12 Years a Slave

Welcome everyone to the finale of my third “Black History Month Movie Reviews,” where we will end off with a bang. Sometimes you have to prepare yourself for the journey a film takes you on. That is definitely the case with “12 Years a Slave,” a breaking up, unforgettable drama that doesn’t look away from the reality of slavery and, in doing so, helps us all completely, truly face it.

Seen first in director Steve McQueen’s 2013 film are the empty eyes of a group of slaves getting ready to work in the field. Then they sleep jammed together in a small room. One of them is Solomon Northup, played by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who had another life.

In 1841, Northup was a free man earning a good living as a musician in Saratoga, N.Y. When his wife (Kelsey Scott) and two young children (Quvenzhané Wallis and Cameron Zeigler) leave for a trip, Solomon is approached by two strangers (Paul Giamatti and Christopher Berry) saying that they are businessmen looking for a violinist to perform in Washington, D.C. He eats and drinks with them, then wakes up in chains, captured by slave traders. He is bean, and though planning an escape, is sent South to be sold.

Renamed “Platt,” (similar in the miniseries “Roots”) Northup is bought at a monstrous, complicated auction by painstaking land owner, Ford, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. However, a run-in with Ford’s evil manager (Paul Dano) requires Northup being sold to work with plantation of the disturbed Epps (Michael Fassbender). As Northup learns to survive – his identity, his humanity, taken away – he hopes to hear from his family in the North.

Joe Neumaier said in his review, “McQueen allows everyday violence and degradation to seep into the film slowly. By the time Northup is nearly hanged by standing all day, unacknowledged, with a noose around his neck as the ground sinks beneath him — with slaves and foremen blankly passing by — the commonplace barbarity is sickeningly apparent.”

Examples of the evildoing are the drunken Epps and his cruel wife, played by Sarah Paulson. Epps is infatuated with his young slave Patsey, played by Lupita Nyong’o, saying to his wife that he would divorce her before he would sell Patsey. Then Epps sits steady as Patsey is beaten during a late-night dance where the tired slaves’ forced good behavior is a horrid echo of the affairs Northup once performed at.

Neumaier goes on to say that, “John Ridley’s deft, well-structured screenplay balances moments of terror with telling glances of Northup’s sad resignation. Hans Zimmer’s music underscores gently or, at times, jarringly, a symphonic suggestion of being caught in a machine.” Of the entire film, Ejiofor, Nyong’o and Fassbender are amazing. Paulson, Dano and Giamatti make such nasty villains, while Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt (an actor that I do not like at all), playing a Canadian laborer, gives glimmers of lights.

The film hints that Northup – whose 1853 memoir the film is based on – had a clear disrespect of the reality of slavery before his capture. However his journey into this nightmare becomes outs as well. By showing that, McQueen made this film comparable to “Schindler’s List” – films that may be hard to watch, but where the necessary look at man’s heartlessness to man.

It is struggling, but “12 Years a Slave” earns its tears in a way that only a selected number of films ever do.

Don’t be afraid to say that this was one of the hardest films to watch, emotionally speaking, because it is. I know I had a hard time watching this film, but I do have to say that it is worth watching, but don’t feel bad that you can’t sit through the whole film in one sitting. If you have to watch it in multiple takes, then do so because there’s nothing wrong with that. This is definitely a film that is worth seeing for Black History Month.

Thank you guys for tuning in every week for this year’s “Black History Month Movie Reviews.” I hope all of you have enjoyed it and I hope that I did make some good recommendations. Stay tuned for more of my reviews coming at you. I’ll see you in March. Take care.

Lee Daniels' The Butler

Next up in the “Black History Month Movie Reviews” is Lee Daniels amazing work, “The Butler,” released in 2013. The American Civil Rights movement and racial discrimination usually in the U.S. has inspired some great films over the years.

Brian Viner stated in his review, “The Butler is not among them, but in a scene set in 1967 it does reference one: Norman Jewison’s classic In The Heat Of The Night, which starred Sidney Poitier, is used in The Butler to preface an argument between an African-American father and son over whether Poitier should be regarded as a hero or a traitor to ‘his people’.”

