Television is in the throes of 1990s nostalgia. First, there was the popular FX series on the O.J. Simpson trial. Then, there was NBC’s announcement of a show about the notorious Menendez brothers case. And tonight, HBO is airing Confirmation, a scripted movie about Anita Hill’s role in the 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
If you've never heard of Anita Hill, here’s some background: In televised Senate hearings, Anita Hill testified in graphic detail about how Thomas talked to her about the size of his penis, oral sex, and his favorite porno movies when he was her boss at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And, Thomas didn't just deny the allegations -- he accused the Senate of staging a "high-tech lynching."
The hearing spawned at least a half dozen books, but 25 years later, the event has largely faded into an historical footnote. But Confirmation shows us why the hearings shouldn’t be forgotten and explores the double bind of being black and female in America. Starring Kerry Washington ("Scandal") as Hill and Wendell Pierce ("The Wire") as Thomas, “Confirmation” largely focuses on the Senate hearings spectacle -- including what happened in front of the cameras and all the political maneuverings happening behind the scenes. The film begins by reminding viewers that in 1987, Senate Democrats had led a bitter and successful campaign against Judge Robert Bork, President Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court for the associate justice seat vacated by Lewis Powell. So when Thurgood Marshall, the first and only African American on the Supreme Court, announces his retirement and President George Bush nominates Thomas, a conservative African American, to take his place, Bush and his GOP colleagues are determined to get Thomas approved.
But a female aide to Senator Ted Kennedy gets a whiff of the sexual harassment allegations and tracks down Anita Hill, then a conservative law professor at the University of Oklahoma. Hill reluctantly agrees to provide a statement, on the condition that it is kept confidential. "In my experience, in a case like this, the victim tends to be treated as the villain," she says. But of course, her statement is leaked, she's subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee -- and Hill's prediction largely comes true.
Confirmation portrays both Republicans and Democrats on the all-male, all-white Senate Judiciary Committee as seeing Hill's story as radioactive. Even current Vice President Joe Biden, then the Senate judiciary committee chair now known as an advocate for women's causes, balks. "What if she's lying?" he says to his female aide. "Can't we just let it go?"