The theme of 'forbidden love' is a fascinating one, and will be with us for all time. But the truth is, I felt very little chemistry between Flipper and Angie! Times have changed, thank god, and people are a little more relaxed about relationships between races of all kinds, but when it comes to interracial love relationships there are still certain things that I find arresting and certain things that fail to capture my interest. JUNGLE FEVER is about many things except what the title implies. This is okay, and a few other themes in the film are well explored. Everything except the core concept which gives a title to this film.
After all, what is JUNGLE FEVER? What generates or causes it to come about? Is it Eldridge Cleaver's concept of the Super Masculine and Super Feminine? A woman of high social standing granting sexual favor to a man of low social standing because of sexual attraction between them? Or perhaps it's the exact opposite? When you have JUNGLE FEVER what are the signs and symptoms? What should you look out for and what should you avoid? Is it something you are bound to catch no matter how much you strive to resist it? Can you somehow guard against it? How do you catch it and what is the antidote for it? Before the turn of the 21st Century, people did not particularly look to have love relationships outside their race. The passion usually had to be great enough to compel one to cross the color line. For every man or woman there were perhaps a handful of people they would be willing to cross the color line for at the risk of social condemnation. But it was usually understood beforehand that this was a minority or nonconformist choice.
Now when it comes to interracial relationships in films there are two things that I find appealing. The first is does the couple in question look physically compatible? Do they look like they belong together despite the physical difference of color? The second is whether or not you can sense magnetism between the couple in question or what people call these days 'chemistry'. Can you sense now or developing within the narrative a sense of 'bonding'? There was much ado about Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X and having his little interracial affair with Kate Vernon playing a blond white woman named Sophia. But when they sat together and spoke no lines you sensed a physical parity between the couple. They were both very good looking people of somewhat similar features and you could reasonably and easily see how they might come together on the basis of physical attraction or magnetism. Later on, in scenes with Angela Bassett playing Betty Shabazz, you also felt physical and emotional parity between Malcolm X and his wife.
Between Wesley Snipes playing Flipper and Annabella Sciorra playing Angie I didn't sense any particular physical or emotional parity or when they were in the same space did it feel like they 'belonged' together. Nor did it seem to me either of them was resisting or fighting against catching the 'fever', before finally succumbing to it. It just seemed like Flipper and Angie got to know each other and decided to have casual sex. This is not particularly flattering, but it is as though Angie could have been anybody.
Sidney Poitier was in two films where physical parity and emotional parity were either present or in the process of developing. In A PATCH OF BLUE there was some physical parity between the female lead and Sidney and you got the feeling you would not mind seeing them together. There was a certain dignity to them being together despite any social or cultural objections that could be raised or voiced. This was also true in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER where there was less physical parity, but you felt there was some kind of emotional bond already established between the man and the woman that would brook no interference and could not be revoked simply to meet the approval of others.
Most films about interracial relationships swing between the extremes of being too staid or verge upon the pornographic. Both forms have their particular beauty to them. JUNGLE FEVER has a little of both approaches, but is actually more about the reactions of family and friends to this 'odd couple' rather than the intensity of emotions that have somehow bonded them together.
After all, what is JUNGLE FEVER? What generates or causes it to come about? Is it Eldridge Cleaver's concept of the Super Masculine and Super Feminine? A woman of high social standing granting sexual favor to a man of low social standing because of sexual attraction between them? Or perhaps it's the exact opposite? When you have JUNGLE FEVER what are the signs and symptoms? What should you look out for and what should you avoid? Is it something you are bound to catch no matter how much you strive to resist it? Can you somehow guard against it? How do you catch it and what is the antidote for it? Before the turn of the 21st Century, people did not particularly look to have love relationships outside their race. The passion usually had to be great enough to compel one to cross the color line. For every man or woman there were perhaps a handful of people they would be willing to cross the color line for at the risk of social condemnation. But it was usually understood beforehand that this was a minority or nonconformist choice.
Now when it comes to interracial relationships in films there are two things that I find appealing. The first is does the couple in question look physically compatible? Do they look like they belong together despite the physical difference of color? The second is whether or not you can sense magnetism between the couple in question or what people call these days 'chemistry'. Can you sense now or developing within the narrative a sense of 'bonding'? There was much ado about Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X and having his little interracial affair with Kate Vernon playing a blond white woman named Sophia. But when they sat together and spoke no lines you sensed a physical parity between the couple. They were both very good looking people of somewhat similar features and you could reasonably and easily see how they might come together on the basis of physical attraction or magnetism. Later on, in scenes with Angela Bassett playing Betty Shabazz, you also felt physical and emotional parity between Malcolm X and his wife.
Between Wesley Snipes playing Flipper and Annabella Sciorra playing Angie I didn't sense any particular physical or emotional parity or when they were in the same space did it feel like they 'belonged' together. Nor did it seem to me either of them was resisting or fighting against catching the 'fever', before finally succumbing to it. It just seemed like Flipper and Angie got to know each other and decided to have casual sex. This is not particularly flattering, but it is as though Angie could have been anybody.
Sidney Poitier was in two films where physical parity and emotional parity were either present or in the process of developing. In A PATCH OF BLUE there was some physical parity between the female lead and Sidney and you got the feeling you would not mind seeing them together. There was a certain dignity to them being together despite any social or cultural objections that could be raised or voiced. This was also true in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER where there was less physical parity, but you felt there was some kind of emotional bond already established between the man and the woman that would brook no interference and could not be revoked simply to meet the approval of others.
Most films about interracial relationships swing between the extremes of being too staid or verge upon the pornographic. Both forms have their particular beauty to them. JUNGLE FEVER has a little of both approaches, but is actually more about the reactions of family and friends to this 'odd couple' rather than the intensity of emotions that have somehow bonded them together.