I watched Rosemary's Baby for the first time this summer, and since then it's quickly become one of my favorite films of all time. I loved the film so much that I also decided to read the novel by Ira Levin. Roman Polanski's faithfulness to the novel is amazing, exact dialogue, scenes, even Rosemary's dramatic Vidal Sasson haircut all in the novel are featured in the film. Although a film like this I probably shouldn't use the word love. A helpless women being raped and impregnated by the devil is never a storyline to love. But it's a great film.
The main argument that is presented in Rosemary's Baby, Gothic Pregnancy and Fetal Subjects by Katryn Valerius, is the reference to abortion in the film. When first viewing the film, I never thought that abortion and abortion laws could be the true motive for writing the novel and then making the film. Though there is a scene in which Rosemary states that she won't have an abortion. I do think Valerius makes her interpretation of the film very convincing. When you think about the time period abortion was, and still is, a very controversial topic. Children were born with severe birth defects due to taking a tranquilizer called thalidomide. Several examples of highly publicized abortion cases are presented in the article including a women named Sherri Finkbine. Finkbine was given thalidomide but was unaware until reading an article of it's effects. Finkbine then attempted to obtain a legal abortion in Arizona, but due to telling her story to local press, the abortion was canceled. Finkbine eventually had the abortion in Sweden due to the controversy in the United States. The obstetrician in Sweden said that the child had such severe birth defects, that it wouldn't have survived even if Finkbine decided to go through with the birth.
Valerius also references other parts of the film that could relate to the abortion debate. Terry Gionoffri, a young women in the film living with the Castevet's, commits suicide by jumping from the Brampton. Valerius believes that Terry was originally pregnant with the devil's child. Aware that the child was the devil's and fearing she had no other choice, she kills herself. Though Terry's situation was obviously fictional, young women around this time also feared they had no choice. It was still looked down upon to be an unmarried pregnant woman. Many women may have gone to extremes as Terry did to not go through with the pregnancy. When viewing the film, I never thought that Terry would be pregnant, but just far too wrapped up with the coven and the Castevets which would lead to her suicide. Valerius's argument is very convincing. You could even view Rosemary as a women like Sherri Finkbine. Married, middle class, wanting the child your carrying, but then finding out that the child is in danger and perhaps shouldn't be brought into the world. Not that a child born with birth defects should ever be or could ever be compared to the spawn of satan, but the circumstances of a wanted pregnancy being dangerous could be compared. Terry could represent the women who were unmarried and found themselves pregnant and fearing no other choice but suicide.
There are many references to Catholicism in the film. During Rosemary and Guy's first dinner with Minnie and Roman, the Pope's visit to New York is discussed. Roman speaks unfavorably of the Pope which makes Rosemary uncomfortable. While she states that she was raised Catholic, she doesn't practice anymore due to her marriage to Guy and estrangement from her Catholic family. It's discussed more in the novel that Rosemary was disowned for marrying outside of her Catholic faith. The night that Rosemary is drugged, she has an odd assortment of dreams. A couple parts of the dream reference Catholicism. One features Rosemary on a boat asking the captain why her friend Hutch cannot come aboard. His reasoning is that Hutch is not Catholic. The Pope also appears in the dream and Rosemary apologizes for missing his television appearance. The dreams reflect her ambivalence towards religion. While she still respects the Pope and the sanctity of the religion she still feels that the religion unfairly excludes others who do not share the same beliefs. Not directly stated but that's my opinion on the dreams.
What do you guys think? Was the true reason for writing the novel/making the film strict abortion laws during the 1960's? Was Terry pregnant and were her and Rosemary both made to represent women within the abortion debate? How do you feel about the references to Catholicism?
To be honest I'm not really sure what I think as far as the abortion laws becoming more strict go with this film. While I'm sure that the may have had some sort of role or held some sort of drive behind the film, I just do not make that connection as well as I can with the idea that the tranquilizer called thalidomide was responsible for much of this films drive and intentions. I can buy the idea that the character Terry killing herself playing into the whole abortion debate, feeling as she has no other choice and all, which sounds like a compelling argument for what its worth, but i just think that there is more tangible evidence leading back to the thalidomide scare. The whole length of the movie, Rosemary questions and complains about the drinks or the pills that the doctor is giving her, they cause her pain, she loses weight, and even looks physically sick pretty much the entire time. The drink contains ingredients that she knows nothing about, a likely hint to the fact that those in the medical profession of the times did not know anything about the effects of thalidomide. Then when she gets an idea of the "plot" against her and she freaks out, what do her husband and the doctor do? They tranquilize her. Then after she has her baby, the other characters are almost constantly providing her with little white pills, again we not knowing what they are, see her fade in an out of consciousness after taking them, bedridden for the most part, which leads me to believe that the have to be even more tranquilizers. So there are all these hints left and right all of which can be logically connected to thalidomide, and then when she finally does see the baby, she makes mention of "his eyes" and "his hands and feet" which from what I surmised did not look like normal baby parts. This hinting at the idea that the baby is deformed physically, and with the thoughts of all the pills and tranquilizers still likely to be fresh in the minds of the viewer, I find that it is only logical to connect to two together, showing a cause and an effect. So basically what I'm saying is that while I can see the abortion argument, I just think that there was more focus on the thalidomide scare, but either way great movie, makes me never want to live in an old city apartment building, but good all the same.
