it doesn't really bother me except for
it's forever
i think about forever i get upset sally
draper begins as a blank slate
on mad men dons and betty's firstborn
this innocent child is a being of pure
potential
waiting to be shaped by all that we
witness in the show
how's the city dirty if the proof is in
the pudding
then what if dawn and betty and their
era is reflected in the woman sally
eventually becomes
henry says she's a lot like you
how would he know he says she reminds
him of you
i think she's a lot like you as the main
baby boomer we get to know
sally is the stand-in for a lot of
people watching this show
when mad men aired the median age of its
viewers was over 50.
or if you're a millennial or gen x
watching
sally is your parents so
whether you look at her and recall your
own childhood
or use her to try to understand your
parents youth
sally is the bridge between the mad men
era
and us ultimately she represents a
generation who
endured major upheaval in their
formative years
both at home and in the wider world
she's from a broken home
but who broke with the past to forge
their own
path for all the trauma she experiences
i didn't do anything don't you dare lie
him i'll cut your fingers off
sally somehow turns out okay good
evening everyone
oh my god and that reveals mad men's
underlying note of optimism about the
future
if this girl can survive don and betty
and come out unscathed
then maybe everything will be fine for
us too
before we go on we want to tell you a
little bit about this video's
sponsor mubi is a curated film streaming
service with a twist
you get 30 films per month a new film
every day
it's a hand-picked selection of movie
gems from around the world
we're huge fans of mubi here at
screenprism so click the link in our
description below to get a full month of
mubi
for free
[Music]
you know i don't like you using the
stove oh daddy i do it all the time
sally's childhood couldn't be more
different from your average
upper middle class youth today the first
scene when we properly meet her
tells us everything little sally's got a
dry cleaning bag over her head
but that's not her mom's concern if the
clothes from that dry cleaning bag are
on the floor of my closet you're going
to be a very sorry young lady
this scene situates us as far as it gets
from our age of helicopter parenting
show creator matthew weiner has said
that sally reading rosemary's baby
in season six quote shows she had no
parents because no one wants their 13
year old to read that book
if stranger things romanticizes the 80s
as an
era when kids got to roam around free of
parental supervision
if anyone asks where i am i've left the
country mad men exposes the 60s as an
era when kids were profoundly
damaged by their parents emotional
negligence she's a child
she'll get over it the parents we meet
don't arrange their lives to accommodate
their children
quite the opposite you can't even watch
them for a second it's like
leaving them with nobody because you're
so good with them betty's mothering
strikes us today as
almost laughably cruel she lashes out
physically and emotionally you're me you
betcha
get in there she doesn't give a thought
to sally's feelings
just look how she abruptly fires carla
sally's longtime nanny without letting
her daughter even get a goodbye
where are you going i'm going to say
goodbye to the children
do you think that's a good idea right
now then there are the questionable
values betty imparts
you don't kiss boys boys kiss you she
teaches her daughter that appearance is
everything sally looks fat meanwhile
sally's father is emotionally distant
my father's never given me anything and
barely lets his kids know him
to the degree that sally has no way of
knowing that a stranger robbing don's
apartment is lying that she raised
dawn then i realized i don't know
anything about you
dawn also gives his daughter a terrible
model for how men should treat women
sally picks up on her dad's womanizing
from an early age
you're going to see a girl aren't you
yes i am
i don't like that are you and daddy
doing it are you going to marry faye
then she sees her father remarry his
young secretary
whom she knows as her babysitter from
the california trip
let me guess dad's remarried mom's fat
and sad
no they're both remarried but my dad's
wife is my age
and after sally has adjusted to having
this young stepmother
she walks in on dawn having sex with a
neighbor you make me sick
so she not only has to see her father at
his worst
she also has to carry around his secrets
do you know how hard it was for me to go
to your apartment
i could have run into that woman
i could be in the elevator she could get
in
and i have to stand there smiling
wanting to vomit while i smell her
hairspray
it's hard to imagine all this prepare
sally for stable romantic relationships
in adulthood
and of course both of sally's parents
set the example that the acceptable way
to handle one's problems is through
constant smoking i'd rather have you do
it in front of me than behind my back
and drinking muddled i mean smash it
it'll be nicer on the second one you did
a wonderful job on mine
thank you go take mommy and francine's
orders so sally is essentially cheated
out of a childhood
