`IRON JAWED ANGELS:' A YES VOTE ON HBO SUFFRAGE DRAMA.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

AT THIS late date in our nation's history, one wonders how our filmmakers will be able to keep unearthing insufficiently told tales of valiantly oppressed Americans overthrowing their oppressors. Still, these stories pop up fresh and new with alarming alacrity - even Hilary Swank, who won an Oscar for her film ``Boys Don't Cry,'' admits she had no idea of the sacrifices put forth by the heroines depicted in her new HBO movie ``Iron Jawed Angels.''

``Iron Jawed Angels'' explores both the grisly - and the girly - side of the suffrage movement: Wrenching depictions of vicious force-feedings of a hunger striker go hand-in-hand with girl talk of boys and hats; we even watch as Swank's character, Alice Paul, pleasures herself in a bathtub while recalling a pleasant day out with a gentleman caller.

Mentioning this does not intend to demean the film: Those human moments, naturally, give the brutal moments a further degree of dramatic unpalatability. The very vulnerability of the women, as repeatedly suggested by director Katja von Garnier, underscores their tremendous courage.

Nonetheless, ``Iron Jawed Angels'' is structured pretty much like any underdog movie you've ever seen. There are the early moments of Paul and her burgeoning movement foundering, followed by the requisite scenes of all involved getting up to speed. Next, of course, comes the moment in which resolve is tested (the line ``You ever wonder what we're doing?'' is actually used) then forcefully proved. At that point, the obvious righteousness of the cause is severely martyred by forces of evil, until, of course, the breakthrough moment of victory.

Those plot particulars fit pretty much any movie. Here are this film's particulars: Paul tries to join a suffrage movement run by Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston), whose stuffiness alienates her and leads her, with cohort Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) to start her own organization, the National Woman's Party. They score points picketing outside the White House before Woodrow Wilson takes the country into World War I - and then, more scandalously, after he does, as well. (The parallels between protesting Wilson and more recent protests of George W. Bush's strike on Iraq are unmistakable.) One protester, Emily Leighton (Molly Parker), even imperils her marriage to a U.S. senator.

The film tells you that Paul, a Quaker, worked for a similar movement in England; what it doesn't tell you is she went on a hunger strike there, which clearly informed her later strategies here in America. (It also doesn't tell you that Paul was arrested three times, not just once.)

More than historic fudging on an unjustly obscure period, what many viewers may find jarring is the recurrent use of contemporary music in a period picture: A sinuous r&b tune plays as the women dress themselves for an appearance before potential male benefactors. This is a narrative gambit HBO employed before to lure younger viewers to period films - ``Boycott'' essayed the '50s civil-rights movement to a hip-hop beat.

Viewers will either accept or reject the contemporary flourishes; if they reject them, they'll miss out on powerful storytelling. Swank imbues Paul with the sort of inerrant sense of righteousness that performers can, in historical retrospect, essay (reviews of such films often confuse their artistry with their subject's cause). O'Connor is more playful and is given more opportunity to flesh out her character. (Something else the film doesn't tell you: Burns was beaten and placed in solitary confinement in prison. But then, Paul has been declared chief heroine for our purposes here.)

``Iron Jawed Angels'' (an appellation assigned the female protesters by an outraged senator) tells its story efficiently, which means that no time seems to pass at all between Wilson's speech encouraging Congress to give women the vote and passage of the 19th Amendment. In fact, more than two years separated the two events. Wouldn't it be swell if all injustices were solved in movie time?

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

IRON JAWED ANGELS - Four stars

What: Hilary Swank, Frances O'Connor, Molly Parker, Julia Ormond, Patrick Dempsey and Anjelica Huston star in a docudrama about the women's suffrage movement.

Where: HBO.

When: 9:30 tonight; also noon and 9 p.m. Tuesday; 12:30 and 10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, March 1, 7 and 11.

In a nutshell: Some may find the anachronistic music a bit jarring; fewer will question the mildly disingenuous historical gloss. In all, a perfectly serviceable and heartfelt underdog story.

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Hilary Swank plays suffragist Alice Paul in HBO's ``Iron Jawed Angels.''