{"id":9712,"date":"2014-12-12T00:31:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T08:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=9712"},"modified":"2014-12-11T00:28:27","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T08:28:27","slug":"herstory-on-the-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/12\/12\/herstory-on-the-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"Herstory on the screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

A corrective of sorts to the Old Testament\u2019s predominantly patriarchal view of seismic events and everyday tribal life, Lifetime\u2019s emotion-tapping adaptation of The Red Tent<\/em> fulfils one\u2019s modest expectations for a primetime soap opera in period garb.<\/p>\n

Anita Diamant\u2019s best-selling saga of female self-actualization and familial tribulation, centred on Jacob\u2019s daughter Dinah, is rendered here as an aspirational fable informed more by Harlequin Romance than hardscrabble reality. Viewed as harmless entertainment and a desert respite from winter, The Red Tent<\/em> provides acceptable escapism, but if you\u2019re hoping for an earthy, accurate sense of how people actually lived in those days, or a spiritual experience (on television?!), those prayers won\u2019t be answered.<\/p>\n

The Red Tent<\/em> aired earlier this month on Lifetime. If you can get your hands on it, either as a DVD or in rebroadcast, the two-part miniseries comprises three hours of couch time (minus commercials).<\/p>\n

The titular scarlet structure serves as a community centre and haven for Jacob\u2019s four wives and their daughters. In this comfy, cozy enclave, the young Dinah acquires extraordinary self-confidence \u2013 presumably from seeing firsthand the essential role of women in the family. Their most cherished skill is midwifery, partially for its autonomy (the men assuredly want no part of assisting births) and because it\u2019s closely linked to females\u2019 unique function. As one woman puts it, \u201cWe are the lucky ones, for we alone are the ones who can give life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience of childbirth in biblical times was presumably more primitive than New Age-y, so you\u2019ll be rolling your eyes at the miniseries\u2019 insistence on hinting at suffering without bringing us down by actually showing it. (My biggest peeve about the show\u2019s glamor quotient is that everyone has perfect teeth and nobody ages, despite the skin-wrecking trifecta of sun, wind and sand.)<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s greatest challenge, however, is plausibly reconciling a 21st-century feminist point of view (embodied by Dinah) with the societal limitations placed on women in those days. It\u2019s jarringly anachronistic, for example, when Dinah shocks her closest sibling, Joseph, by announcing she\u2019ll choose her own husband at such time as she determines. But it does provide the foundation for her character\u2019s aggressive interfaith love affair with the king\u2019s son, Shechem. This passage of the Bible has been interpreted in several ways, but The Red Tent<\/em> presents their sexual relationship as mutually consensual and an expression of love.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t soothe Jacob\u2019s pride in the least when he\u2019s informed that Dinah and Shechem have married, and things go south in a hurry. Whatever sins the menfolk proceed to commit, the second half of The Red Tent<\/em> \u2013 spotlighting Dinah\u2019s life in exile \u2013 takes pains to show that women are as capable of men at inflicting cruelty.<\/p>\n

Part 2 of the miniseries embraces such reliably eye-watering themes as separation from, rejection by and reconciliation with one\u2019s children. They may comprise the meat and potatoes of the plot, but the heart of Dinah\u2019s journey involves accepting the family and tradition she was born into and the talent for midwifery that she inherited.<\/p>\n

The Red Tent<\/em> implicitly honors the continuum of women that preceded and followed Dinah, extending to the present day. At the very least, this female-oriented interpretation offers an exceedingly interesting counterpoint to Ridley Scott\u2019s testosterone-fueled Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/em>, which opens this weekend, and picks up \u2013 chronologically speaking \u2013 shortly after The Red Tent<\/em> ends.<\/p>\n

Michael Fox<\/strong> is a writer and film critic living in San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A corrective of sorts to the Old Testament\u2019s predominantly patriarchal view of seismic events and everyday tribal life, Lifetime\u2019s emotion-tapping adaptation of The Red Tent fulfils one\u2019s modest expectations for a primetime soap opera in period garb. Anita Diamant\u2019s best-selling saga of female self-actualization and familial tribulation, centred on Jacob\u2019s daughter Dinah, is rendered here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[2730,2732,2731],"class_list":["post-9712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-anita-diamant","tag-lifetime","tag-red-tent"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}