Driving Miss Daisy

After watching a movie with your children or students, we encourage parents and teachers to look for education opportunities to teach with movies. Here are a few discussion topics that can help with lesson plans or teaching in the home.

When Miss Daisy and Hoke are first thrown together, they a share a dependency on one another: She needs a driver (whether she admits it or not) and he needs a job. How does their relationship evolve over time? How does the dependency balance shift? Who needs whom more? Do they see each other differently as the years pass? Does Miss Daisy ever change her mind about some of her strong opinions? How are Hoke’s perceptions affected?

At the beginning of the film Miss Daisy appears old, yet she still has many years of life ahead of her. Did this revelation influence the way you look at the elderly? Meanwhile, Hoke is seen as the able-bodied one. Is he much younger than Miss Daisy? At what point does his age catch up with him?

While we learn a lot about Missy Daisy, how much do we know about Hoke’s personal life? Why is it so little? In the end, who do you think feels the most satisfied with their mortality?

Driving Miss Daisy is based on a stage play penned by Alfred Uhry. In 1990 the film received four Academy Awards, including Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jessica Tandy, the oldest person to ever be nominated or to win the Oscar), Best Make-Up (Manlio Rocchetti, Lynn Barber, Kevin Haney), Best Picture (Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Alfred Uhry), out of nine nominations. The other categories were: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Morgan Freeman), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Dan Aykroyd), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Bruno Rubeo, Crispian Sallis), Best Costume Design (Elizabeth McBride) and Best Film Editing (Mark Warner).