RCRC At The Movies

Whether you want to hold a community event or simply spend a relaxing evening at home curled up on the couch, enjoy a night at the movies with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Choose one of the films in our “RCRC Presents” movie guide, and take the time to explore how spiritual and reproductive justice issues are portrayed in popular culture. We offer this resource to help you get started; how you wish to use it is up to you.  Hold a movie night during finals week at your school, watch one of these over a few sessions of the adult education class at your congregation or spiritual community, or show one of these films as part of a larger workshop; the possibilities are endless!

Cider House Rules

A coming of age story, set against the beautiful scenery of rural Maine in the 1940’s.  Raised in an orphanage in rural Maine, Homer Wells longs to see the world.  The closest thing he has had to a parent is Dr. Larch, who runs the orphanage and has taught Homer how to be a doctor, how to care for the orphans and deliver babies. He also tries to teach Homer how to perform abortions, and that sometimes caring for others and “keeping things straight” means breaking the rules, but while Homer claims not to judge the doctor, he wants nothing to do with the abortions himself.  Through the course of the movie Homer leaves the orphanage to find himself and winds up picking apples and living in the cider house that gives the movie its title, learning the danger of rules imposed by other and that sometimes the people in a situation have to find their own rules.  Based on the book Cider House Rules by John Irving.

Spiritual and Reproductive Justice Issues Raised
The movie is rife with relevant issues; the ethics of abortion in pre-Roe America, the difficulties around both placing a child for adoption and adopting a child, and the need to challenge long held-principals in light of difficult situations are all brought up.  The role of religion in these decisions is not a central point but is touched on by the movie.  When outsiders want to interfere with the running of the orphanage, in large part because Dr. Larch performs abortions, he accuses them of “Christian zeal,” which he has little time for.   Furthermore, the choices people make, and the importance of making a choice for yourself, whatever that choice is, are the central themes of the movie; the choices of the pregnant women who come to the orphanage, the choices that Dr. Larch and Homer must make in how to care for them and the choices that Homer and those he meets on his journeys must make as he searches for his place in the world, and what “use” he will be to others.

Questions for Discussion
Who do you think are the heroes of the story, and why?

Dr. Larch sees Christianity as having "no use" at the orphanage and for the people he is helping. But both he and Homer are deeply motivated to help others. What role do you think spirituality or faith plays for Dr Larch and Homer in the decisions they make? What role would it play for you if faced with similar decisions?

What did you notice about the way Homer and Dr. Larch talk about the women who come to the orphanage? They care for them, but do they respect them and their choices?

What do you think of the choices the different characters make- how do you think you might have chosen differently?

Dirty Dancing

It's the summer of 1962, and Baby is spending the summer with her family at a Catskills resort. She's about to go to college and then the peace corps, and her father, a doctor and supporter of the civil rights movement couldn't be prouder. But their relationship and everything she believes in is tested when she winds up spending most of her summer with the resort's entertainment staff; people who aren't from her economic and social background. When one of the staff needs an abortion, Baby makes it possible by borrowing money from her father and by volunteering to take the girl's place in a dance routine. She falls in love with Johnny, her dance partner, as he teaches her how to dance and they both teach each other about what it means to stand up for what you believe.

Reproductive Issues Raised
At first glance, its easy to forget that abortion is a factor in this movie- not only is it an iconic love story with wonderful music and dancing, but the word abortion is never spoken by any of the characters. But abortion plays a pivotal role as a plot device, and the movie raises a number of interesting issues about abortion in the pre-Roe days. Class issues are also a pivotal part of the movie- not only in the love affair but in how Baby's first ideas of how to help are to get money and then to get her Daddy.

Questions for Discussion
What does is say, that the father is a liberal and proud of Baby's zeal to save the world, yet when she uses his money to pay for an abortion and then gets him to help when it goes wrong, he is outraged and feels betrayed? Why is abortion beyond the pale for him?

For anyone who has seen this movie before, particularly if you saw it when you were young, how aware were you of the issue of abortion as a part of it? Did it surprise you to think of this as a movie that raises issues of reproductive justice? What does that say to you about how the media handles issues of reproductive justice?

While, like abortion, the word Jewish is never spoken, the movie drops numerous hints that the community in which it is set is a Jewish one. What role do you think faith and religion play in this story? How do you think your religious community would react to these situations? What support would you want to see a religious community offer the different characters in the film?

What are the class issues around abortion at work in this movie, particularly around the abortion, and how do you think they reflect on similar issues in today's reproduce justice movement?

Citizen Ruth

When Ruth is arrested for the 16th time for the use of illegal inhalant drugs, the judge is outraged to discover that she is pregnant and doesn't seem to know or care. He threatens her with a felony conviction of willful endangerment of her fetus, and then privately suggests to her that she would save herself and the state a good deal of trouble if she would just "take care" of her problem. Her situation quickly becomes public knowledge and activists on both sides of the choice debate gear up for what they see as the biggest abortion fight since Roe. Ruth becomes a political football for them to fight over, with little consideration of her own thoughts and feelings. Deeply satirical, the movie is at times challenging, gut-wrenching, and quite funny.

Spiritual and Reproductive Justice Issues Raised
Whereas other movies in this series raise reproductive issues as one part of a larger storyline, in this movie abortion and the politics around it are the heart and soul of the film. While the movie is clearly a satire, it takes care not to paint any of the characters as one-dimensional stereotypes, instead taking pains to show us why they are sympathetic, right before showing us their foibles. Even Ruth, the protagonist of the film, is no hero, and while she emerges as the most sympathetic character, her continued drug-use and almost childlike inability to deal with her own problems makes the paternalistic attitude with which the activists on both sides treat her seem understandable, if still misguided and highly problematic. Religion plays a key role for both sides, the anti-choice folk are Christian and the pro-choice ones are Goddess worshippers and they both offer religion as a way to heal Ruth as well as falling back on their religion when their ideas are challenged.

Questions for Discussion
What do you see as the role of religion in the movie, and what more positive role do you think religious communities could have played in helping Ruth?

It's easy for us to satirize the anti-choicers, but how did you react to the way the pro-choice activists were portrayed Do you see some truth in the way the pro-choice activists are just as quick to ignore Ruth's needs and use her as a pawn in their own political agenda?

What can we as reproductive justice activists do to make sure that we avoid the trap that this movie lays out and focus not just on the rights of women writ large, but on each individual woman and her choices?

What role can religious and spiritual communities play in focusing on the needs of individuals, and not just seeing these questions as broad political issues?

Help Us Expand Our Guide!
We hope to keep updating and adding to this resource, so please help us in the following ways:

• If you hold an event, be sure to us know about it, and tell us how it goes!
• Let us know if these write ups are helpful, and what other questions you come up with.
• What other movies or TV show episodes would you suggest we write up?