Month: February 2020

Release Date:   5/3/95
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  R
Director:  Mario Van Peebles
Studio(s):  Gramercy Pictures, MVP Films, Polygram Filmed Entertainment, Tribeca Productions, Working Title Films.
Running Time:  124 mins.

Cast:  Kadeem Hardison as Judge, Wesley Jonathan as Bobby Hutton. Bokeem Woodbine as Tyrone, Joe Don Baker as Brimmer, M. Emmet Walsh as Dorsett, Courtney B. Vance as Bobby Seale, Tyrin Turner as Cy, Marcus Chong as Huey P. Newton, Anthony Griffith as Eldridge Cleaver, Chris Rock as Yuck Mouth, Mario Van Peebles as Stokely Carmichael, Chris Tucker as Bodyguard, Bobby Brown as Rose, Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz, Jenifer Lewis as Rita, Dick Gregory as Reverend Slocum, James LeGros as Bob Avakian, Kool Moe Dee as Jamaal, Roger Guenveur Smith as Pruitt, Richard Dysart as J. Edgar Hoover, Michael Wincott as Tynan, Melvin Van Peebles as Old Jail Bird.

Story:   The People called them Heroes. The FBI called them Public Enemy Number One.  This semi-fictionalized account of the origins of the Black Panthers is set in Oakland California during the late 1960s, a time of tension but also a time for change.  The Black Panther movement for Self Defense is formed in response to the harassment and violence being suffered by the black community at the hands of the police.  Judge, a Vietnam veteran, returns home to where the Black Panthers, led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, have begun policing the police and monitoring their activities. Judge’s good friend Cy introduces him to Huey and the Black Panther credo which forever changes Judge’s life. Taken into Huey’s confidence, and pressured by the police to act as their informant, Judge raises the suspicions and animosity of fellow Panther Tyrone. The ensuing internal struggle is further exacerbated by the sudden overabundance of heroin available in the ghettos of Oakland, a solution tailored by the FBI in association with organized crime, to “neutralize” the black community and its leaders.

Details:  Panther is a fictionalized version of the rise and fall of a black radical movement that captured the imagination of its time, creating an armed, militant self-defense group that was an alternative to the nonviolent philosophy of Martin Luther King.  The group, which was active from 1966 until 1982, grew famous as the civil rights movement of the early 1960s was losing momentum after the assassination of King.  Their message was clear, White America could no longer count on pacifist blacks to patiently hold nonviolent marches.  News photos of Black Panthers, armed with rifles, patrolling the streets of Oakland or entering the California State Assembly, were among the key images of the time.

In the beginning the group’s core practice was its armed citizen’s patrols to challenge police brutality and they were involved in many fatal firefights with the police.  But the Panthers also instituted a variety of community social programs including Free Breakfast for Children and community health clinics for the education and treatment of diseases.  The Panthers began to feel the pressure of the FBI as its chief, J. Edgar Hoover, could not believe young blacks were capable of running such an organization, and described the party as the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.  He developed an extensive counterintelligence program designed to undermine Panther leadership, incriminate and assassinate party members, and to discredit, criminalize and drain the organization’s resources and manpower.  Soon the whole enterprise became deadly and dangerous.  The Party’s membership which had reached a peak in 1970 with offices in 68 cities and thousands of members began to dwindle throughout the 1970s and by 1980 had less than 30 members. Source(s): tcm.com; Rogerebert.com; Amazon; Google; Wikipedia; IMDB; Daarac.org.

Trailer:

Release Date:  2/2/13; Lifetime
Genre:  Drama/Biography
Rating:  TV-14
Director:  Yves Simoneau
Studio(s):  Sanitsky Company, Lifetime Movie Network
Running Time:  88 mins.

Cast:  Mary J. Blige (Dr. Betty Shabazz), Angela Bassett (Coretta Scott King), Ruby Dee (Narrator), Gloria Reuben (Myrlie Evers-Williams), Malik Yoba (Martin Luther King, Jr.), Tyler Hynes (Mike Fitzpatrick), Benz Antoine (Ralph Abernathy), Cherise Boothe (Toni Wallace), Nicki Whitely (Attalah), Tristan D. Lalla (Jesse), Lindsay Owen Pierre (Malcolm X), Alex C. Askew (Louis Farrakhan).

Story:  Focusing on the extraordinary women behind the two men who would change history, Betty & Coretta tells the stories of Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dr. Betty Shabazz, wife of Malcolm X.  When their husbands are tragically assassinated, these two women not only inherit the mantle of the civil rights movement in America, but also find themselves single mothers who have to find a way to raise and support their children on their own.  While many are familiar with the stories of Malcolm X and MLK, few know the stories of their devoted wives and the friendship that formed between the women after the assassinations of their husbands.

The movie picks up right before the assassinations of Malcolm (February 21, 1965) and Martin (April 4, 1968), and opens with Ruby Dee describing an era of racism, war, and poverty in America. Throughout the film Dee shares facts about the deaths of Dr. King and Malcolm X, the Black National Political Convention, where Coretta and Betty first meet, as well as the lives and deaths of both phenomenal women.

Mary J. Blige portrays a pregnant Betty Shabazz, who along with her four daughters watches as her husband is gunned down just as he takes the stage to deliver what would become his last message. After the assassination, Betty delivered twin girls, making her a single mother with six small children. With the help of friends and those in her community, Betty cared for her family and earned a doctorate degree in high-education administration. She became an associate professor at New York’s Medgar Evers College. Shabazz spent the rest of her life working as a university administrator and fundraiser, before dying on June 23, 1997 as a result of injuries sustained by a fire her 10-year-old grandson, Malcolm set in her home.

