Imitation of Life - Movie Review

My reaction to "Imitation of Life"

The first movie that I was able to see this term in English class is 1959's "Imitation of Life" directed by "John M. Stahl" and "Douglas Sirk". Our class didn't finish the movie yet but we did see a good amount to know what's going on. In the movie a struggling mother of 1 hires a homeless black woman to help her out. This woman became her friend and business partner. These two women both have children, one of them didn't pay as much attention as she should have to hers and the black woman's child is embarrassed that her mother is black. My personal opinion on this movie so far is that its an old style film that captures your attention. At first the movie was kind of boring but it got better and better over time.

I had many reactions to "Imitation of Life. My first reaction to "Imitation of Life" was intrigue. This was my reaction because in the film actress "Claudette Colbert" or "Beatrice 'Bea' Pullman" plays the white woman that offers a job to the black homeless woman. I'm intrigued that she didn't turn her down when actress "Louise Beavers" or "Delilah Johnson" comes to her door asking for a job. Back in the 1930's white people were not that generous to us black people and I find it fascinating that with much convincing Beatrice agreed to let her and her daughter live in their home. I was also intrigued that Beatrice opened up a business with Delilah and Delilah shared a passed down secret family recipe to Beatrice. These two women were to me examples of human beings putting aside their skin color and forming a friendship.

As we started getting more and more into the movie I had a second reaction: annoyance and pity. I was annoyed at the fact that Peola (Delilah's daughter) was ashamed to be black. Her mother loved her so much but yet she didn't see that all she saw was how different they were compared in skin color. As a light skin girl peola tried passing as white. It makes me shake my head when I saw how Peola didn't want anything to do with her mother anymore. I for one love my mother no matter how different we are. I didn't like how peola was hurting her own mother that cared for her greatly. I pitied her when her mother died. Peola knew it was her fault. After she told her mother she wants nothing to do with her Delilah gotten sick. She was heartbroken and that's all it took to kill her.

The last scene that I saw in the movie that made me react greatly was when we found out that Beatrice's love was also involved with her daughter. That had my mouth hanging In a shocked face. This to me I thought was the kind of drama that I would see in one of my soap operas not a classic film like this. I was beyond shocked that Jessie (Beatrice daughter) would do such