Driving Miss Daisy

Driving Miss Daisy Movie Poster

"The funny, touching and totally irresistible story of a working relationship that became a 25-year friendship." Starring Morgan Freeman as Hoke Colburn, Dan Aykroyd as Bollie Werthan, and Jessica Tandy as Daisy Werthan, the award winning Driving Miss Daisy was released in 1989.  The movie was a comedy/drama and was well received by critics.  On a 7.5 million dollar budget, the movie earned an estimated 146 million at the box office.

This movie chronicles the life of an aging, widowed, and wealthy Jewish Southern Bell, Daisy Wethan (Tandy), who lives in Atlanta, GA.  With the exception of her African American housemaid, named Idella, she lives alone.  When Daisy gets in a car wreck, her son, Bollie (Aykroyd), decides she is no longer safe to drive herself, so he hires Hoke Colburn (Freeman) as her chauffeur.

At first, Miss Daisy is not too thrilled with the idea, but she warms up to Hoke.  When she learns he is illiterate, she teaches him to read.  When Idella dies, the two decide to take up Idella’s old chores as a team.  The two develop a deep respect and mutual admiration for each other, prompted in many ways by the fact that they are both persecuted (Hoke as a black man, Daisy as a Jew).  Eventually Daisy grows old and must be put in a retirement home, and Hoke retires.  Never the less, the two stay friends, with Hoke visiting the ailing Daisy.