Great Movies To Recognize Black History Month

GREAT MOVIES TO RECOGNIZE BLACK HISTORY MONTH


With the month of February comes Black History month, when we recognize and pay tribute to the black community’s long struggle for equal rights in this country. Even for those of us who think we know the story well, it’s one that always bears repeating, for ourselves and our children, and an assortment of solid, relevant titles on DVD can help.

Prior to the 1960’s, the portrayal of black characters in movies was confined to servants, porters, and other similar stereotypes. Only with the advent of the Civil Rights movement did the film industry dare address the authentic black experience. At this point, Sidney Poitier emerged as the first black movie star, whose roles advanced a new image of the African-American male, one reflecting intelligence, pride, and dignity.

Daniel Petrie’s “A Raisin In The Sun” (1961) provided an ideal vehicle for Poitier’s explosive talent. Sidney portrays Walter Lee Younger, an ambitious, tightly coiled young man counting on his mother’s small nest-egg to invest in a business which could lift his family out of their dead-end existence. Walter projects barely suppressed rage as he pleads with resolute mother Lena (Claudia McNeil), who wants to use the money to buy a new home. Walter’s raw desperation is palpable as he sees his one chance to better himself slipping away. Watch this moving piece for Poitier’s intense performance, and McNeil’s equally arresting turn as the family matriarch.

Three years later, director Michael Roemer would release an independent film called “Nothing But A Man”, addressing the challenge of black men sustaining loving relationships when discrimination and feelings of futility consume them with anger. Duff (Ivan Dixon), a black railroad worker, meets Josie (Abbey Lincoln), a shy preacher’s daughter. They fall in love, but soon Duff’s frustration with his prospects boils over, threatening the relationship. With grace and feeling, this lean, unadorned film details how the couple navigates these choppy waters to find a measure of happiness. The talented Julius Harris stands out playing Duff’s failed, drunken father.

In the 1970s, television would actually do more than feature films to advance understanding of black history in this country. Perhaps best remembered is the wildly successful, landmark adaptation of Alex Haley’s novel “Roots” into a six-part, ten hour mini-series in 1977, which took viewers back to the dawn of the slave trade that first brought blacks to our shores in bondage. Regrettably, this series is not widely available on DVD.

Another superior television production you can watch in one sitting is 1974’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman”, which traces the life of one stalwart black woman from a childhood in slavery all the way through to the Civil Rights movement. In Jane’s eventful story lies an invaluable history lesson, one of endurance through suffering and upheaval, and culminating in Jane’s becoming a witness to positive change. The gifted Cicely Tyson is a marvel in the title role, as over the course of the film she ages from a young girl to a spry old lady of 110. She deservedly won an Emmy Award for her work, and the film itself won eight more.

Four years later, Tyson would team with actor Paul Winfield for another top-notch mini-series, “King”, aired in three 90 minute installments. Written and directed by the talented Abby Mann, “King” is a meticulous recreation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s mystical odyssey from spirited young Baptist preacher to anointed spokesman for the vast non-militant wing of the Civil Rights movement. The revelation here is the extent to which King did not choose his thorny path, but was chosen, both by his own people and a higher power. Winfield and Tyson (who’d starred together in the fabulous “Sounder” six years prior) are both first-rate as Martin and Coretta, and along with Mann’s incisive script and a stellar supporting cast, they make “King” a powerful and enlightening experience.

To form the ideal double feature for Martin Luther King’s birthday, also catch “Citizen King” (2004), a riveting PBS “American Experience” entry. I found watching this particularly intriguing after first screening “King”, noting not just Abby Mann’s fidelity to real events, but also the subtle differences between Winfield’s portrayal and the real man, who seemed smaller, more serious, and infinitely sadder than the actor, but whose soaring oratory still sounds like noone I’ve ever heard.

As the 1980’s progressed, so did the careers of two figures whose work would further the cause of black awareness: actor Denzel Washington and director Spike Lee. In 1989, Washington would attain stardom after winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as a defiant soldier in Edward Zwick’s “Glory”, which recounts the true story of the the Civil War’s first black fighting regiment. That same year, Lee boosted his own visibility with “Do The Right Thing”, a contemporary drama about underlying racial tensions in Brooklyn that need only a chance incident on a sweltering day to ignite.

Lee and Washington would join up three years later to make the searing, epic-scale “Malcolm X”. This three and a half hour feature carries us from Malcolm Little’s unpromising beginnings as a Harlem gang-member through his religious conversion in prison, marriage to Betty Shabazz (Angela Bassett), and eventual ascension to chief spokesman for the nation of Islam, led by Elijah Muhammad (Al Freeman, Jr.) Like his contemporary Dr. King, Malcolm faced constant danger and opposition from whites and blacks alike; unlike King, he did not believe non-violence alone would advance the cause of his people. A transformative pilgrimage to Mecca ultimately puts Malcolm at odds with his leader, which helps seal his own fate. The Oscar-nominated Washington delivers a towering portrayal of the militant leader, and bears an almost uncanny resemblance to Malcolm, while Lee’s inspired direction creates an electric impact and immediacy that bring us closer to this tumultuous chapter in our history.

In his devastating documentary “4 Little Girls” (1997), director Lee goes on to profile a horrific true incident from 1963, when a Baptist Church in Birmingham was blown up, killing four young girls attending Sunday School. This heart-rending episode is recalled via reminiscences of the girls’ families and friends, while others comment on the event’s broader significance in reinvigorating the movement at a critical juncture, and accelerating the passage of vital civil rights legislation. This haunting and revealing testament is not be missed.

Lest we forget, before the rise of Dr. King and Malcolm X, there was Thurgood Marshall. Before becoming the nation’s first black Supreme Court Justice, Marshall was an overworked, underpaid lawyer for the NAACP. In the early 50s, he took an isolated case from rural South Carolina all the way to the Supreme Court, resulting in the historic 1954 “Brown vs. Board of Education” decision, which ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. In “Separate But Equal” (1991), a three hour TV movie first aired in two parts, Sidney Poitier plays Mr. Marshall, and predictably, does him proud. This outstanding film is also notable for featuring Burt Lancaster in his final role as John Davis, the veteran lawyer who opposes Marshall in our country’s highest court. Also look for the late Richard Kiley in a measured, dignified turn as Chief Justice Earl Warren.


John Farr

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