Jhade’ Norris
MC Contributor/Staff Writer
Although the topic of domestic violence is often not spoken about, Hollywood has delved into this issue as shown in the movies: “Enough”, “What’s Love Got To Do With It”, “This Boy’s Life”, “The Perfect Guy” and “The Color Purple”.
The 2002 film “Enough”, starring Jennifer Lopez, tells the story of Slim (Lopez) a working-class waitress that meets Mitch (Billy Campbell), a wealthy contractor, who is seemingly the man of her dreams. The two get married, have a child and start the perfect suburban life.
Slim discovers her husband is cheating; she confronts him and is faced with abusive behavior. The physical and mental abuse continues and Slim decides to go on the run with her daughter. After running away from him fails, Slim decides to empower herself and battle her abusive husband and the only way out of the abuse is his death.
The second film on list is the 1993 classic, “What’s Love Got To Do With It”. The movie is based off the life of soul singer, Tina Turner, played by Angela Bassett. “What’s Love Got To Do With It” begins with Turner discovering her love for music within the church. In order to further her career she moves to St. Louis where she meets Ike Turner, played by Lawrence Fishburne.
Ike and Tina take the music world by storm but as his physical abuse gets worse she decides to go off on her own and make a name for herself. Despite Ike’s constant attempts at bringing Tina down through domestic violence, she removed herself from the cycle of abuse.
“’What’s Love Got To Do With It’ has always been my favorite movie. I admire Tina’s strength throughout the movie, no matter how bad Ike tried to tear her down,” said Kiera Wheaton, a freshman social work major from Memphis, Tenn.
Children who are exposed to violence within the household often suffer emotional and psychological trauma from living in homes where their fathers abuse their mothers according to domesticviolenceroundtable.org.
The 1993 film, “This Boy’s Life” is set in the 1950’s and tells the story of Caroline (Ellen Barkin) and her son Toby (Leonardo DiCaprio) who move to Seattle, Wash. to start a new life. Caroline meets Dwight (Robert De Niro) who she falls in love with and later marries. Both Toby and Caroline realize Dwight is an abusive alcoholic who particularly picks on Toby. As Toby grows up he harbors resent and plans his escape from the abusive situation.
“The Perfect Guy” released in Sept. 2015, tells the story of Leah Vaughn, played by Sanaa Lathan, a woman who has it all together. Vaughn breaks up with her long time boyfriend (Morris Chestnut) and meets Carter Duncan (Michael Ealy) who seems to be “the perfect guy” hence the movie title.
The romance turns dangerous when Carter reveals his true obsessive and temperamental behavior. Vaughn has to get herself out of the volatile relationship to save herself.
The 1985 film “The Color Purple” tells the story Celie Harris, played by Whoopi Goldberg, who after enduring years of sexual abuse from her father, and is then subjected to domestic violence from Mister (Danny Glover) who she was sold off to at the young age of 14. Throughout the film, Celie searches to find her voice and she hopes for one day to be reunited with her sister.
Whether it is through movies, television shows or commercials, breaking the silence often surrounding domestic violence is bringing awareness to this issue.
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