Rewind Wednesday-Thursday Style

Boy oh boy this has been a busy week! But you know I can't leave you hanging with the flashback for the week. Now it may hit you on Thursday but just envision its Wednesday...lol

This week's Rewind Wednesday is that of the 1989 film named after the play...Driving Miss Daisy starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. This Academy Award winning film for Best Picture was the last PG-rated film to do so.

t is 1948 and Mrs. ("Miss") Daisy Werthan, a 72-year-old widow, lives in Atlanta, Georgia alone except for an African American housemaid named Idella. After a driving mishap where her Chrysler automobile is totaled, Miss Daisy’s son Boolie tells her she will have to get a chauffeur because no insurance company will insure her. She refuses, but Boolie (Dan Aykroyd) is determined to find her one. Meanwhile, she is stuck at home and is unable to run errands or visit friends.

Boolie finds a man named Hoke Colburn, who had driven for a local judge until he died, and he decided to remain in the area rather than accompany the widow when she moved away.

Both employer and employee are outsiders, Hoke because of the color of his skin, Miss Daisy because she is Jewish in a WASP-dominated society. At the same time, Hoke cannot fathom Miss Daisy's cloistered inability to grasp the social changes which sweep the South in the 1960s. Nor can Miss Daisy understand why Hoke's "people" are so indignant. It is only when Hoke is retired and Miss Daisy is confined to a home for the elderly that the two fully realize that they've been friends and kindred spirits all along.It is interesting the relationship between Hoke and Miss Daisy.

You would almost think there was a "love-hate relationship", which fosters into something real special. Imagine how one accident can change your life for the better. Many might would think there were racial undertones regarding this movie, but one must keep in mind the time and place of this film.

Interestingly enough this movies is far more popular now than it is its 1989 debut. It has been featured in various formats from tv series, musical songs, even stand-up comedy. The film would be spoofed in "Driving Miss Garry", the 1990 series finale of It's Garry Shandling's Show. Shandling plays the role of Miss Daisy and Paul Winfield plays Hoke. Dan Aykroyd made a guest appearance in the episode. And also in the sixth episode of the television series Quantum Leap entitled "The Color of Truth" drew a great deal of its story from the original 1987 play upon which Driving Miss Daisy was based.

Some might say that Tandy and Freeman are "terrific in this beautiful film about the commonalities between people who seem so different."