Let’s be honest — some movies don’t age like wine. They age like milk left in the sun. Stand Up and Be Counted is one of those films. Released in 1972 with all the subtlety of a NOW rally outside a hardware store, this is what Hollywood thought feminism looked like when it was still trying to figure out how bras worked without burning them.
This isn’t cinema. This is what happens when studio executives read the back of a Ms. Magazine once at a cocktail party and decided, “Let’s cash in on this women’s lib thing before it goes away.”
The Plot (Such As It Is)
Jacqueline Bisset plays a photojournalist who returns to her small hometown, only to discover that the local ladies have gotten themselves into a frenzy over feminism. Not jobs, not inflation, not rising crime — but about how they feel.
Yes, this is a movie about feelings. Long monologues about fulfillment. Dull rallies. Poster paint slogans. And a general sense that any problem in life — from boredom to a bad marriage — could be fixed with group therapy and slogans on poster board.
A Time Capsule of Cluelessness
Now, don’t go expecting Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. This is more like Ms. Smith Gets a Copy of The Feminine Mystique and Won’t Shut Up About It.
The movie doesn’t know what it wants to be — a drama? A comedy? A movement in polyester slacks? The script is packed with “deep” conversations that play like Hallmark cards dipped in decaf coffee. It tries to treat the subject matter seriously but ends up insulting the very people it pretends to champion.
The result? A two-hour pity party where no one brings cake and everyone talks over each other.
Male Characters: Cardboard Cutouts With Mustaches
The men in the film are a mix of sleazy, clueless, and spineless. There isn’t a solid male character in sight — because the script doesn’t want one. They’re either set up as symbols of “oppression” or as comic relief, like sitcom husbands who can’t find their socks without their wives yelling at them.
This is a film made for the type of woman who blames her ex-husband for everything — and thinks every man is one bad joke away from total irrelevance.
The Women Aren’t Much Better
Let’s be fair — even the female characters here are poorly written. They’re not strong, they’re confused. Whining. Going through “feminist awakenings” that seem to involve more haircuts than actual thought. Every other scene is a consciousness-raising moment that feels more like a public service announcement.
Bisset does her best, but she’s stuck in a script that mistakes talking a lot for saying something. She looks like a woman who regrets signing the contract three weeks into filming — and honestly, who could blame her?
Gloria Steinem… Wait, What?
Yes, Steinem makes a cameo. Because nothing says authenticity like dragging in the real-world figurehead of the movement to read a few lines and vanish like a ghost in bell bottoms. It’s a weird, jarring reminder that somewhere out there, real issues were happening — just not in this movie.
Why It Doesn’t Work (And Never Did)
Because it talks at the audience, not with them. Because it treats men like the enemy, women like they’re helpless without group hugs, and social change like it’s something that happens through posters and drum circles.
Because it’s less interested in actual equality and more interested in venting — the kind of venting that starts with “All men are the same” and ends with someone storming out of brunch.
Final Thoughts: Feminism Lite™ — Now With Extra Whine
Stand Up and Be Counted is a product of its time — and that time needed a reality check. While the country was facing gas shortages, rising crime, and the collapse of traditional values, this film was busy handing out participation trophies to overeducated housewives rediscovering their “truth.”
If you want to see what Hollywood thinks middle America looked like in 1972, filtered through a coastal cocktail party, this is it.
Rating: 3 out of 10 Meaningless Slogans
One point for Jacqueline Bisset, two for the unintentional comedy, and minus a few for treating common sense like a contagious disease.
