Selma (2014) + 50 years

Today - March 7, 2015 - marks the 50th anniversary of the "boody Sunday" protest march in Selma Alabama, USA of March 7, 1965.

On that day, hundreds of black marchers set out to walk all the way to  Montgomery (Alabama's capitol) to protest their inability to vote. After they crossed the Pettus bridge in Selma they were stopped by Alabama state troopers who beat them and sprayed them with tear gas. And history records that Martin Luther King Jr eventually led the successful march, which included people from all over the United States, white and black.

Selma (2014) is all about how these events took place, with a special focus on Dr. King's crucial leadership role. David Oyellowo, who was very good in The Help (2011), embodies Dr. King and is exceptional. The actress who plays his wife Corretta is also really good.

I think the best kinds of movies entertain and educate at the same time. Selma is such a movie for me, one I want to experience again. It not only impresses me visually with the period sets/costumes and striking cinematography, but it also inspires me to read more and learn more about this part of America's history, and the many people that are portrayed in the film, such as the character Oprah Winfrey plays, a woman who is denied the right to vote in a humiliating way.

Selma was only nominated for two Oscars, but I thought it should have earned at least two more for its lead actor and for its director (Ava DuVernay) who does a commendable job of bringing these events to life.

Though it wasn't showered with Oscars, I do think this film will be viewed again in the years and decades to come and will be remembered as not only one of one of the best films of 2014, but one of the best films about the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

July 13 1991: Do The Right Thing aired on CBS TV

Twenty years ago today, July 13, 1991, it was a Saturday night: Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing aired on CBS tonight. It was the film's network TV debut, and it aired from 8 to 10:30 p.m. The film was edited for television and the network issued a viewer-discretion advisory before the movie started.

I had seen the movie before in early 1990 when it was released on VHS videotape, and wanted to watch the TV airing. I was curious to see how it was edited for television.  Instead of "MF" (the F word was used about 200 times in the film) the minced oath "Mickey Fickey" was dubbed in, an odd choice it seems; a clip of this can be found here on the BET site. It sort-of worked because the words matched the lip movements. Even though the film's profanity had to be cleaned up, it was still an intense film.

After the movie aired, the local news featured a story about one of the weekend's new movies opening at the box-office: Boyz N The Hood, which like the movie airing tonight, was another film about an inner city black neighborhood. Boyz N The Hood faced some controversy because it was about gang violence and some theaters in Los Angeles cancelled showings of the films. The local newscast brought cameras down to some local theaters and reported from outside the theaters.

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Additional Source:

CBS Is Said to Get 10 Films To Show Before Cable TV
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
Published: April 09, 1990

Universal Pictures has agreed to license 10 films that were released in 1989 to CBS for about $55 million, industry executives said.

Generally, after films have completed their theatrical run and been released on videocassette, they become available to cable channels like Home Box Office and Showtime. But under the CBS deal, the movies will air in the 1990-1991 season, about two years earlier than they usually would have been shown on the networks.

The movies covered by the agreement include ''Born on the Fourth of July,'' ''Sea of Love,'' ''Field of Dreams,'' ''Do The Right Thing,'' ''Uncle Buck,'' ''Canine,'' ''Fletch Lives,'' ''The Wizard,'' ''Renegades'' and ''Shocker.''

CBS and MCA Inc., the parent of Universal, have reportedly been in talks for some time. It is unclear whether CBS is paying a premium to get the films and whether Universal will receive enough money to offset the money it forfeited by not selling the films to pay television.

Universal and CBS executives declined to comment on the agreement.

No Way Out (1950) with Sidney Poitier

No Way Out is a really great, underrated film from 1950. It features the film debut of Sidney Poitier, who plays a young doctor who has to treat Richard Widmark's racist character. I think it was ahead of its time in tackling race and racism on screen; few other movies in this same period were touching the subject. There are quite a few uses of the N word, also surprising to hear back in 1950 in movies. 

Sidney playing a doctor in his first film is something truly groundbreaking.  The movie, even though it is a bit dated, is still watchable today, and holds up better than many films of the same era. 

Also starring Linda Darnell. Available on DVD/Netflix.