Viner rebuttals his statement with this: “Actually, Poitier was raised in the Bahamas, then a British crown colony, but we’ll let that pass.” The father, who considers him the pride of black America, is Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), constantly is arguing with this activist son, Louis (David Oyelowo).

We see that Cecil was born to serve. He grew up in the Twenties as little more than a slave in rural Georgia by picking cotton, where his mother (pop singer Mariah Carey) was raped, and his father (rapper David Banner) murdered, by their white employer (Alex Pettyfer).

Still Cecil believed that whites were naturally superior to blacks. Viner said, “He left Georgia, wound up in Washington DC, and having mastered the art of white-gloved service, was talent-spotted working in a swanky hotel and offered a job at the White House.”

In the White House, he serves seven presidents, from Eisenhower to Reagan. Obviously, this matched with the raging civil rights years, and the breaking his own relationship with the increasingly radical Louis.

However, Cecil gradually realizes that Louis’ brutal activism, rather than his own noble agreement, might have been the better route. Prepared to accept, father and son watch President Barack Obama’s election-night victory speech. “Yes we can,” says President Obama, as the credits and the tears roll.

The story, by Danny Strong, directed by Lee Daniels, is loosely based on a real man called Eugene Allen. This has been given a rather exaggeratedly generous dashing, as if by a nervous butler, of dramatic license.

Viner does note that, “Not historic licence, though. No, every major development in the civil rights story is ticked off, either with Cecil gliding into the Oval Office at a pivotal moment — what you might call the Forrest Gumping of Forest Whitaker — or with Louis finding himself in the right place at the wrong time.”

One minute he’s running away from the assassination of Malcolm X, the next he’s sitting in a Memphis motel room talking to Martin Luther King, played by Nelsan Ellis, just before King is shot. First, he’s a freedom rider. Then he’s a Black Panther. This is one person who was very involved during this horrible time in the nation’s history.

“The Butler” is not well-served by its own ambition. Viner stated, “Such is the sweep of years that the fine actors playing the various presidents are forced into parodies rather than performances.”

Lyndon Johnson, played by Liev Schrieber, yells orders from the bathroom. Richard Nixon, played by the great John Cusack, sweats a lot. Ronald Reagan, played by Alan Rickman, is a bit dim. Finally, the late Robin Williams, who is fixed up as Dwight D. Eisenhower, “would have worked better if he wasn’t such a dead ringer for Harry S. Truman,” said Viner.

Still, what makes this film worth seeing, above everything else, is the remarkable, A-list cast. Not one great acting family is represented by two (fitness instructor Jane Fonda as a bit-too-beautiful Nancy Reagan, and Vanessa Redgrave as the southern matriarch who gives Cecil his start as a house boy when he was a child).

At the top of it all, along with the always-fascinating Whitaker, is Oprah Winfrey as Cecil’s long-suffering, most loyal wife Gloria.

Viner did say, “The irony of one of America’s most powerful women playing a jaded, disenfranchised housewife is overcome by the sheer charisma of her performance, surely the stuff of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.” Definitely see it for the amazing star quality, not the cheap story.

Look out next week for the finale of this year’s “Black History Month Movie Reviews.”

In the Line of Fire

Today is President’s Day and I will review an amazing movie, “In the Line of Fire,” released in 1993. Thrillers are as good as their villains, and “In the Line of Fire” has a great one – a clever, slick jerk who dangerously lairs his way into the mind of the hero, a veteran Secret Service agent named Horrigan, played by Clint Eastwood. The jerk, who likes to play mind games with his opponents, makes a series of phone calls threatening to murder the President. He picks Horrigan because he knows the agent still feels guilty about not being able to save John F. Kennedy’s life 30 years ago.

The would-be killer has an all-American name, Mitch, played by over the top actor John Malkovich as an intelligent, twisted man who uses disguises, fake ID and an interesting way to get close to the President. He more or less tells Horrigan what his plan is, and when, but Horrigan has his hands tied. The president is running for re-election, and his chief of staff, played by Fred Dalton Thompson, doesn’t want him to look like a coward. After Horrigan gives off a couple of false alarms, he’s taken off the White House detail, and has to break the rules so he can stay on Mitch’s trail.

