We have too much tolerance for drama and Drama Queens in our culture.
Northern European countries shame Drama Queens into keeping their dramatic feelings and bad behavior to themselves. In America – if they are good-looking – we make them television stars.
But drama is a vice. Dramatic people make themselves unhappy. They make the people foolish enough to love them unhappy.
Drama isn’t mentioned in the same breath as laziness, cruelty, and substance abuse. But it is. It ruins lives.
“Jezebel” is an insightful character study about a destructively dramatic young woman: Julie Morrison (Bette Davis).
The film is essentially a three-act play. In each of the first two acts, Julie does something incredibly stupid.
It is New Orleans, 1852, and Julie is engaged to amazing banker Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda). One day, Preston is busy with an important business meeting and has to cancel a dress-shopping date.
Julie gets her revenge in a dumb way. She shows up to the annual Olympus Ball in a striking red dress. It is mandatory that unmarried women wear virginal white to this event.
Julie’s instinctive thirst for drama overtakes her common sense. And it costs her. In a mediocre film, Julie would look like a cool rebel and win people over with her brave individuality.
In “Jezebel,” she instantly realizes that she made a bad decision. Without words, Bette Davis expresses the character’s shame and regret. Davis rightly earned the Oscar for Best Actress.
Julie loses Preston forever. But she hasn’t learned her lesson yet.
In act two, Preston returns from a long New York business trip with a pretty new wife in tow.
A healthy person would cope with quiet sorrow and hard alcohol. For Julie, the sad situation triggers more drama. Julie instigates a dinner table conversation about the hot-button issue of the day.
Before long, the men are at each other’s throats arguing about whether the north or the south will win the upcoming war. Julie is quite pleased with herself … until the dispute escalates to a duel.
The subtle magic of “Jezebel” is that it never reduces Julie to a villainess. Director William Wyler insightfully shows that she is the ultimate victim of her dramatic nature. We never stop feeling empathy for her, so her redemption is emotionally satisfying.
More than that, Julie’s redemption is an inspiration. Our culture has too much tolerance for Drama Queens. But we also fail to help them get better.
There is no DA (Drama Anonymous) where queens can admit they have a problem. There is no Drama Rehab facility, where queens can live drama-free for a while to get clean. Perhaps Steven Wright can lead therapy sessions.
Since its release, this movie has been compared to “Gone With the Wind” because of its setting and willful leading lady. It isn’t a fair comparison. “Jezebel” is plainly better. It has all the substance in half the running time.
Plus “Jezebel” has a timeless lesson for us. Do not humor Drama Queens. Drama ruins lives.