Stars In My Crown (1950)

From MGM: One of the several Western gems directed by Jacques Tourneur. IMO this film, which takes place in a small town right after the civil war, is one of the most underrated from this era, and one of Tourneur's and star Joel McCrea's best. This movie and "No Way Out" with Sidney Poitier (also released in 1950) were two Hollywood dramas ahead of their time dealing with the subject of racism. Tourneur was very sensitive to the issue, and in his films, black characters were always portrayed positively. McCrea is new-in-town, tough-but-compassionate preacher Josiah Gray, and Dean Stockwell plays his young adopted son John. Josiah comes to the town to build a church and provide spiritual comfort for the sick. An unseen, adult John narrates the film; in one scene we're treated to a very entertaining sequence -- my favorite in the movie -- where young John is called on stage to be a traveling showman's assistant in his magic show. But the rest of the film's tone is a serious one; John describes how his best fishing buddy was Uncle Famous (played by Juano Hernandez), a freed slave and one of the major supporting characters in the film. Throughout the movie he's threatened by the racist townfolk, but finds encouragement in the friendship of Josiah and his family. Meanwhile, the faith of town doctor Dr. Harris (played by All My Children's James Mitchell) is tested when the town breaks out with a contageous disease, which may or may not have been spread by young John. With Ellen Drew as Josiah's wife, Lewis Stone as Dr. Harris' father, and Ed Begley, who does not play a very nice person in this. When does he ever? This is not your average "stranger-in-town-who-touches the-lives-of-the-townsfolk" picture. The ending is powerfully moving. The film is unforgettable. Based on the novel by Joe David Brown, who also wrote Kings Go Forth and Addie Pray.

Postscript: James Mitchell passed away on January 23, 2010. Read a tribute by Laura at her blog here.

A review from the blog Just a Cineaste here.

A Patch of Blue (1965)

This film is memorable for being one of the first films to tackle the subject of interracial couples (Sidney Poitier and Elizabeth Hartman). 

A touching element of the story is that Hartman is blind, and loves Sidney regardless of the color of his skin.

Shelley Winters plays her racist mother. She's so mean in this film that I didn't like her for a long time. Not until I saw her in The Diary of Anne Frank and The Poseidon Adventure. 

The performances are brilliant, as is the direction. I also enjoy the location shots on real city streets and in a real grocery store where you can see how low prices were back then. 

It is also a film that I think many can relate to, even in our modern times, because the characters are so familiar to real people that we likely know or have heard about. 

Every time I re-watch this movie, it just keeps getting better and better, and is one of those movies that really holds up well after so many years. 

Song of the South (1946)

Producer Walt Disney had a dream project of bringing the American folklore of "Uncle Remus" to the big screen. He wanted animated sequences of his tall tales featuring the mischievous and cunning "Brer Rabbit" character. This movie is the result, but due to its offensive racial stereotypes it has not been showed in theaters since 1986 (when I first saw it as a kid).

The setting is the deep South. Little Johnny (Bobby Driscoll) is traveling from Atlanta to a plantation mansion (he thinks it's a vacation --- his parents have ulterior motives)...he travels along with his mother (Ruth Warrick from "Citizen Kane") and father, as well as their maid played by Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel.

There are a few nice scenes in the movie with McDaniel & Uncle Remus talking together, but not many. The entire movie is told from little Johnny's point of view---he hates having to stay in this big house, owned by his mean old grandmother (Lucille Watson, from "Watch on the Rhine"). He's also suspicious of why his father has to move back to Atlanta without him and mom (he writes un-explained controversial articles for a local newspaper). Further explanation of the father's actions may be too "adult" in nature for a kid's film, though. The parents later reunite.

Johnny runs away first chance he can get (can you blame him?), but meets up with the famous Uncle Remus, who tells him a tale of Brer Rabbit running away from his briar patch but finds nothing but trouble. Basically Uncle Remus is teaching him a lesson in "staying put".

Johnny then meets up with a little girl named Ginny; she gives him a little puppy and then her two mean brothers pick on him.

Remus then tells Johnny a few stories about bullies Brer Fox and Brer Bear. All these stories eventually teaches Johnny valuable life lessons.

The mean white adults don't appreciate Remus, and scold him for keeping Johnny after curfue with his tall tales.

Movie turns very sentimental when Remus, feeling unappreciated, decides to move out and away to Atlanta. Little Johnny races after Remus begging him to come back, but in the process, he gets trampled by a bull and almost dies. Remus tells another tale of Brer Rabbit.

I remember seeing this movie in the the theaters in 1986 when I was 10 years old. All the racist stuff flew over my head, and I was bored with all the drama and scenes with the humans - I just wanted to see more of the cartoon sequences with Brer Rabbit - which are just about 20 minutes in the 90 minute film. Seeing the film again in its entirety again as an adult I am able to appreciate the moral of the story and what Disney was trying to express on the screen. He meant it to be an inspiring film with alot of toe tapping and hummable tunes. A film like this is most definitely a product of it's time.

Read more about this film and its sources from the blog Voyages Extraordinaires (from Jan 2019)

Trivia:
"Zip A Dee Doo Dah" won the Oscar for Best Song of the year.