The Little Women Face-Off, Part 5

Hello, hello. Welcome to the fifth and final installment in this series! For the past few months I've been comparing Little Women 1994 to Little Women 2019.

I'm seriously so sad to be done, all 19 pages of my Google Doc have been uploaded here on the blog. My years of random research and pretty much every image from the films have been utilized. 

But, don't get too sad yet, we have this final installment, and I think it's by far my favorite. This week we're talking about the overall message of the films.

Before we get into that, If you're new here, or fell behind, here are the first four posts in order. 1, 2, 3, 4.

​(image from Pinterest)

Little Women was written at a time when all literature for children had to be educational and have a message. Practically every page of Little Women is filled with morals and messages, messages about how to live, how to love, and how to make the most of your life. 

I want to come right out and say that neither of the films delivered well on the morals. So many messages in the novel have Christian basis and therefore don’t make their way into either of the films.

​Though I would someday love to see these vital themes incorporated into an adaptation, we haven't seen that yet and I understand why. Filmmakers aren’t as concerned with the integrity of the morals of their film as they are how many people go to see the movie and buy the movie after its release. I could get very mad about this, but I don’t think that’s beneficial. Little Women is ultimately about Jesus and walking with him; the journey of pilgrims looking for the Palace Beautiful. But the evil world we live in doesn't want us to know how loved we are by him and how he can help us. I don’t think the elimination of these messages should stop you from watching these movies because they are very wholesome, but I think it should push you to go read the novel for yourself to see what Louisa intended her readers to get out of the story.

​So with that being said, let's talk about the messages these movies are trying to share with us. 

(photo - Library of Congress)

​Alcott's Messages and My Biblical Basis for Reviewing

Other than Christian messages, Alcott’s books put forth temperance and feminist messages. Temperance is something we don’t really talk about anymore (in fact you may not be aware what it is, it was a movement about abstinence from alcohol, and in extreme cases any stimulating beverages like tea and coffee), so it wouldn’t make sense for that to be a theme in these modern movies. 

That makes the choice obvious, every film adaptation of Little Women takes feminism, in some form, as its main message. Which honestly makes a lot of sense seeing as the story is primarily about five women.

Many Christians could get angry about this, but I think there is a time and place for this message, and Little Women is a good place. Remember, male and female equality is talked about in the Bible “God created them, in the image of God he created them, Male and Female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) and “There is no longer male or female, slave or free, Jew or gentile, we are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). 

God views women as just as valuable as men, we are equal in his sight. So taking this Chrisian view on it, feminism isn’t a bad thing as long as we don’t view women as better than men. So through this lens is how I’ll be reviewing the messages in the Little Women adaptations.

​I understand if you disagree with this, but please be respectful in the comments <3.

​1994:

This film does have a little more Christianity in it than the 2019 film, for example they sing the hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth”, and Amy reads scripture to Aunt March (a very dull passage, that could inadvertently be saying that the Bible is boring). But otherwise, the themes are pretty much left out. 
    
They did attempt to bring some Transcendentalist messages forward in this film (the philosophical ideology the Alcotts belonged to) but I personally think it flopped. It doesn’t really reflect the Alcott's views, but German views of early transcendentalism. The Alcott’s form of Transcendentalism was greatly influenced by the writings of Emerson and Thoreau, both of which believe in connection to nature as the best way to get to God. I applaud 1994’s attempt at putting this philosophy into the film, but it really didn’t add anything.
    
Be Kind Rewind mentioned something that I think is very insightful about this adaptation, this film was of course released in the 1990s which was in a time when women were finally being accepted in the business world. A huge part of culture at the time was how to balance working a job and running a family. It became the female ideal at the time to have both a traditional family and a career. This movie perfectly encapsulates this dream.
    
As I said before, this film really focuses on the world as it relates to Jo. The ending of the film highlights both her success as an author and her happiness in an upcoming marriage. This film essentially shows that you can have both a feminine, romantic side, and a side that competes for business deals. 
    
The film tells us you can have everything you want. 
    
This message isn’t bad (but it may be a little unrealistic), historically though, it doesn’t make sense, a married woman would not be working unless her family really needed money, and career pursuits were rarely the focus of a woman.