in fact she is the grown-up in the
draper family
she's often more mature than betty she
doesn't care what the truth is
as long as i do what she says and we see
her taking care of bobby and little gene
what happened in here smells like a fire
i was making dinner get the frying pan
i'll show you how to do it as she gets
older she ends up parenting the adults
in her life
your mother is sick she has lung cancer
and it's very advanced
this scene of henry delivering the news
about betty ends with sally comforting
him
later when she talks to dawn about
betty's diagnosis she
again has to take control and tell him
what's best for her brothers
daddy it's going to be so hard for them
already
they should at least be in the same bed
and at the same school
sally grown-ups make these decisions
sally disproves our lazy assumptions
about kids
like that they don't experience as
complex emotions as adults
he was here now he's not here he's gone
forever and nobody even knows that stop
it
or that they don't notice the adult
dynamics around them
why won't you let him come home is that
what you think
his suitcase is here and he's not people
in the draper circle
and we viewers may be seduced by the
polished facade that don and betty
present to the world
but sally isn't buying it i'd stay until
1975 if i could get betty on the ground
she sees her parents for exactly what
they are
and she calls them on it anyone pays
attention to either of you
and they always do and you just
ooze everywhere she also rejects her
parents desire to keep up appearances
refreshingly honest sally exposes the
discontent in their family
shut up what's gotten into you but this
young girl also reminds us that dawn and
betty's bad behavior takes a real toll
she can't help imitating her parents
patterns herself
you are like your mother and me you're
gonna find that out
she's internalized their dysfunctional
pattern of repressing
feelings and then expressing anger and
pain in misbehavior
and outbursts i'm not going i'm not
leaving i hate it there we really see
this in season four
when sally is struggling in the
aftermath of dawn and betty's divorce
she cuts off her hair masturbates at a
sleepover and runs off to manhattan
alone to see dawn
in season six after she catches dawn
sleeping with sylvia
it seems like this cycle may be starting
again sally's been suspended
what did she do she bought beer
using the name beth francis with the
false id she'd made
all this acting out reflects that she
hasn't been taught to cope in a healthy
way you're being hysterical calm down
her erratic behavior is essentially a
child's version of
dawn's philandering and drowning his
sorrows
still it's reassuring that no matter how
fast she's forced to grow up
sally still manages to hold on to a
little bit of her childish side
do you think your friends are going to
be jealous when they find out you're
going to see the beatles on sunday at
shea stadium
what you heard me
hello sally just think of the episode
waterloo
sally tries to adopt her crush's
cynicism about the moon landing
it's such a waste of money you don't
really think that do you
we'll be going there all the time while
people go hungry down here
but later she ends up kissing his nerdy
space-obsessed younger brother instead
showing that she's not willing to be
totally jaded just yet
sally represents the baby boomer
generation in the show
that group of people born in the
post-world war ii baby boom
between 1946 and 1964. dawn says sally
is 10 years old when it's 1965.
she's 10 years old so we gather sally
was born around
1955. through sally we see how
children of the 60s witnessed major
upheaval in their early lives
they're going to burn down the city
everything's fine at home the people who
are supposed to protect sally let her
down
you say things and you don't mean them
and you can't just do that and in the
world at large
social turmoil doesn't allow her to be
sheltered from much
in this day and age it's overwhelming to
raise a young girl let alone be one
boomers were the first generation to be
raised alongside tvs
some might even say raised by tvs you
two watch tv or something i watch tv can
i go watch truly temple storybook
yes she doesn't believe me that i'm
allowed to watch as much tv as i want
because it's the summer
your mother lets you do that sally's not
just watching a lot of kids shows
she's exposed to serious news coverage
why are the kids watching this
what am i supposed to do dawn am i
supposed to keep it from them
think of the episode where sally's
beloved grandpa jean dies
she has an emotional outburst he's dead
and he's
never coming back and nobody cares
that he's really really really gone
sally go watch
tv but when sally obeys her mom's order
she sees the self-immolation of a
buddhist monk this scene sums up how
sally's generation
was exposed to these realities very
young there was no safe space
no way of tuning out the darkness in the
world and as a result
sally has no illusions about how things
really are
it's gonna be all right no it's not
since so many viewers were sally's age
during this time period
or our children of her generation a big
part of her function in the show is
helping us connect to don
and betty's era and while we might share
