Driving Miss Daisy

The 1989 Academy Awards Best Picture winner was a surprising choice for many people. That year there was the thought provoking Born on the Fourth of July, the Peter Weir drama Dead Poets Society, and the crowd pleasing Baseball nostalgia flick Field of Dreams. Daniel Day-Lewis was showing off his acting chops in My Left Foot, Robin Williams turned in a powerfully dramatic performance as did Tom Cruise. So it caught a lot of people off guard when the envelope was opened and comedy/drama off-Broadway play turned motion picture Driving Miss Daisy was announced as the winner. Yet there it was, a film that many felt was a lightweight contender up against powerhouses, proving it could get enough votes to beat all of them. It’s been thirty-five years since that day and still some people cannot understand this choice. I am not amongst that group.

Driving Miss Daisy doesn’t waste time getting to the point. The film begins with Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy) getting in her car and, shifting it into the wrong gear, backs it over a ledge and down a short drop off, crashing it. Her son, Boolie Werthan (Dan Aykroyd) explains to her that the insurance will no longer cover her and that she will need to have a driver from now on. He hires Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman), a middle aged black man who comes recommended to him for the job. Boolie explains to Hoke that his mother is ornery and unwilling to accept having a driver but that Hoke will be working for him, not her, and she cannot fire him no matter what she says or does. 

Thus begins a long term arrangment between the three. At first Daisy refuses to let Hoke drive her anywhere. Eventually she has to relent but she remains critical of everything he does from his speed to the routes he takes. Slowly the two gain a mutual respect for each other which will deepen to a sort of friendship that can only be between two people who have known each other for a very long time. The story spans through the years of the civil rights movement so there is an element of segregation, antisemitism and racial intolerance, Hoke being black and Daisy and her son being Jewish. This element of the story is only lightly touched on but it is very much there.

So what about this period piece comedy/drama makes it a best picture winner? It apparently wasn’t because of superb direction as it wasn’t even nominated in that category, something that has rarely happened in the history of the Academy Awards. Billy Crystal, hosting the Oscars that year, referred to it as “the film that apparently directed itself.” The acting across the board was excellent with Freeman, Tandy and Aykroyd all getting nominations, Tandy getting the sole win for her complex and crotchety depiction of Miss Daisy. On the surface this can look like just another uppity rich woman talking down to everyone but that is far from the truth. There is a lot of nuance to this performance. This film takes place in the south during the civil rights movement and while her views are more progressive than most she still dines in a separate room from Hoke and later will attend a Martin Luther King Jr speech while Hoke sits outside in the car listening to in on the radio.  Daisy is also called out by her son who tells her to her face that there was a time when she wasn’t so open minded about black people. 

Watching a film like this is a reminder that these days were not all that long ago. This was before my time but not before my parents’ time. We didn’t live in the south so a lot of the unrest that was going on would have been witnessed on the news more than in person. When MLK was killed it was just eight years before I was born. My parents were in high school at the time. The subject wasn’t covered much in history classes aside from the bare minimum such as the famous Rosa Parks story and the assassination itself. I knew little and what I did know felt like something long in the past, not something that was less than two decades ago. Racial tension is not a thing of the past, especially in the south where old wounds still hurt, but considering how little relative time has gone by it has come a long way. Segregation may be a thing of the past but when I lived in Mississippi and Louisiana in the mid 1990’s there were still signs of its existence. 

Having that experience helps me put this film in a context I would not otherwise have. It also makes scenes like when Hoke and Daisy cross over into Alabama and get hassled by a couple of police officers who make the off-hand comment about a black man and a jew and what the world is coming to. It is clear that they would love nothing more than to escalate the situation but, lacking any real evidence to arrest Hoke for anything and the unrest going on with the Civil Rights Movement, they don’t dare risk it.  

Dan Aykroyd is a surprising choice to play Daisy’s son, a man who is always busy running a textile factory yet will drop everything to come whenever his mother calls him. He’ll complain about it but he will show up. Aykroyd, a Canadian actor doing a good job hiding his real accent behind a faux southern one, was still primarily known for being a comedic actor. He had just come off the box-office disappointment Ghostbusters II as well as a decade of goofball comedies, many of which co-starred his SNL partner and friend John Belushi. This was a rare dramatic role for him and he nails it, proving he is more than just recycled or rejected Saturday Night Live characters. It’s a shame he doesn’t do more dramatic parts. This would be his only Academy Award nomination.

Morgan Freeman was hardly new to films in 1989. He had been acting since the 1960’s, mostly in bit parts, uncredited roles. He had just two on-screen roles in all of the 70’s and not much more in the early 80’s. 1989 would be his big break-out year with starring roles in Glory, Driving Miss Daisy and Lean on Me, all films that featured him well and propelled him into the limelight. As of 2024 he is showing no signs of slowing down, either. He is absolutely perfect as a genuinely nice man who has been hired to drive around a woman who doesn’t want him there. He never loses his sense of humor but also will not keep quiet should the situation merit it. On more than one occasion he has to correct or stand up to Daisy when she is in the wrong and it rarely goes down easily for him. Yet he stays with her when he could probably find easier work elsewhere. His scene later in the film when he’s negotiating a pay raise with Boolie is funny and endearing at the same time. It is the only time in the movie that we hear exactly how much he is being paid. He will never tell Daisy what his salary is and she always grouses back that it’s highway robbery.

The film spans a good amount of time culminating with Daisy going to a retirement home with dementia. Hoke, now 85 and unable to drive anymore because of his failing eyesight, has retired. He still visits her whenever he can, now relying on taxis to get there and back. It closes with him helping her eat some Thanksgiving pie as the two of them catch up. Boolie has come to visit, too, but she wants to be alone with Hoke who was by her side for years and has been her closest friend through it all. It is a beautiful moment and the perfect capper to this movie. Through all her bickering and complaining he stayed by her side and she eventually came to rely on him. He too became her longterm friend, visiting her long after having retired from being her driver. The power of their friendship is seen in that one moment as he takes care of her and feeds her pie.

Driving Miss Daisy is more than just a little film about two people on opposite sides of the spectrum become friends over the years. It is about race relations, friendship, and progression of thought. Black, white, asian, race is just an outward appearance and people can come together regardless of those differences. Hatred and intolerance isn’t just aimed at black people, either. Daisy’s house of worship, The Temple, is set on fire by vandals who hate Jews. She, too, is a victim of intolerance. This movie doesn’t hit you over the head with its message of inclusion but it doesn’t shy away from it, either. It wears its message on its sleeve while at the same time delivering an interesting story with colorful characters played perfectly by a trio of actors who are at the top of their game. It is deserving of its Oscar win even if it wasn’t the film everyone thought would get it that year. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck (won)

Best Actor: Morgan Freeman

Best Actress: Jessica Tandy (won)

Best Supporting Actor: Dan Aykroyd

Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium: Alfred Uhry (won)

Best Art Direction: Bruno Rubeo and Crispian Sallis

Best Costume Design: Elizabeth McBride

Best Film Editing: Mark Warner

Best Makeup: Manlio Rocchetti, Lynn Barber, and Kevin Haney (won)

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Release Date: December 15, 1989

Running Time: 99 Minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Patti LuPone and Esther Rolle

Directed By: Bruce Baresford