In its large outlines, “In the Line of Fire” has a story similar to many of Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” movies, where a mental killer plays games with a cop, who is ordered off the case and then continues as a free-lance, helped by a loyal partner. The movie even gives a typical Eastwood sidekick, a female agent played by Rene Russo, who is tough and capable, and able to fall in love.

Roger Ebert mentioned in his review, “Despite the familiar plot elements, however, "In the Line of Fire" is not a retread but a smart, tense, well-made thriller - Eastwood's best in the genre since "Tightrope" (1984). The director is Wolfgang Petersen ("Das Boot"), who is able to unwind the plot like clockwork while at the same time establishing the characters as surprisingly sympathetic.”

Horrigan, the Secret Service agent, still blames himself for Kennedy’s assassination. He feels he could have made some sort of a difference. Mitch has done his research, knows all about Horrigan, and dangerously slips into his minds with words aimed like painful darts. Soon the assassination attempt becomes a two-handed game, in which Horrigan is as much of an outsider as Mitch, and must protect the President almost against his will – and the will of his politically determined staff.

Russo, as Lily, another agent, finds an interesting difference on the role of associate and love. Ebert commented, “Her relationship with Horrigan begins on a rocky note, when he drops a couple of sexist statements, essentially accusing the Service of tokenism for hiring women. Well, OK, he's an unreconstructed chauvinist pig, but eventually their respect for each other grows, and there is a wonderfully played moment when they concede they are attracted to one another.”

Meanwhile, the plot moves forward insistently. Ebert remarked, “After seeing "The Firm," which was good but needlessly labyrinthine, it was a pleasure to follow the twists and turns of Jeff Maguire's screenplay for "In the Line of Fire." It doesn't waste a line.” Horrigan takes clues that Mitch gives him, uses sixth sense and experience, breaks agency policy when needed, and eventually finds himself testing the enthusiasm that all Secret Serviceman are supposed to have – to take a bullet in place of the President.

Eastwood is perfect for this role, as a man of a lot of experience and deep feelings. He is set off by an inspired performance by Malkovich, who is quiet and careful and very clever, and plans a sneaky plan to work his close to the President with an original murder weapon. The movie’s climax is exciting not only because of its action, but also because of its perfect logic.

What’s surprising is how much time the movie finds for small touches of realistic detail and emotion. The conversations between Eastwood and Russo – about work, jazz, strategy and romance – sound as if they’re taking place between real people. The locations look convincing, especially Air Force One and some shots apparently inside the White House. The special effects are good at interesting a young Eastwood into 1963 footage of Kennedy; setting up the character’s need to stop the new assassination he feels is going to happen. And the direction of the last scenes is as amazing as it is clever.

Yes, it’s doubtful that Mitch the killer would jump into the elevator (Ebert comments, “it's an example, in fact, of the Fallacy of the Climbing Killer, in which villains always make the mistake of heading for a high place”). But it allows for an earlier situation to come back again as a marvelous payoff. Most thrillers these days are about stunts and action. “In the Line of Fire” has a mind.

Definitely see this movie because it is worth checking out. I hope that everyone does watch this because it’s great to see Eastwood and Malkovich together, whether they are talking on the phone, or when they finally meet in person. Their scenes are just phenomenal together.

Stay tuned this Friday for the third entry in Black History Month Movie Reviews.

Casablanca

First off, I really want to apologize for posting this review really late. I was out for practically the entire day, but I will try to get this review up as quickly. As all my online readers will probably know by now, Valentine’s Day is my least favorite holiday. I already reviewed two Valentine’s Day movies that I hate but everyone loves, but that doesn’t mean that I hate all of them. Case in point, I will review the 1942 classic movie that is one of the best and one of my favorites, “Casablanca.”

Variety started off their review by saying, ““Casablanca” will take the b.o.’s of America just as swiftly and certainly as the AEF took North Africa. Despite the fact that the fortunate turn or military events has removed the city of Casablanca, in French Morocco, from the Vichyfrance sphere and has thus in one respect dated the film, the combination of fine performances, engrossing story and neat direction make that easily forgotten. Film should be a solid moneymaker everywhere.”