her disgust for some of dawn and betty's
shortcomings
ultimately through her we come to feel
understanding and forgiveness for her
parents too
happy valentine's day i love you
in the season six finale don brings his
kids to his own childhood home
and we're reminded that dawn's
upbringing was even worse than
sally's this is where i grew up i wanted
him to say this is where i grew up
and he wanted to say this is where i
grew up
and he was right so don actually made
progress in giving his daughter a better
life than he had
and that gives us hope that in her own
way sally can give
her kids a better childhood than she had
even though sally strikes us
as a pretty well-adjusted young woman by
the end of the show
all things considered it's inevitable
that some of her trauma will
seep into her kids childhoods most
likely
she'll go the opposite route to dawn and
betty and be
over attentive to her kids after all
baby boomers are the generation
first associated with helicopter
parenting which makes sense if you grew
up with folks like the drapers
seeing this scene with dawn's childhood
home viewers of any age
might be inspired to forgive their own
parents for not being able to totally
overcome the impact of their pasts
this cycle repeats parents put their
kids through the ringer
and give them plenty to talk about in
therapy but somehow
most kids tend to turn out all right
anyway she said you were curious
and bright and received glowing reports
from all concerned
sally's not broken by her difficult
coming of age
instead of becoming bitter like her
stepmother megan i wasn't gonna give you
the satisfaction of knowing that you
ruined my life
sally emerges as an independent
resilient young woman
she's never had anyone protecting her so
she's become
strong from a young age and there's hope
for sally's future
so many people for so much of mad men
it feels like sally's well-being and
future are really precarious
this is because in betty's eyes sally is
a problem child
what's wrong with her and we can
understand how you'd worry if your kid
was acting out as sally does
the good is not beating the bad but in
the end betty
and the show validate sally for being
who she is
sally i always worried about you because
you marched to the beat of your own drum
but now i know that's good
i know your life will be an adventure
sally not being a cookie cutter kid
turned out to be a gift we talked in our
betty video
about how betty idolizes her late mother
and holds on to her outdated way of
thinking
sally is the opposite she dismisses her
mother's value system
yeah i know because where would mom be
without her perfect nose
she wouldn't find a man like you she'd
be nothing in fact
she's determined to be different from
both of her parents
i want to get on a bus and get away from
you and mom and hopefully
be a different person than you two this
fierce individuality makes us
believe in sally's potential she's not
going to blindly repeat her parents
mistakes
in that way she represents her
generation's greater rejection of their
parents society
the way that the hippies and flower
children of the 60s
broke with the past and advocated for
social change
and we do start to see signs of a
developing social consciousness in sally
i hate cops think of her reaction after
her childhood friend glenn
announces he's joining the army have fun
at playland
just remember those kids are the same
age as the ones you're going to be
murdering in vietnam
at the end of the show sally is about to
become a motherless teenage girl
she's going to have to raise herself
from now on which is basically what
she's already been doing
more than any other character it really
feels like sally's story is just
beginning
we don't know who she's going to become
you're a very beautiful girl
it's a beauty more than that but since
her character was forged in the furnace
of the 60s
i'm going to break your arm next betty
don't worry about me finding a man
i already have you to keep me in line we
feel confident that
sally can face whatever comes her way
you know what makes me happy a beautiful
young lady who will someday be wearing
makeup
but not today hi guys this is grace
the newest member of the scream prism
team and today i want to talk to you
about
one of our favorite places to watch
movies movie
movie is a treasure trove of films from
around the globe
every day a new film is added and the
oldest is taken away
so in this world where it's very easy to
spend hours debating what you should
watch
movie is like having a really cool
friend with amazing tastes in movies
making it so much easier for you they
feature hard to come by masterpieces
indie festival darlings influential art
house and foreign films
lesser known films by your favorite
famous directors and more
plus you can even download the films to
watch offline
and there are no ads ever one movie you
can watch
right now on mubi is accident written by
nobel prize winning dramatist harold
pinter
this film which follows a frustrated
professor looking to shake himself out
of his midlife monotony
is a 60s cult classic we can't recommend
mubi highly enough you can try it out
for free for a whole month
just click the link in the description
below
[Music]
you