Angela Bassett plays widow, Coretta Scott King, who raises four children while remaining a leading participant in the Civil Rights Movement. She goes from being her husband’s motivator and partner in the movement to being a justice advocate to the world. In addition to lobbying for the national King Holiday, she became president, chair, and CEO of The King Center in Atlanta, GA. At the end of the movie, Ruby Dee notes that Mrs. King died in 2006, nine years after Dr. Shabazz, from ovarian cancer.

The movie spans three decades and weaves together the lives of these two civil rights activists.  It demonstrates how they were each powerful, strong, faithful, and devoted leaders in their own rights.

Details:  A corporate executive at A&E Network confirmed that the Shabazz and King families were not consulted for the film and some of the heirs were not happy with it.  Lifetime attempted to add credibility by featuring actress, Ruby Dee, as narrator, who was a dear friend of the Shabazz family.  Sources: Lifetime; Urban Faith; Essence; Commonsense.org; Variety; Shadow & Act; Moviestillsdb.com.

Trailer:

Release Date:  3/29/61 – New York City premiere
Genre:  Drama
Black & White
Rating:  NR
Director:  Daniel Petrie
Studio(s):  Columbia Pictures
Running Time:  128 mins.

Cast:   Sidney Poitier (Walter Lee Younger), Ruby Dee (Ruth Younger), Claudia McNeil (Lena Younger), Diana Sands (Beneatha Younger), Stephen Perry (Travis Younger), John Fiedler (Mark Lindner), Ivan Dixon (Joseph Asagai), Louis Gossett, Jr. (George Murchison), Joel Fluellen (Bobo), Roy Glenn (Willie Harris), Louis Terrel (Herman).

Details:  Adapted from the 1959 play of the same name by Lorraine Hansberry, the film follows members of a poor black family who desire a better life.  Voted One of the Year’s Ten Best Films by the 1961 New York Times Film Critics.  In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.  In 2008, a made-for -television version of the film was directed by Kenny Leon and starred Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, and Sanaa Lathan who reprised their roles from the 2004 revival.  

Story:  The Younger family—Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, younger sister Beneatha, son Travis and mother Lena—live in a small crowded apartment on Chicago’s South Side. They are anticipating a life insurance check for the death of Lena’s husband’s in the amount of $10,000, and each of them has an idea as to what to do with this money. Matriarch Lena wants to buy a house to fulfill the dream she shared with her deceased husband.  Walter Lee would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store so he can rise above his status of chauffeur for a wealthy white man. Ruth, wanting to provide more space and better opportunities for Travis, agrees with Lena. Beneatha would like to use the money to pay her medical school tuition.

Lena spends $3,500 for a down payment on a house in Clybourne Park.  Frustrated and angry, Walter Lee quarrels with his mother and wife, then storms out.  Lena finds him in a bar and, gives him the remaining $6,500.  She tells him to save $3,000 for Beneatha’s medical school and to take the remaining $3,500 for his own investments. Meanwhile, Ruth discovers she is pregnant and, fearing another child will add to the financial pressures, considers having an abortion. Walter voices no objection, but Lena is strongly against it.  Beneatha has her own drama and rejects her suitor George, believing he’s blind to the problems of their race. Her Nigerian classmate proposes to her, wanting to take her to Africa with him after they finish school, but she is unsure what to do.

When their future neighbors find out the Youngers are moving in, they send a hypocritical representative of an “improvement association,” Mark Lindner who offers to buy back the house at a higher price to preserve the community’s all-white character, but they refuse. Meanwhile, Walter loses the insurance money when one of his “partners in the liquor store scheme skips town with the money.

Realizing he has betrayed his mother’s trust, threatened his sister’s future, and thrown away his father’s life savings, Walter Lee desperately decides to take Lindner up on his offer, even while his family begs him not to sell away their dignity.  When Lindner arrives, Walter has a last-minute change of heart realizing that such a move would be a step backwards and rejects the offer once again. The Youngers eventually move out of their apartment, fulfilling their dream, though it means hard work and years of sacrifice for all.  Source(s):  Wikipedia, TCM, britannica.com, MoMA.org, Movingimage.us, mediayifyhdtorrent.net.

Trailer:

Release Date:  1/14/85; TV Movie
Genre:   Drama/Family
Rating:  NR
Director:  Michael Pressman
Studio(s):   Bonneville Entertainment
Running Time:  58 mins.

Cast:  Danny Glover (William), Pam Potillo (Rachel Henderson), LeVar Burton (Glenn Scott), Denise Nicholas (Mother), Andrew Prine (Sheriff Connelly), Prentiss Jackson (Kevin), Whitman Mayo (Reverend Wilson), Jamilla Perry (Little Girl), Amanda Peterson (Jenny), Beah Richards (Miss Annie), Philip Arthur Ross (Lloyd), Steven Robert Ross (Floyd).

Story:  This drama is a Rainbow Television Workshop production and looks at the effects of political change on children, who often prove wiser than their elders. The story takes place in 1964 and is set in the segregated town of Catesville, Mississippi.  Jenny, the daughter of the white sheriff, is best friends with Rachel, granddaughter of the sheriff’s black housekeeper.  The girls and their young friends get caught up in the firestorm surrounding the civil rights movement.  When a busload of civil rights activists arrive in Catesville determined to assure equal rights for blacks by helping to register voters, tension and distrust between the races grow.  Adults, both black and white, afraid of the inevitable changes that are surely coming, hang onto the old ways of handling their differences.  Rachel, along with her white friends, tries to ease the simmering racial tensions to help the town unite and overcome the barriers that divide them.  Source:  IMDB; Amazon; MSU Libraries; commonsensemedia.org; DAARAC.org.

Preview Clip: