The hard hitting drama that was "Nothin' But A Man" directed by Robert M. Young, gave a look through the eyes of everyday people trying to live. The simple but beautiful 1967 film "Dutchman" directed by Anthony Harvey left me in awe, such an amazing premise with such background and depth that embodied the very sense of the civil rights movement into 55 minuets. "Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song" filmed by, composed by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles, gave way to a revolution in cinema that still exists today. Finally LA's own Charles Burnett created a masterpiece that would not see public release for 30 years.
What do all these very unique and era defining movies have in common?
The 1960's were one of the most significant decades in the twentieth century. The sixties were filled with new music, clothes, and an overall change in the way people acted, but most importantly it was a decade filled with civil rights movements. On February 1, 1960, four black freshmen from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College in Greensboro went to a Woolworth's lunch counter and sat down politely and asked for service. The waitress refused to serve them and the students remained sitting there until the store closed for the night. The very next day they returned, this time with some more black students and even a few white ones. They were all well dressed, doing their homework, while crowds began to form outside the store.
This story reflects the movement as a whole and shown through out the films created in the sixties, "Nothin' But A Man", "Dutchman". These films show the struggle of blacks trying to equate into white america. It is easy to view "Nothin' But A Man" as a piece of entertainment, but the movie not only exudes hope, it also is an American neo-realistic masterpiece. Ivan Dixon gives an oscar worthy performance, where his eyes seem to talk more than his mouth. He shows us the ordinary side of heroics, and gives way to a self affirmed consciousness to black people. The events of hopelessness and confusion are only brought around with the conclusion of hope.
This movie parallels the time that the assassinations of important leaders took placed. The deaths of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., all happened in the 60's.
Acts were passed in the 60's though that supported the movement, such as Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Now I only intended to do this project on "Dutchman" and "Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song" but with the such similar styles and same progressive idea's, I had to include others from the class. With such a radical time calls for a radical film. "Dutchman" is a play written by an African-American playwright Amiri Baraka, but was made into a movie in 1966 by Anthony Harvey and starred Shirley Knight as Lula, and Al Freeman Jr. as Clay.
Lula is a seductive white goddess that tries to wrap her thoughts around a young black Clay until his demise. The film is hard to watch, just for the fact that the dialogue is so counterintuitive and tense. watching Lula stroke Clay's body in such sexual ferocity then with those same hands rip off the flesh that holds this young man's mind higher than the bigotry that surrounds him.
Lula represents white America and the stereotypes and oppressive behavior that America has carried on its back against Blacks. This same America hates the idea of African-Americans that try to break the stereotype and rise above to do better than what has been. The apples I think are biblical, with the story of Adam and Eve, Lula is Eve who tempts Adam or Clay with knowledge, lust, and power. She throws them over her shoulder half eaten, representing the empty promises to Blacks and the wastefulness of America.
The film if I remember correctly is void of a soundtrack, for the most part that is. And the film style is close and unified, it depicts (even though they embody stereotypes) real people. This is a very close rendition of a neo-realistic film, it reminded me of "Killer Of Sheep" which I will get to later. Absorbed the audience in a sometimes frightening but all to true depiction of nothing, there is no real plot, just conversation, there is no end, shown by Lula approaching another well-dressed black man, and the middle class is represented through Clay.
Question: What's more badass than a black man killing cops?
Answer: A black man killing cops and GETTING AWAY with it!
Produced, written, and directed by Melvin Van Peebels, "Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song" is the film that started the "blaxploitation" movement, which has now turned into a genre, but not to be considered the first, (Cotton Comes to Harlem, ect.) it rather was the most paramount and controversial.
(1971)
The political Climate of the early seventies was full of fire with issues such as Vietnam and constant protest throughout the county. Later in the 70’s the end of the Vietnamese conflict brought the rise of the Watergate scandal and Iran Contra. These issues swept headlines and ingrained people’s thoughts. Social issues also played a big role
in the developing culture of the seventies. Protests and constant outbreaks about gay rights and women’s rights seemed to overtake the country in storm.
As you can see with an outraged America and the people taking a can-do attitude, this let the DIY filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles take all of cinema by storm.
Here is an excerpt from a documentary narrated by Peebles. The first 1:50 is all I ask you to watch but, the rest is a great overview of Blaxploitation.
Sweetback, in my opinion also represents moments of neo-realism, with its everyday actors (this movie was shot in 19 days in fear that the "actors" would get haircuts) and it's intentionally close and almost realistic setting (it being the time and stereotypes), but all this is countered by the over the top action and the ridiculous stereotyping.
Here you can see How Sweetback gives a "tour" of the city, this method is used in almost every blaxploitation film.
Sweetback was a monument to black people everywhere, it gave hope, and more than that courage. It showed on all fronts the power of a message and if you have that can-do attitude anything is possible. Melvin Van Peebles is responsible for so much, giving out empowerment, blowing up a music revolution (including Earth, Wind, and Fires big break) showing how to make a film and get paid, Shaft would have never been black, and Spike Lee would have never been inspired. Peebles is a genius at heart and a comedian at mind.
Here is the trailer for "Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song"
I got to meet Charles Burnett when he came to UWM's theatre to showcase his film and let me tell you I had no idea he was the guy sitting behind me. I was about to tell this hollow minded individual to stop mowing down his popcorn like no ones business during the first short film. He was chomping on it so loud i could barely get into the film. Then the thought crossed my mind "hmmm....it could be this 'Charles Burnett' the mastermind LA filmmaker" so i opted to wait. Sure enough "I'm pleased to announce Charles Burnett" the guy with the largest bucket of popcorn available stands up. Dodged the bullet there, I'm sure my Professor would have kicked my ass, for saying anything remotely negative to Mr. Burnett. Ahhh, how funny life can be.
Anyway the film that unrolled in front of me was one of the most inspiring and natural films I have ever viewed.
Shot in Watts over a year of weekends for less than $10,000, the film has both a timelessness and an appropriate aimlessness to it. This is an everyday world, blue-collar and poor and real, where acquiring a used engine is an all-day proposition. Charles Burnett gives us one of, if not the only MFA thesis film that made the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
"Killer Of Sheep" gives us Stan who works long hours at a slaughter house and an accompaniment of other friends who paint a picture of everyday working class people trying to affect the course of life.
Sheep, is praised by Italian neo-realistic directors, particularly Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini, and is on many critics top 100 movie lists.
It was never released publicly (and never was intended too) until 2007, because of licenses with music. Which brings up another facet of the film, the music was intended to also tell a story and document the history of African-American music.
(1977)
His film shows what life was like for the struggling black man in the seventies. It is in some ways still similar to "Nothin' But A Man" but definitely shows more equality, it is a continuation of "The New Negro" and a refreshing look on what was to come.
Italian neo-realism is a style of film that is characterized by stories set amongst the working class, filmed on location, and mainly using non professional actors.
These four films do all these things to some degree. It is common throughout that they all tell some story whether being a man looking for his life "Nothin' But A Man" or a free willed black man fighting "The Man", they all have something to share in the conversation of equality and civil rights. These films are all inspired by the people/working class, they have all intentions of reaching them and even higher expectations of empowering them. If you saw "Sweet Sweetback's Badassss
Song" for the first time neo-realism would probably never cross your mind, but the film has many qualities, like the rest of the films mentioned. It has a new democratic spirit with emphasis on the value of ordinary people. an avoidance of neatly plotted stories in favor of loose, episodic structures that evolve organically. A documentary visual style and the use of actual locations, rather than studio sites. The use of non professional actors and the use of conversational speech. All of these equate to these films.
The films of the "Old Negro" are gone and a new age has approached, though some elements have carried over, which can be seen in any Pam Grier flick.
With Obama being the first black president and the nation looking for a change, maybe the day of true equality is here but we still have a hugh hill to climb, but it has been reduced from a mountain.
I leave you with an excerpt of what I believe to be one of the greatest speeches of my generation.
As the horrific tragedy of September 11th settles into permanent corridors of our conscious life, our reactions as a society are manifold. There is shock, grief, anger and other emotions that we have not fully understood or found words to describe. As we search for explanations, our sages in government, the media and the academy try to help us articulate what we have experienced. We have been told that our innocence is gone, that the third world war has begun and that we are confronting a new and more lethal form of terrorism than the world has ever seen.
This is the world we live in, so when viewing the films The Spook Who Sat By The Door directed by Ivan Dixon and Do the Right Thing directed by Spike lee, I felt these feelings of September 11th in the back of my mind. This idea of fighting the system that is holding people back, the same system that holds one of the most powerful countries together, is a incredibly scary proposition. Both films have visions of this and both tend to not take a side. The side that I speak of is of course promoting violence or promoting violence for “the right thing” and the only real indicator of “the right thing” is the audiences’ interpretation of the source material. So does violence hold the key to the civil pursuit of equality or does it just bring us back a step when we could be taking two forward?
Director and actor Spike Lee presents his "truth" about race relations in his movie Do the Right Thing. The film exhibits the spectacle of black discrimination and racial altercations. Through serious, angry, and loud sounds, Lee stays true to the ethnicity of his characters, all of which reflect their own individualism. Lee uses insulting diction and intense scenes to show how severe racism can lead to violence. As a film, Do the Right Thing is a study in how cinematography can effectively add credence to plot and character development. The film's sensual details, such as the hot, sticky, suffocating heat of a summer day, are visually stunning. Since weather plays a significant role in the film from start to finish, it is the oppressive summer heat, which stokes racial conflicts to the surface, driving the film to its tragic and violent climax; the cinematographer's use of light and color increases its visual power. Early on in the films preproduction, Spike Lee knew that the emphasis of heat was important to the film's credibility (Hill 64).
Not only was color and setting a major component in the films success of conveying realism, but also the music that Lee used is defying and relevant to the topic of violence and terror. The song that immediately springs to mind is Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." With its driving, mind-numbing beat, and its powerful lyrics knocking down America's favorite cultural heroes, the song anticipated the firestorm that would greet the film upon its release. Public Enemy, a political rap group, had been sparking controversies with their defiant, pro-Black rap lyrics long before Spike Lee commissioned them to record a song specifically for the film (Scott 4).
Do the Right Thing poses a question that seems simple from the outset: what is the proper way for society to address racism in America? Yet such a question can only demand an answer that is anything but simple. Should it be done through dialogue and understanding? Confrontation, or positive direction of energy? Violence or self-defense?
The biases reflected through Do the Right Thing model those of today which has kept society in a constant feud for so long. The famous quotes that precede the final scene in the film are both contradicting and undecided. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke,
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
This quote reflects Kings ideals that he used in his fight against black oppression, by arguing with the masses that violence can never be justified under any circumstances. This was then followed by the late Malcolm X’s quote,
I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence.
Two leaders with two completely different views of how to deal with society, both were taken by their causes and both lead the African American people to a better world. These quotes may have very well influenced the Spook Who Sat By The Door with their idealistic views and empowering message these also reflect greatly on the black militancy brought about by Dan Freeman, the titular protagonist.
The film is explosive in the fact that it embodies all the problems with white America and all the ideals of an educated race. This black man is the first ever to by accepted by the CIA, a feat deemed impossible, and then given job to sit at a desk by a door to improve a white politician's image as an "equal opportunity employer" and is nothing more than another colored man that got shut down by the system. The real mind boggling and powerful part is that Freeman then uses the CIA’s techniques against them when he teaches it to young adults that are considered by society to be problems, problems that would be better off if they never existed. These drug dealers and weapon peddlers are turned into faces of hope for the black community in Chicago, but the real controversy comes from the way that it is obtained, through violence.
On the heels of revolution this film seems to embody the struggles that violent nature seems to create, with many black and white scenarios. One for instance parallels Spike Lee’s film with a riot that occurs directly after a young black man is murdered by police officers. These scenes are shot to look horrifying and not empowering, with quick edits to provide little theory of what is happening to the people involved and little insight of what is going through their minds. The people in these shots appear to look like packs of wolves, violent animals with no regard to their actions. This is then placed next to another portion of the film that shows similar acts in uniform and organized fashion or in other words “intelligent”.
But, all this comes at a cost, at the end of The Spook Who Sat By The Door the main character ends up killing an old friend that tries to stop him from continuing his violent path. These two characters shared the same views and opinions but were eventually divided on how to handle such a crisis. One could say that the violence was the only way of turning a band of criminals, criminals that were created by the system of which they live in, into a united front that wants equality. Others though could point out that the violence hurts the best people and makes others hurt themselves, represented through the act of Freeman killing his friend in the name of justice. So where does it stop? If one cannot even make reason with his own race, his own brother?
Through the acts of violence in both of these movies, they both never make up their minds on the issue. In Lee’s film he uses the death of Radio Raheem to justify the riot and destruction of Sal’s pizzeria, but then shows that all the violence never stopped the inevitable from happening, a new day came and no change in the condition of which you live. Dixon does it through the black man slaying his own flesh and justifying it through revolution, then eluding that more factions were growing to do the same thing in other cities. This provides comparison to historic events go back just ten years or one hundred. These filmmakers take from their heritage; the killing of King to the civil war, both showing that one act can lead to the opposite. With Martin Luther King’s assassination a riot broke out that ravaged Washington D.C. convey the opposing beliefs of King, with anger and hurt. Then with the civil war it pit the north against the south, both of same color but with different views of freedom and rights.
It seems that with violence comes violence and that Americans will never know what we want. When September 11th struck we wanted revenge, we wanted to punish the ones responsible, so we struck back with war. But this has lead to thousands more deaths and an endless fight. It seems that even one of the most powerful nations cannot tell the difference between violence and fighting, just like Spike Lee and Ivan Dixon cannot decide what way black people should rise up against oppressors. This is a new neo-realistic world we live in, with the worst economic downturn ever and death at its highest rate in years, how can we the people decide who to follow. The call of greats ring true in our minds and even when living in a different world then the one just ten years ago, the words of true leaders stay true. So who will you follow? Dr. Martin Luther King jr. or Malcolm X?
Works Cited
Hill, Logan. "How I Made It: Spike Lee on 'Do the Right Thing'." New York 41(2008): 64-5.
Scott, Cynthia C.. "Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing : An Explosive Film That Continues to Spark Questions About Racism in America." Associated Content (2006): 1-9.
Thomas , Greg. "SPOOKS, SEX & SOCIO-DIAGNOSTICS: ROBERT F. WILLIAMS ON WHITE 'JUNGLE' SOCIETY'S SADISTIC INSANITY." PROUD FLESH: A New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness (2002)
Dixon, Ivan (Dir.) 1973. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Film). United Artists/Bokari Ltd.
Lee, Spike (Dir,) 1989. Do The Right Thing (Film). Universal
