Post by klep on Feb 27, 2017 8:17:18 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/27: Devil in a Blue Dress
FOURTH WEEK OF BLACK FILM MONTH
Devil in a Blue Dress is a movie set in the 1940's, shot like it was made in the 1970's, but actually made in the 1990's. And perhaps that's how it had to be. It's hard to imagine this story told with the same sort of gloss as, say, L.A. Confidential. Its misdeeds are uglier, more grimy, and they call for a little bit of film grain.
It's also hard to imagine this film being made much earlier than the 1990's. Devil in a Blue Dress isn't interested in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. It's set in Watts, and it deals head-on with the perils of being black in America, particularly in that time period. Much of the basic plot - man asked to find girl, finds he's in too deep in a morass of corruption - is fairly standard noir, but the mere fact that protagonist Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) is black adds a whole new layer of peril to the story.
When Sam Spade's partner dies at the beginning of The Maltese Falcon, Bogart is naturally under suspicion, but police give him some benefit of the doubt. When people die around Easy in this film the police not only immediately round him up and give him a beating, but they make it clear that they want to pin it all on him and don't particularly care whether or not he's guilty. Every time Easy is in an even slightly tenuous situation, there's a palpable feeling that just being seen there could doom him.
But race isn't just Easy's problem. The big climactic reveal of the film is that the white woman he's been sent to find (Daphne, played by Jennifer Beals) is actually half-black, and the black gangster everyone assumed was her lover is actually her half-brother. This mere accident of birth is so scandalous that it resulted in her fiancé being blackmailed out of the mayoral race. Indeed, the film strongly suggests that in its world of post-war L.A. being engaged to a black woman was comparable to pedophilia.
And sadly, the film is probably not far wrong on that point. After all, while much progress has been made since those days, it's only been after great struggle and sacrifice on the part of the black community in the face of often brutal oppression and hatred, and it would be nearly 20 more years before a film predominately about black lives and black oppression would win Best Picture. The brutality and dismissiveness exhibited by the police towards Easy in the film are still with us today, and the Rodney King beating was a recent memory when Devil in a Blue Dress was being made. Hopefully in another 20 years this film will serve as a quaint artifact of uglier times, but we've got a long way to go to get there.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/6: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
BEST PICTURE WEEK!
Our next Movie of the Week is the only Best Picture winner to not win Best Picture. The first Academy Awards split the category into Outstanding Picture and Best Unique and Artistic Picture, of which Sunrise won the latter. Sunrise is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 2/23: The Lego Batman Movie
Last week's podcast concludes with a discussion of the latest film to feature the Caped Crusader. Wednesday we'll have a thread to discuss this new film and how portrayals of Batman on screen have evolved since Burton's initial take on the character.
FOURTH WEEK OF BLACK FILM MONTH
Devil in a Blue Dress is a movie set in the 1940's, shot like it was made in the 1970's, but actually made in the 1990's. And perhaps that's how it had to be. It's hard to imagine this story told with the same sort of gloss as, say, L.A. Confidential. Its misdeeds are uglier, more grimy, and they call for a little bit of film grain.
It's also hard to imagine this film being made much earlier than the 1990's. Devil in a Blue Dress isn't interested in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. It's set in Watts, and it deals head-on with the perils of being black in America, particularly in that time period. Much of the basic plot - man asked to find girl, finds he's in too deep in a morass of corruption - is fairly standard noir, but the mere fact that protagonist Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) is black adds a whole new layer of peril to the story.
When Sam Spade's partner dies at the beginning of The Maltese Falcon, Bogart is naturally under suspicion, but police give him some benefit of the doubt. When people die around Easy in this film the police not only immediately round him up and give him a beating, but they make it clear that they want to pin it all on him and don't particularly care whether or not he's guilty. Every time Easy is in an even slightly tenuous situation, there's a palpable feeling that just being seen there could doom him.
But race isn't just Easy's problem. The big climactic reveal of the film is that the white woman he's been sent to find (Daphne, played by Jennifer Beals) is actually half-black, and the black gangster everyone assumed was her lover is actually her half-brother. This mere accident of birth is so scandalous that it resulted in her fiancé being blackmailed out of the mayoral race. Indeed, the film strongly suggests that in its world of post-war L.A. being engaged to a black woman was comparable to pedophilia.
And sadly, the film is probably not far wrong on that point. After all, while much progress has been made since those days, it's only been after great struggle and sacrifice on the part of the black community in the face of often brutal oppression and hatred, and it would be nearly 20 more years before a film predominately about black lives and black oppression would win Best Picture. The brutality and dismissiveness exhibited by the police towards Easy in the film are still with us today, and the Rodney King beating was a recent memory when Devil in a Blue Dress was being made. Hopefully in another 20 years this film will serve as a quaint artifact of uglier times, but we've got a long way to go to get there.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/6: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
BEST PICTURE WEEK!
Our next Movie of the Week is the only Best Picture winner to not win Best Picture. The first Academy Awards split the category into Outstanding Picture and Best Unique and Artistic Picture, of which Sunrise won the latter. Sunrise is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 2/23: The Lego Batman Movie
Last week's podcast concludes with a discussion of the latest film to feature the Caped Crusader. Wednesday we'll have a thread to discuss this new film and how portrayals of Batman on screen have evolved since Burton's initial take on the character.