Heavy advertising – management campaign being given the movie by Warners should also count at the box office. It’s designed – as was the fast release of the movie after General Eisenhower’s army marched into Casablanca – to take advantage of the advertising helper to military events involving Casablanca. To summarize, Warner Bros, instead of being shocked at the town’s changed status, is wisely cashing in on America’s child knowledge with the title.

Variety mentioned, “Exhibs, in selling the picture, will do well to bear in mind that it goes heavy on the love theme.” Even though the title and the great Humphrey Bogart’s name express the impression of high adventure rather than romance, there’s plenty of the latter for the feminine trade. There is also adventure, but it’s more as exciting background to the Bogart-Bergman main department. Bogart, incidentally, as a caring lover (Variety noted, “in addition to being a cold-as-ice nitery operator”) is a novel characterization that, rightly billed, might itself be good for some coin in the trench.

Variety pointed out, “Casablanca is pictured as a superficially gay town to which flee the monied refugees from Axis terror.” There they wait for visas to Lisbon and then transportation to the USA. The waits are often endless while arrangements for papers are being made with evil Vichy officials and the affluent help to calm their impatience with chemin-de-fer and other games at Rick’s. Rick is Bogart, who has opened his nice looking club after being ‘jilted’ by Ingrid Bergman in Paris.

Bergman, playing Ilsa, shows up one evening with her husband Victor, played by Paul Henreid, who she thought was dead during the time of her romance with Rick. Victor is a leader of the underground in Europe and it is essential that he gets to America. Rick has two visas that will help out and the choice is between going off with himself with Ilsa – or sending her off with Victor, who can do so much for the United Nations cause.

Bogart, as you might not be surprised by, is more at ease as the bitter and sarcastic operator at the club than as the boyfriend, but handles both roles with superb skill. Bergman, in a torn-between-love-and-duty role, stays true to her reputation as a great actress. Henreid is well cast and does an excellent job as well.

Superb is the lineup of supporting actors. Some of the characterizations are a bit on the overdone part, but each is a memorable addition to the entire film. There’s Claude Rains, as the delightfully-dishonest prefect of police, Sydney Greenstreet, as the polite and insidious boss of Casablanca’s underground traffic of visas, Peter Lorre, as a menacing candidate of fake papers, Conrad Veidt, as the usual German officer, S.Z. Sakall, as a waiter in Rick’s and a participant in the anti-Axis underground, and Leonid Kinskey as Rick’s bartender.

The person who really deserves a special mention out of all the supporting actors is Dooley Wilson, making his film debut. An African American, he appears as the devoted friend and confidante of Bogart, as well as the piano player at Rick’s. He sings with great helpfulness “As Time Goes By,” the theme song of the Bogart-Bergman affair, and otherwise entertainingly massages the keys and sings some old blues songs. Variety noted, “He was last seen on Broadway in “Cabin in the Sky” and before that was a singing drummer in vaude for many years.”

Film is splendid anti-Axis propaganda, particularly inasmuch as the propaganda is firmly a by-product of the main action and adds to it instead of getting in the way. There will be a few more touching moments to be found than when a group of German officers in Rick’s begins to sing Nazi songs and Henreid orders the orchestra to go into “La Marseillaise.” A bit scary at first, but then with a might that completely drowns out the Germans, the supporters and help in Rick’s comes in to the anthem of the France “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” It is just another side of the variety of moods, action, suspense, comedy and drama that makes “Casablanca” an A-1 entry at the box office.

On top of all this, there are a handful of memorable quotes to be remembered from this classic film. “Here’s looking at you kid,” "It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world," “Louis, I think this is a start to a beautiful friendship,” “Play it Sam, play As Time Goes By,” “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the worlds, she walks into mine,” “Round up the usual suspects,” and of course, “We’ll always have Paris.” If you haven’t seen this film yet, you are definitely missing out. I highly insist everyone sees this great movie because you will fall in love after you see it, I promise you.

