Different Slants

  It is SO cold in Chicago, my wife Joy and I are now sleeping with our three dogs, Betsy the complacent Beagle, Rosy the hyper miniature Dachshund, and Jasmine the beautiful Spaniel/Labrador, PLUS a borrowed very white and neurotic Boxer, Burly, who doesn’t mind standing on a person’s chest if it makes it easier for him to see something outside of the bedroom window.   That, a thick warm quilt and some human cuddling and we make it thru the night.  It’s a Mixed-Mammal Jamboree!!

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I rarely see a movie twice.  I often see some movie critics say, “Oh, I saw Bicycle Thief (1947) 40 times!” or, “Citizen Kane (1941) is so endlessly fascinating, I’ve seen it at least once a week for the last twenty years!!”.

Well, good for them. 

I have a life, four children, (dogs) a kind of a job and not the luxury of such an indulgence of time to lavish on filmed art.   There are far too many new and wonderful movies pouring into America every week for me to choose to miss most of their short theater release time to go and see any movie twice. 

Besides, none of the examples given above are Westerns, which are, of course, excluded from any of this discussion of limited choices and time. 

Seeing Shane (1953) is a religious experience and any additional viewings gets me extra points with the Movie Gods, for the eventual time when I want an excellent seat for the Great Drive-In in the sky.  But…I can wait a while for that.

However, I have seen The Great Debaters twice and just may see it again.

Man, this is a stunning movie about obscure Black Southern United States history I never heard of, with a cast I mostly have never seen.  So much talent exists in the Black acting community and it somehow remains virtually invisible.   Producers and directors go hunting for fresh faces in places as far away as Australia to cast their movies (ok, yeah, Naomi Watts is hot, yes…) and yet here in America there exists so many unused terrific actors and actresses. 

 Star Wars is fantasy.  The Great Debaters is fantastic.

If I had the money, like producer Oprah Winfrey has to make this movie, I would begin to film a steady body of work, showcasing all these Black performers who never get seen by the larger movie-going public, and create a library of Black historical films to foster pride in the Black community here in the USA, but also to educate the overall multi-ethnic American population about what the comprehensive Black experience has been like since the majority of Black people first arrived here in chains.

 There is much more to that history than just Roots (TV-1977), Rosewood (1997), and Amistad (1998).  It’s the same mistaken assumption that the recent Spielberg film “Shindlers’s List (1993) or much older Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) covers 3,000 years of Jewish history.   So, see those two and you’re an expert? 

Been there, seen that…C’mon, no you have not.

I’ll list the actors and the basic idea in the film and then, however many people read this, please go see it.  Oprah’s a capitalist and ought to make a good return on her investment.  She deserves it.  Then maybe she’ll decide to make a greater commitment to make more movies of this superb quality.

Denzel Washington, who also directed this non-fiction historical movie, plays Melvin B. Tolson, an educator, debate team trainer and union organizer, in 1935 Marshall, Texas, at Wiley, a small Black college; Forest Whitaker plays James Farmer, Sr. also an educator, prestigious community leader and writer; Nate Parker plays Henry Lowe, a member of the famous original debating team, a future minister, but in 1935 was a seducer of other men’s wives at juke joints, a person of short temper and intense pride who was quick to fight, despite a tremendous intellect.

Denzel Whitaker (Forest’s actual son) plays James Farmer, Jr. another member of the debating team and although just fourteen, a rival of Henry Lowe’s for the affections of Jurnee Smollett who plays Samantha Booke, the fiery (though a much-used adjective, man…this chick is FIERY!) 3rd member of the debating team, who’s studying to be a lawyer and to me, the most impressive new actor in this moving film about prejudice in the Deep South, humiliation, poverty, pride, accomplishment, love, music, dance, respect within the Black community and within individual family units, determination to succeed, triumph, a terrible scene of violence, torture, irrational hate and regional insanity. 

John Heard is terrific in a difficult role as a none too bright local sheriff who is a casually violent and dangerous man.  He is in only a few scenes, but you will remember them, especially one in which you can see him thinking, deciding, then wordlessly arriving at a decision that will stop a race riot from happening.  He is not a cliche` in a complex role.  He played another nasty personality versus Tom Hanks in Big (1988).  I admire him. 

You don’t have to be a member of a mistreated minority to fully appreciate the terrors and pleasures of this movie, but it can’t hurt either.      

There is a fantasy sequence in the mind of the chubby, short and shy young son of the stern and distant James Farmer, Sr. at a dance, where he imagines himself to be the ‘life of the party’ and is dancing incredibly fast and well with the slinky and lovely Samantha Booke, who is about 22 in the movie.  The scene lasts a couple of minutes, but after seeing it twice, it sunk in that this kid and that woman REALLY ARE doing everything that the boy imagines they are doing.  The dance moves are deft and complicated.  The music is fast and hot for that time, in the Thirties. 

When I look at that boy who is so young, so formal in his clothing and so terribly serious…..swinging in sync with the equally serious and well-spoken Samantha, who is a joy to watch as she shimmies in the movie—I still can’t believe I never saw either of them ever before, or that they were really playing those parts.  A great moment, though too brief, at the movies.  So cool.

There is also a sweet and mostly gentle romance between Nate and Samantha that has a hugely funny moment about 2/3 way into the story.  Impeccable timing.   Denzel Washington owns this movie, in every scene he’s in.

What’s the story about?  The title already tells you.  And…I’ve told you enough already.  Go see it.  Tell your friends, or even better, forward my column to them.

It’ll be on a DVD soon, and that just ain’t the same thing as seein’ it in a theater on a huge screen. 

See you under the flickering light, movie lovers…

Robert M. Katzman 

To learn more about my 3 published books, visit my website www.FightingWordsPubco.com and you’ll learn plenty!