​The use of this message makes the film feel very 90’s, so it definitely appealed to the modern audience. Other than this, we don’t find many more messages or morals, this movie is much more about the story than the message.

​2019

 Like I said before, this film has pretty much all the Christianity taken out of it, other than the implied fact that Mr. March is a Chaplin, Beth saying that she would die if it was God's will, and Jo replying that God had never met Jo's will, there is no other mentions of God.
 
It is well known that Greta Gerwig is a feminist, and she definitely brought that to her film. I know there is a lot of discourse about her take on feminism in Barbie, but I’m not here to talk about that. I think in Little Women, the feminist message was done quite sensitively and tastefully. 

The message wasn’t “women don’t need men,” or “women are better than men.” The message was that a woman’s identity isn’t defined by her relationship or wealth status. I think this is actually quite a positive message to put forward to young girls, and it applies to men too, we see Laurie struggle with the same concept.

The movie deals a lot with both Jo and Amy grappling with societal norms that prevent them from being successful in their careers. I’d assume this is meant to mirror some modern situations for career women.
There is something that feels a bit off about the message of this film, the whole time people are essentially speaking out against how women were treated in the Victorian era. I understand the sentiment behind it, but it really isn’t applicable to the modern audience. We understand that women in this time period couldn’t control their lives, we understand that, as Amy says “love is an economic proposition.”  These messages don't hold up to twenty-first century women. We know that "women have souls, and minds, and ambition as well as just hearts". We don’t need to be told what was corrupt about gender roles in the 19th century.  I think the way those two messages are framed don’t really add a whole lot if taken directly out of the context of the film. It makes sense story wise to have the sisters make these speeches, but it doesn't really apply.

Like I said before, I think the important message of this film is that you aren’t defined by your relationship or money, and that, like Beth, you are worthy of being loved even if you don’t bring immense talent, beauty, or wealth to the table. We see this in Jo, being loved by Professor Bhaer despite her weak points. We see Laurie finding that his identity doesn’t need to be defined by being loved by Jo; we see both Meg and Amy realizing that love is more important than all the money in the world.

I think as a Christian this message is very powerful, Jesus loves us without us having to do anything at all.

​With any piece of media, you can take the message and apply it to your faith and your life. Asking, what does this mean for me? This is simply my interpretation of  both of these films.

​The Points

I think the message in both films are done pretty well, when removing them from the context of the book’s messages, but I think the message of 2019 is better and presented better as well.

Points 1994 2/5 , 2019 4/5 . We have room for improvement in a future adaptation.

The Final Winner and My Personal Opinions

Now, it’s time for what we’ve all been waiting for. The final verdict on which adaptation is the best, and of course, which is my personal favorite.

The point tally is close, I mean really close. And I think that’s good because at the end of the day I think both of these films are amazing! But here is the final score. (Calculated by adding up all the points rewarded from all of the blog posts).
​
 1994 27 points.
2019: 29 points. 
So, as for the best film according to this analysis, the prize goes to 2019 (If I ever meet Greta Gerwig I’ll let her know). 

The funny thing is that 2019 is my personal favorite as well. There is something so special about that film. The depth of Louisa’s original novel is beautifully reflected in the film, the cast is wonderful and everything about the movie respects the original work. It’s cozy, but realistic. The acting and sets are wonderful, the soundtrack is addictive and there is so much food for thought.

​Don't get me wrong, I genuinely love 1994, but 2019 just does it for me in a way that 1994 doesn't.

If I've done anything with this series, I hope I've encouraged you to watch or re-watch these films and to think more critically about what you read and watch.

So, what’s your favorite adaptation of Little Women? I LOVE hearing your thoughts. Have you enjoyed this blog post series? I sure have, and I’m excited to announce that it’s not going to end here! I’m going to keep analyzing Little Women content, films, mini-series, retellings, maybe I’ll even get to the anime some day (heh).

The next piece of Little Women media you’ll see me analyzing is the 2018 BBC/PBS mini series, and I’m not doing it alone, I have a special guest who is going to give some input on it as well! So go watch the mini-series and prepare. It’s going to be a lot of fun!

Let me know what other analysis you would like to see next! It can be Little Women or other classics that have been adapted and retold.

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea. ​