Well, Happy Singles Awareness Day to all the single people out there. Stay tuned for Monday when I review a President’s Day movie.

42

Welcome to the second entry of this year’s “Black History Month Film Reviews.” “God built me to last,” Jackie Robinson says at one point in the 2013 biographical film “42,” and, thankfully, his remarkable story is built the same way. Kenneth Turan stated in his review, “It would have to be to survive the full-dress Hollywood biopic treatment it gets in this film, which is unabashedly subtitled "The True Story of an American Legend."” Survive it does.

Turan goes on his review by saying, “You almost can't blame writer-director Brian Helgeland for taking an old-fashioned, earnest-to-a-fault approach to the genuinely heroic narrative of the Brooklyn Dodger who in 1947 — in a move masterminded by team General Manager Branch Rickey -- broke the Major League Baseball color barrier, led the Dodgers to the National League pennant and won rookie of the year honors.”

Turan continues by saying, “Robinson's story had so much drama in real life, and his sacrifice and pain made such a lasting influence, that "42" ends up being effective in its gee-whiz way almost in spite of itself. The film is so on-the-nose, it practically could have been made in 1947 (or 1950, when "The Jackie Robinson Story" starring the man himself hit theaters). But this is one square movie that you’ll have to let be that way.”

In casting the roles of Robinson and his wife, Rachael (who lived through all of this with him), Helgeland has made sharp choices, making actors good enough to give their characters more texture than the film is set up to allow. Robinson is played by Chadwick Boseman, who debuted playing another athlete, Syracuse University’s running back Floyd Little, in 2008’s “The Express.” Boseman brings real force and dignity to this role, as well as an intensity that will not be pushed around.

Turan noted in his review, “Taking on the helpmate role played by Ruby Dee in the 1950 film is the gifted Nicole Beharie, memorable in very different roles in "American Violet" and "Shame," who uses all of her skill to ensure that this is Rachel's story as well as Jackie's.”

It also helps that Helgeland does not softly show the savage, hideous nature of the racism that Robinson had to deal with. What’s really effective in this movie is a part showing the nonstop rage felt by Robinson by the Philadelphia Phillies Manager Ben Chapman, played by Alan Tudyk – abuse Robinson had promised not to respond to.

For viewers of today watching this, especially children, who may not have heard this type of language in real life, prejudice as naked as this is tough to experience, even on a movie screen.

Turan stated, “More often than we'd like, however, "42" gives us standard tropes like unhappy stories getting told on stormy nights and women getting inexplicably sick and not realizing it's because they're pregnant.” Racial barriers may disappear, but some things seriously never change.

Before we go into Robinson’s neighborhood, we meet Rickey, gamely played by Harrison Ford in padded three-piece suits and bow ties, in spring 1945. Bad-tempered and argumentative, the general manager is determined to “bring a Negro ballplayer to the Brooklyn Dodgers,” even though amazed associates warn him that “if we break an unwritten law, you’ll be an outcast.” Rickey replies like a visionary more than an executive: “I don’t know who he is, but he’s coming.”

The audience, obviously, knows exactly who “he” is, and soon we catch up with Robinson, playing for the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs. In a scene showcasing Robinson’s wisdom as well as fire, he maneuvers a Southern gas station owner into allowing the black ballplayers to use a whites-only restroom.

Next comes the classic meeting with Rickey, who race-baits Robinson in order to give him a taste of what is to come. The general manager lets Robinson know that he must control his temper – no matter what is said at him – if this risk is to succeed.

When Robinson thinks testily if Rickey is looking for someone without any guts, Rickey memorable replies, “I want a player who’s got the guts not to fight back.” And so the film’s dramatic tension gets established: Will Robinson be able to restrain himself, and how will he do it?

With African American sportswriter Wendell Smith, played by Andre Holland, as advisor, Robinson deals with racism not only from opponents but also referees, journalists and even members of his own team, who petition Rickey not to let him play. He has difficulty adjusting to being in public eye off the field but displays a ferocious competitiveness on the diamond that causes Dodgers Manager Leo Durocher, played by Christopher Meloni, to comment, “He didn’t come to play, he came to kill.”

