of producer Mike Leigh's 'pro-choice' credentials.
Not for our Vera the crochet hooks, pickling spoons or knitting needles - 'Oh no!' - The 'mumsy' Vera simply fills the girl's womb with soapy water and - Hey presto! She is un-pregnant, then it's a nice cup of tea all round. How spiffing.
No fountains of blood or torn pieces of flesh to deal with nor is there any sign of the unavoidable chunks of disemembered baby to scoop up and dispose of, usually tossed on the coal fire. Mike Leigh's film portrays brilliantly a world that did exist, but he fills this world with people who certainly and absolutely did not exist.
Houses shunned
I know Vera never existed because I grew up in the backstreet tenements filled with poor Ulster Irish families where our walls heaved under the pressure of 60/70 children in one six-flat block. I had four older sisters, next door had 10 girls and two boys; on our other side there were seven girls and four boys. We had subsidised rent because our street fronted onto a coal and steelwork slagheap, so I know the pressure and the reality of poverty, endless pregnancies, abandonment and worse.
Although in those smog-filled days my world held many terrors for me as a small boy, I knew that there were those among us in our housing estate who were different, those whose names were only ever whispered or mimed by my parents or aunties. There were houses that my mother would rush me past going to the shops and even then, as a child, I perceived and could sense everyone's fear and loathing for whoever lived in these houses. In later years I learned who the mysterious figures were. One was Mrs. Quinn, the 'Vera Drake' of our area, a hard-bitten drunken ogre of a woman who was coarse and hard even by Glasgow standards; the other mysterious figure was Mrs. Lennon the moneylender, another hard and thoroughly unpleasant woman whose wicked life was etched deep into her face.
Mike Leigh would argue that these women provided a service to the poor in our area, and so they did, but only for cold cash, £SD. These women held no lofty ideals about class; they had only one motivation - money. They were not the heroines of our area, they were the pariahs, the bloodsuckers, the vultures who bled our people dry physically and metaphorically. I have yet to see a community erect a memorial or put a 'Blue plaque' on a building to proudly remember that 'Here lived "Vera Drake", wonderful abortionist to this poor community 1954-1962'. The Vera Drakes of that time are now the drug-dealers and fences of our forgotten sump estates.
Nostalgia can be sickly enough, but Mike Leigh's film is not nostalgia, but rather pure fiction which has been made to serve his own pro-abortion agenda. Vera Drake the movie is a clever, well-made piece of propaganda. I await Mike Leigh's next film, which might well be based on the important social impact and service provided to us poor folk by the kindly local moneylenders, I mean, they only ever break your legs as a last resort! How thoughtful.
My lasting thought about this film is why can't we Christian pro-lifers find a filmmaker to champion our cause to such brilliant effect and success? To all the Vera Drakes who went before, I can only say, may God have mercy on their souls.
Jim Dowson,
Glasgow
Home
Archives
Subscriptions
Adverts
Find a church
About us
Contact us
Site Map
Printable