“Hillary” Review by Brooke Daugherty : Pop Culture Leftovers

“Hillary” Review by Brooke Daugherty

March 29, 2020 2:17 pm |

This Hulu documentary spends as much time discussing her trials being a woman as it does her actual politics. Even if you don’t like her politics, your view of her as a person will change after four episodes. Since Pop Culture Leftovers keeps politics out of the podcast, I will keep actual policies out of this review. What hit me hardest in this series was the overt sexism and bias she endured throughout the years.

As expected, this series uses historical footage, photographs and interviews to complete a story. We get to see footage from all eras of her public life showing her as a mother, wife, friend – person. Hillary Clinton is a real person shown here with fears, anxieties, and dreams. We get to see her college graduation speech as well as interviews with women who have known her since her Wesley days.

The behind the scenes footage really shows a woman who has lived her life trying to live in what had been predominantly a “man’s world”. Oddly enough, more than fifty percent of people in the US are women and have been for a long time. Still women don’t get what they deserve even when they work as hard for it as Hillary has. She got flack in school for running for student council and none of that stopped in the over 40 years since. One scene shows a man telling her to smile more when she is most clearly smiling already.

One newsclip from Bill’s era shows a “journalist” pretending to confuse daughter Chelsea with the family dog. This is not the first time and certainly not the last time Chelsea or her mother would have their looks used against them, when the only time men seem to get the same treatment is on the red carpet. And that is rare since Joan Rivers passed.

We live in a time where someone’s gender (or race) shouldn’t overshadow their qualifications. Obviously, as a white woman, Hillary has some privilege, but she has grown and keeps growing to help those who don’t have the platform themselves. Her work has inspired so many other women to work hard to make this country a better place and for that, I will be forever thankful.

PCL Rating: Tupperware

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH