Film Review: RBG

Film Block

Directors: Betsy West, Julie Cohen

Producers: Betsy West, Julie Cohen

With: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane and James Ginsburg, Clara Spera, Gloria Steinem, Nina Totenberg, Lilly Ledbetter, Sharron Frontiero and Stephen Wiesenfeld, Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, Bill Clinton, Ted Olson, Judge Harry Edwards, Senator Orrin Hatch, Eugene Scalia and Bryant Johnson

The documentary RBG, directed and produced by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, outlines the life story and accomplishments of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg, popularly known as Notorious RBG, has been fighting for women's rights and gender equality since she became a lawyer in the 1950s. The documentary does an excellent job of outlining the immense impact that Ginsburg had on the laws that affect the lives of women in modern-day America. It is also a very effective film, because the scoring and promotional materials helped it reach its target audience.

The film opens with a montage of eighty-five-year-old Ruth working out in a gym with her personal trainer, and then continues on to give some background on her childhood and college years before she started working as a lawyer. The plot then moves into a more in-depth exploration of the work that Ruth did as a lawyer in the seventies and eighties when she fought for gender equality through the cases that she worked on. Finally, it outlines how she was appointed onto the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton in 1993, and explains the work that she has done as a Justice and where she is today. Interwoven among the main plot line are details about her over fifty year marriage, as well as her family and friends. This documentary was exceptionally well-made, with good pacing and a solid narrative trail that was easy for the viewer to follow. It resonated very well with me because of both the interesting storyline, as well as the excellent scoring and the way in which it was promoted.

The music that was used in the movie was very modern, with hip hop and pop songs playing behind shots of Ruth working out with her personal trainer. When these up-beat songs came on during the beginning of the documentary, my friend and I immediately starting dancing a little bit in our seats in the theater because it was our generation’s kind of music -- we identified with it instantly. At first, I was amused that the filmmakers had juxtaposed modern, millennial hip hop music with an eighty-five-year-old Supreme Court Justice lifting weights in a gym. I didn’t really understand why the filmmakers had put these two things together until later in the documentary, when a girl was being interviewed who had started a blog and written a book about Ruth. She said in the interview that she first started the blog to show the younger generation that the decisions made in the Supreme Court had a profound impact on their daily lives, and to make Ruth a more public and relatable figure in the eyes of the millennial generation.

When the interviewee said this, I realized why the filmmakers had chosen the scoring that they did -- they wanted this film to reach an audience of millennials, and the best way to do that was to design the film in such a way that it would be intriguing to people of my generation. As I said before, my friend and I were immediately engaged when we heard the hip hop song come on in the beginning because it was something from our generation that we identified with.

This film could have easily been made with music from the time when Ruth was born (the 1930s), and it could have had more of a historical, analytical tone to it -- but then it would have reached an audience that probably already knew who Ruth Bader Ginsburg was. I think the point of this film was to educate the young people of America about a very influential figure in our government, and why the government is a very important institution that impacts our daily lives. And the film certainly succeeded in doing so.

In addition to the scoring, another aspect of the RBG documentary that helped it reach a millennial audience was the way in which it was promoted. The name “Notorious RBG” itself was derived from a rapper called Notorious B.I.G., who most millennials know of. Although the filmmakers didn’t come up with this name, they did take it’s association with a rapper and ran with it when it came to their promotional materials. I browsed through the film’s website and looked at the merchandise that was available for purchase, and all of the clothing items there were decorated with the letters “RBG” in a fashion similar to that which might appear on a rapper’s shirt. This is a brilliant way to help the film reach its target audience, because the promotional materials present the documentary in a way that relates to millennials.

Both the scoring and promotion of the film helped it reach a younger audience than most historical films usually reach. This is important because millennials don’t tend to be particularly interested in government, history, or politics, even though all three of these things play huge roles in their lives. It’s important for the younger generation to be involved in the government and to understand how it works and how it affects them as individuals, and RBG is a huge step towards making government a more relatable topic for millennials.