Movie Review: "The Help" Starring the "Head of Christ"

AOA NEWS
By Ernest Britton

"The Head of Christ" (1940) By Warner Sallman

In the opening scene of the new movie, The Help, the camera pans to focus on two pictures hanging on the kitchen wall of the black maid's home. The picture below is a photograph of a black high school graduate but above it hangs a print of "The Head of Christ" (Warner Sallman's mega-popular blonde Jesus). The scene introduces the landscape of conceit displayed by the white characters and the burden of the black characters. It's an excellent film about power that's also about ironing out differences (racial & more) and letting go of the past. It's a portrait of a racially divided America where black maids are passed on to others in the Last Will & Testaments of white employers, and where blacks live in fear of the smallest slight to their white superiors. Finally, it's also a movie about friendship, family bonds, sacrifice and amazing courage, and the story all begins with the religious artwork hanging on the wall.