STAND UP AND BE COUNTED

US, 1972, 99 minutes, Colour.
Jacqueline Bisset, Stella Stevens, Steve Lawrence, Gary Lockwood, Lee Purcell, Loretta Swit, Hector Elizondo, Michael Ansara, Joyce Brothers, Meredith Baxter.
Directed by Jackie Cooper.

Stand Up and Be Counted made some impact in the early 1970s because it was an early feminist film. However, in retrospect it is not very strong in terms of plot or characterisation. What carries it – and made an impact also in its time – was Helen Reddy’s version of the song ‘I Am Woman’.

Jacqueline Bisset is a newspaper reporter who returns home to do an article on women’s liberation and finds many women in the town, including her mother and others very much on the feminist bandwagon. There is something of a battle of the sexes, something of a self-assertion by women. This is one of those films that very much belongs to its time.

1. The significance of the title in itself, for this film? As applied to women's liberation? The significance of the credits, the initial joke? The importance of Helen Reddy’s song I Am Woman? As an ending and rousing exit from the theatre?

2. Comment on the glossiness of the style. Was it appropriate for this film and its issues? The stars, music, the introduction of Joyce Brothers? How convincing overall was the film? Did it contribute to women’s liberation?

3. Audience identification with Sheila? How good a spokeswoman for the issues was she? Her introduction on the plane, the background of her work, the encounter with Eliot? Her mixed attitudes of arriving in Denver? Why did she become involved in the liberation movement? The contrast with her affair with Eliot? Their love, the issue of the house keeping, their differences? Was there plan, a possibility or was it doomed to failure? What had Sheila achieved by the end of the film? As a character, as a woman?

4. The presentation of Karen: professional attitude, the child and her research, her meeting and the demonstrations, the later birth of the baby? Was she a credible character? Or was she presented merely for the stances that she took and the values she stood for ?

5. The contrast with Yvonne and her wealth? Stella Stevens and her style, the mindless existence and her relationship with her husband? What interested her in the movement? Why did she become militant? Was she a convincing member of women's liberation?

6. The humour in the presentation of Mrs Hammond and the senior women's liberation? Their decisions to demonstrate, their invading of the Playboy meeting, the humour of the striptease they had planned? Were they convincing women who stood up to be counted?

7. The contrast with the factory workers and Sadie's pleading of them? The relationship to the Kellerman's?

8. The contrast with Hilary and her relationship to her husband, children? The ordinary housewife and her sense of oppression? The career? Her inability to talk to her husband? How much was resolved in the end in their moving to New York?

9. Comment on the points of view expressed by the other women at the various meetings?

10. How well were the men presented in the film? Eliot and his work, relationship with Sheila, unwillingness to do housework with her? Lou and his running of the factory, his taking Yvonne for granted, his change after the demonstrations? Gary McBride? as the ordinary husband whose relationship to Hilary, his final decisions?

11. How valuable were the points made about women's liberation in the film? Pro and Con? It was not meant to be a treatise but ordinary entertainment making a point. For what audience was it designed? Would they have been convinced?

12. The introduction of Joan Brothers for an air of documentary authenticity? How important?

13. How much sincerity was there in this film? Or how much a commercial exploitation of a theme?