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JKERRY
Reviews
The Wiz (1978)
this film was doomed from the start
This film was indeed doomed from the start. I can remember eagerly anticipating this film in the mid 70's. The film however DID have a couple of things going for itself; 1. Quincy Jone's genius and Oscar/Grammy worthy score (Lena Horne's performance of "believe in yourself" is worth the rental alone!) 2. the hit broadway play of the same title. Surrounded by controversy and negative publicity (who would go see a all black cast of an American film classic in the mid 70's?). It's hard to imagine but black cinema in this era was limited to the so called "blaxploitation" films i.e. Shaft, the Mack, Superfly and so forth. I was a 17 y/o black man when this film came in production and was eager to see it's progress. So it came as no surprise that this undertaking in Hollywood would be the "break-away" project for black cinema. A young (early 20's), vibrant (and very african-american looking) Stephanie Mills who made the role a hit on broadway was shun for a more mature (mid 30's), well known, role proven (indeed her role in Lady sings the Blues was Oscar worthy)Diana Ross. Hollywood it appears, has learned that talent and reputation alone does not make a movie. On paper this should have been a tour-de-force with the likes of Quincy Jones, Richard Pryor, Michael Jackson (with his original nose), the brilliant Nipsey Russell, Diana Ross (who is painful to my eyes) Sydney Lument (off the heels of Dog day afternoon, Network,and Serpico), and a list of who's who of black entertainment of the day. On celluloid however, it fails. If the original Wizard of Oz were released today (unfair, you say? I know-but it's MY review! :) it would fair well, in contrast the Wiz would indeed "fiz"... But the advantage today is you can either rent it for a buck at blockbuster or catch it on VH-1.
Malcolm X (1992)
brilliant
Malcolm X, the Black panthers, soul brothers, power to the people,..those words spoken in the 60's and 70's spark images of riots, impatience, anger. And yet after the smoke has lifted (not cleared) we see layer by layer echoes of thoughts and sentiment from black ancestors who where silenced by the systematic social-polictical machinery. The 20' thru 40's were a MF for blks in the south. The popularity of radio and TV put social and economical issue in our living rooms. Ask yourself, as a dominating presence in America,and evaluating the Black role in it's economics would you stand and allow a system that basically "tortured" both physically and mentally an entire race? (exaggerating? hardly;). Ask the four girls in Alabama who died in the church bombing. What has this to do with X? Remember that bully in grade school? The one tha humiliated you and you could'nt do a damn thing about him? Remember now as an adult and meeting up with that bully? This man was not a Castro, Stalin, or an Amin, he simply said if you swing at me, I'm going to swing back. You cannot appreciate a movie/documentary of this
man w/o knowing/bearing the pain. Sure he started out a hustler, pimp, drug pusher,addict etc. and eventually became one of the prominent leaders in the black community-(although not black America as a whole). Where would he be today? Probally on Larry King, maybe. Anyway this movie is based largely on the brilliant autobiography by Alex Haley nothing more, nothing less. Mr Lee's crown jewel. The reason it was shun at the Oscar's are obvious. Mr Washington's portral of Malcolm is uncanny, brilliant and possibly his best. (Oh sure I remember him getting the Oscar nod as a confederate slave in Glory as whitey crack his ass up and down with a whip). But for this so called black militant? Hollywood likes (or so they say) to award the "feel good" movies of the day. How about movies rated on their merits alone? You know what-F__ Hollywood!