In our not so recent past, women in journalism were mostly regulated to the "snake pit". The filler sections of the newspapers that catered to female issues of food, fashion and fluff. Thank goodness for women like Molly Ivins, the spitfire journalist who kicked the door open with her wit and intelligence taking on the Texas legislature and other politicians shooting from the hip. Documentary filmmaker Janice Engle presents the life and times of Molly Ivins in a slick, easy to digest package woven together with interviews from her family, politicians and political commentators and clips from Molly Ivins in her full glorious humor. She is a piece of work.
Molly was called Mary by her father, a oil executive in the River Oaks suburb of Houston. By the time she was 12 years old, she was already six feet tall. Her mother called her sister the pretty one, and Molly the smart one, which no doubt affected her self esteem. She was the 3rd generation of the women in her family to attend Smith College. Her talents lead her to write for the Texas Observer under Ronnie Dugger. Molly was known to be a heavy social drinker, able to drink most of her male colleagues under the table. Her mentor was John Henry Faulk and she was friends with TX Governor Ann Richards. Molly freelanced at the NY Times, even writing the obituary for Elvis during her time there. Eventually she was sent to cover their western office in Denver. After that she went to the Dallas Times Herald where she was given free reign to write whatever she wanted. Her column gets syndicated to 300 - 400 newspapers. In 1999 she is the one who called President George W. Bush a shrub.
If you had ever read her columns, books or heard her on TV or radio, you would appreciate her down home Texas appeal. She was a straight shooter who didn't back down and politico's were often unnerved by her sharp remarks. She had her share of death threats too. It would have been great to hear what she would have made of the current White House administration. Unfortunately she passed from a long battle with cancer in 2007 at the age of 62. There is no one around today that can take her place.
(Review by reesa)
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