Robinson’s combination of strength, restraint and passion for the game was stunning. You can’t help getting caught up in this story, even as you are wishing the narrative was sharper than it is.

If you get the chance to watch this movie, do so, you will absolutely love it. Especially since it’s about the very first African American ballplayer in the Major League during segregation, which is really powerful.

Look out tomorrow for my third entry on a Valentine’s Day movie.

The Color Purple

Looks like it’s February again, so you know what that means? It’s time for “Black History Film Month” again. For those who are new to the blog, I will be reviewing films that are definitely worth checking out during Black History Month. Today I will be reviewing the 1985 classic film, and one of the greatest, “The Color Purple.”

This stirring 1985 film is based on Alice Walker’s 1982 novel which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The drama adapted for the screen by Menno Meyjes is set in the South and covers 40 years in the life of a black woman who tolerates a great deal of cruelty at the hands of a man in her life until she finally learns to stand up for herself and recognize her special gifts. “The Color Purple” is given astounding dramatic intensity and imaginative descriptions by director Steven Spielberg. Top-notch performances are put in by a multipurpose cast including Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, television host Oprah Winfrey, Adolph Caesar, Rae Dawn Chong, Akosua Busia, and Willard Pugh. Filmed in beautiful locations in North Carolina, the drama is highly enhanced by the soulful music by Quincy Jones.

At 14, Celie (Desreta Jackson) is raped by a man who she calls “Pa” (Leonard Jackson). Over the years, she gives birth to two children from him, and both are taken away at birth. Since her mother is dead, the only person in the world that she can open up to is her younger sister Nettie. Their close relationship is broken when Celie is forced into marrying Albert, played by Danny Glover, a widower of four small children.

Alone, without a friend and scared of this man whom she calls “Mister,” Celie talks to God and lives day by day. The only light in her life arrives when Nettie, played by Akosua Busia, comes looking for a home after running away from “Pa.” Nettie teaches Celie how to read but eventually provokes Albert’s love. When Nettie pushes him away, he kicks her off the farm. Nettie promises to write, promising that only death can separate the sisters. Celie falls into obedience and despair. No letters arrive.

Just when Celie, now played by Whoopi Goldberg, feels like she is all alone in the world, two friends appear in her life. Sofia (Oprah Winfrey) marries Albert’s son Harpo (Willard E. Pugh). She’s an energetic woman who seems to take over her modest husband. Celie has deep respect for this woman who has fought for her rights all her life. Even more surprising, when Celie gets sick, Albert brings Shug Avery, played by Margaret Avery, to the house. This spirited blues singer, who has been his mistress for years, is immediately friendly with Celie. At a nearby juke club, Shug sings a song to her new friend called “Miss Celie’s blues” advising her to “think you’re something.” Later that evening, Shug introduces Celie to the enjoyment of the body, an experience she has never known in this slave-like marriage.

As the years goes on, Celie keeps waiting for a letter from Nettie. Then one day, Shug, who is now married, finds a letter from Nettie. She’s in Africa serving as an apprentice with a missionary couple who adopted Celie’s two children. Celie and Shug search the house and find other letters from Nettie hidden under the closet floorboard. Celie figures out that for years Albert has hidden those letters, until she thought that her close sister had died. At a dinner party, every single year of bottled up anger explodes in an outburst against the man who has abused her body, mind and soul. She leaves Albert and takes control of a family farm left to her by her biological father. She starts a clothing store and is surrounded by the humor and heroism of her female friends. And then, through a surprise which can only be called grace, Celie’s ultimate dream comes true.

In an interview about “The Color Purple,” Spielberg said, “I want audience to feel every color in Celie’s rainbow, the rainbow she makes herself and dives into head first.” Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat stated in their review, “This poignant drama holds up the values of long-lasting love, perseverance, dignity and keeping on in the face of suffering, pain and loss.”

This is a very powerful movie that you should check out. I urge everyone to watch it because it is that good of a movie. Well, hope all of you liked my first entry in my third “Black History Month Film Reviews.” Stay tuned the rest of the month for more.