This is a pretty blunt movie like a bulldozer pushing through story beats. This feels like a film that was made for the sake of making a film. The pacing is pretty sloppy and chugs along at brute force. There’s very little subtlety in it and is almost crafted for the sake of escapism.
But, the film does propose ideas that rail against social conventions. You see the tide of social conformity turning against the values of the 1800’s. It’s almost as if the changes in society and how they are reflected in film are because of changes against traditional society, from the traditional of pre-1900, not traditional within 1900s. My lens is to look at all of this from 2000 something, so the traditions to me are assumed to be created in the twentieth century whereas if you lived in the time, the fight is against the buildup of culture leading to the Victorian era or WW1, something that the “western world” had been building to since the Renaissance. This cultural revolution in America is something against an order that is hundreds of years old, not decades.
That’s a new concept to us that is brought about by technology. That the cultural struggle of the 1940s was one of 10 generations needing to make one change, versus one generation making 10 changes as happens today.
On an acting level I hate bette davis. She comes across as very annoying and very difficult to watch. This movie is not the best on this list, honestly. It’s very manufactured for effect.