Feud: Bette Vs. Joan Review
The television series,
Feud: Bette Vs. Joan was aired by FX and consists of eight episodes. The series
stars Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The series
focuses on the real-life animosity between two of Hollywood’s most legendary and
beloved classic starlets, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, particularly as
they worked together as co-stars for the film, “What Ever Happened To Baby
Jane?”
When Joan Crawford is
struggling to find work in the movie industry, she pitches the idea to do a film
adaptation of the horror novel, “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?” by Henry
Farrell. When the film is finally accepted by a studio, Joan approaches Bette
Davis to co-star in the film with her in the hopes of making the film Oscar
worthy, earning Bette’s respect and securing future acting offers for both of
them. At first, Bette and Joan seem to get along until the media and head of
the studio, Jack L. Warner get involved to stir up a rivalry between the two
actresses all while Bette and Joan are dealing with their own personal issues
at home that begin to affect them while on set. As the film debuts in theaters,
it becomes a big success which causes Joan to worry that Bette will be
nominated for an Oscar award over her. Joan’s fears come to fruition as Bette
is nominated for Best Actress.
Joan immediately
begins to work with Hedda Hopper to persuade the voters to choose other
nominees over Bette. Additionally, Joan convinces fellow nominees in the Best
Actress category, Geraldine Page and Anne Bancroft to allow her to accept the
award on their behalf at the ceremony should they be chosen to win the award.
Joan then offers to be a presenter at the ceremony and ultimately ends up
accepting the award for Anne Bancroft who wins the award for her role in the
film, “The Miracle Worker”. After the Oscars, Joan eventually signs on
for a sequel with Bette, entitled “Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte”. Joan, however,
begins to feel that Bette is seeking revenge on her as Bette, now having
creative control over the film, keeps changing Joan’s lines and at one point,
leaves her and her housekeeper, Mamacita stranded on set.
In return, Joan fakes
an illness to try and get the film stalled to the point where the production
company cancels the film. Her actions are to no avail as Joan ends up fired and
sued by the studio along with her role being replaced by fellow Hollywood
starlet and close friend of Bette’s, Olivia De Havilland. Deeply upset by
the news, Joan throws a potted plant at the window, almost hitting Mamacita,
who immediately quits her job as Joan’s housekeeper. As Bette’s career
continues to take off, Joan ultimately retires from acting, due to being given
bad film offers.
Following her
retirement, Joan gets a puppy and reconciles with Mamacita. Joan’s health
eventually begins to deteriorate, even having a hallucination that she and
Bette have become friends. Joan ends up passing away a week later and when her
tribute appears during the “In Memoriam” segment at the Oscars, Bette expresses
sadness and refuses to comment about Joan in an interview for a documentary
about her, leaving one of the documentary crew members wondering what really
happened between Bette and Joan during the first day they filmed “Whatever
Happened to Baby Jane?”
While the setting of Joan’s house and the costumes in this series are absolutely gorgeous and while the casting was superb, the thing that really made this series likable was how you could relate to many of the characters such as Pauline who wants to break gender barriers and become a film director, even to the point where she writes a script specifically for Joan Crawford, who unfortunately snubs it due to Pauline’s gender. Pauline’s ambition is an admirable trait as we all have our own aspirations we want to achieve in life. Mamacita is another character people can relate to as she has a fondness for learning after immigrating to America and is a lot more intelligent than she lets on. Joan and Bette, in their own ways are relatable due to seeing how they dealt with family problems including parenting, which we see with Bette as she struggles to get along with her daughter B.D. and with Joan, who upon her adopted children being all grown up feels lonely and desires another child, to which she is denied by an adoption agency due to her age. Like many other Hollywood stars, we also see through Bette and Joan that while they live glamorous lives (particularly Joan), fame, fortune and beauty are not as simple as they make it seem in front of the cameras and that even with their riches, talents, beauty and fame, they long for things much more meaningful in their lives and because of this, viewers can sympathize with them.
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