DYING TO BELONG

US, 1996, 85 minutes, Colour.
Hilary Swank, Jennifer Warren.
Directed by William A. Graham.

Dying to Belong is a short telemovie about a girls' sorority. It resembles such films about male bonding as The Lords of Discipline and Skulls.

The film is fairly straightforward, even predictable, with strong-minded Hilary Swank coming to the university urged by her mother to join the sorority that she belonged to. Her mother dominates her life and her daughter is reacting against this while still trying to please her. She encounters a young student who is eager to join the sorority and earn the sisterhood award. Urged by the callous members of the sorority, who seem to depend on a sense of unity, community and commitment (their credo), the young woman falls to her death. In the meantime, the heroine has joined the local newspaper, fallen in love with one of the reporters. Together, they expose the hazing.

The film is of special interest in seeing Hilary Swank, four years before she won her Oscar for Boys Don't Cry. She also appeared after her Oscar in The Gift and The Affair of the Necklace.

1. Interesting and entertaining telemovie? A piece of Americana? American universities, sororities, hazing?

2. The university campus, administration, lecture rooms, the dormitories, the rooms? Authentic atmosphere?

3. The title, the irony for Shelby? The prologue, the young woman abducted by the members of the sorority, being thrown out of the car, not having her medicine, the headlights advancing? The assumption that she died? Steven making this assumption? Her later becoming part of the testimony against the sorority?

4. The role of sororities, the bonding with the women, the tests for belonging, the votes, the motivations, the meanness, the support? The belief in community, the old-fashioned rituals and commitment, blood oaths and vows? The hoods and capes, the candles? The trappings of old-time religion? In the modern era? The secrecy, the domination? The wanting to belong?

5. Lisa, her mother and her dominance, the absent father? Arrival on campus, meeting Shelby, their ruse to get the room together? Lectures? Going to the paper, her self-assertiveness, the encounter with Steven? His going out with her, the lecture by Carl Bernstein - and his not mentioning Woodward? Her writing? The interviews for the sororities, the vote for Pi Gamma, their pretending that she was not accepted? She and Shelby accepted? The rituals? The hazing, standing on the table and being ridiculed? Eating eggshells and glass? Shelby on the roof? The closeness - and Lisa's reacting against this? Seeing the girls were not her friends, her phone calls to her mother, her reaction to Shelby's death? The investigations, the police, the dean? The threats, her being abducted and left in the snow? Her mother believing her? The meeting with the two girls, the tape of Anne- Marie and Steven and Lisa visiting her? Kim and her confession, Dreya and her admitting what had happened? Her future at the university, at the paper, with Steven, with her mother?

6. Shelby, eager to please, befriending Lisa, her growing earnestness, the interviews, praising what the girl wore and being brought into the group? The hazing, on the roof, her death?

7. The girls, their callousness, sense of superiority, cruelty? Lies in the name of protecting the group, protecting Lisa, saying that Shelby measured everything against Lisa's standards? The final confession?

8. Steven, attracted to Lisa, going out together, his preaching at her, her clash with him? The investigation, with Anne-Marie?, being sacked from the paper?

9. The administrators, the dean, denial of hazing? The interviews, the cover-up? The final press conference and reform? The role of the police, investigations?

10. An interesting melodrama, tackling university life and the role of sororities?