ReplyDeleteI think that abortion rights and the use of thalidomide go hand and hand are therefor both present equally in the undertones of the film. I wouldn't go so far as to say the sole reason for writing the novel and making the film was the abortion laws of the 1960s, putting the film in the context of the social issues of the time allows for this particular reading. Nic I agree with your mentioning of parallels in the film to thalidomide but I think abortion is the next logical step in this analysis that is as important as the thalidomide references. The use of the tranquilizers led to birth defects and women wanting abortions. I don't think it is important whether Rosemary wanted an abortion or not. She still serves as the model for a young mother in the 60s and the effects of the medicalization of pregnancy. The fact that she gives birth to a satan baby is a nod enough to abortion and birth defects.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Rosemary's distance from Catholicism allowed her to have the demon baby, implying that perhaps if she had not strayed from the religion she wouldn't have had to carry this child.
Sorry this is late. My internet at home is not cooperating and I thought I had posted this hours ago.
ReplyDeleteBeing raised in a Roman Catholic family myself it is clear within the rules of the church that abortion is in fact a horrible sin comparable to that of murder. Back in the day abortion was illegal and a young mother was without many options. They used to ship teenage mothers off to certain places to have the baby and put it up for adoption saving the family from disgrace and ridicule.The reading by Karyn Valerius talks in great deal over the 1960's and a different national opinion over unavoidable circumstances in which abortion could be performed in order to protect the rights of the mother. These instances in which the procedure should be performed were if the mother was a victim of rape or incest, The physical health of the mother was in jeopardy, or if the baby was to retain any physical or mental abnormalities after the birth. These reasonings for abortion are perfectly understandable and women should have the right to protect their own health in situations that are without control. In the class discussion there was much talk over that fact that Rosemary's Baby was a feminist film. Mia Farrow was pictured with short hair and as a young mother in the 1960's a time in which new age ideologies were on the rise. I felt this to be an overanalysis of a perfectly simple horror movie. The readings of this class seem to analyze every movie to a point of exhaustion and any little part of the films can be interpreted into pages of new twists on the material. Rosemary's Baby was a great film and different as it went into social issues experienced in our country at the time instead of focusing on The cold war.
Matt, I agree with you that alot of the readings we are assigned with overanalyze bits and pieces from the films. Sometimes it can be a bit annoying, but it's kind of fun sometimes to exagerate and blow out of proportion ideas and themes portrayed in our films and readings and see what we come up with. By this process we can really delve deep into topics and create ideas or arguments in an interesting way. Such as the iconic cutting of Rosemary's hair. From the view that the movie is just that, a movie, she cuts her hair to further the image that the baby is taking a toll on her body. Add the femenist perspective to her haircut and boom, we get a character rebelling against the male dominated world and fighting to maintain control over her position in life. From this, we gain an entirely new perspectiv on the character completely, and viewing her other actions through the same femenist lense, we can create bountiful assumptions about her character.
ReplyDeleteSome parts of the article do seem overanalyzed though. The ordeal with Sherri Finkbine and thalidomide seems irrelevant to the film considering the whole point of the movie was that Rosemary was trying to save it, not have it aborted. The fact that at the end of the film Rosemary becomes the mother despite the child's abnormalities gives off an aura of anti-abortionism in my opinion.
Interesting discussion!
ReplyDeleteI think it's distracting though to debate whether or not the film is actually about abortion, or that the book and movie were made in order to address such issues.
I think Ann and Nic refine and rephrase Ellen's question nicely. During the 50s and 60s, there was a great deal of anxiety concerning reproduction: concerns about the white middle class somehow becoming diminished, concerns about the American Family as the stronghold against Attack From Without, thalidomide babies, the rising debate about women's rights. We've seen these anxieties and concerns over and over again, in almost every movie we've watched. Movies aren't necessarily made _because_ of these issues. Rather, they _reflect_ these issues, just as every movie reflects, in some respect, the issues and concerns of the time and place in which it was made.
As to what a 'simple horror movie' is, the question becomes: what is horror? What scares us the most, and why does that thing scare us?