8 Movies | Saturdays in February
TCM celebrates Black History Month with eight masterworks of Black cinema. From the obscure to the highly regarded, these films represent the important roles Black actors and filmmakers played over the course of film history as well as their cultural influence. They’re also indicative of the ongoing struggle to break from stereotype to get complex and nuanced stories out to the public.
Coming of Age
Cooley High (1975) is a touchstone film that broke the mold in its representation of Black characters on screen. Set in 1964 on Chicago’s Near North Side, the film follows a group of high school friends in their last year at Cooley Vocational High School. Based on the real-life experiences of writer Eric Monte, Cooley High seamlessly blends moments of joy and struggle in a series of entertaining vignettes backed with a stellar soundtrack of Motown hits. Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Glynn Turman both shine as Cochise and Preach, best friends who have a special bond but are on two very different paths in life. About Cooley High, director Michael Schultz said “no one had seen real love on screen between Black kids. What I knew was, this was unique in terms of humor and tragedy and the strong bond between these Black boys. And if I could show these things—hijinks, heartbreak—then the movie could stick around for a long time.” And stick around it did. Cooley High has had long-lasting effects on popular culture and inspired many artists—the R&B group Boyz II Men even titled their debut album “Cooleyhighharmony”—along the way.
During the height of the Blaxploitation era when movies like Shaft (1971) and Superfly (1972) became part of the cultural zeitgeist, Sounder (1972) offered the public with something completely different; a movie that could be enjoyed by the whole family. Directed by Martin Ritt and based on the award-winning children’s novel by William H. Armstrong, Sounder is a heartfelt family drama with widespread appeal. Set in the rural South in the throes of the Great Depression, Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield play sharecroppers who struggle to care for their children. While the book focused more on Sounder, the family’s coonhound dog, writer Lonne Elder III’s screenplay shifted the focus towards the family with expanded roles for the two leads and the eldest son David Lee, played by Kevin Hooks. According to film historian Wil Haygood, “the film—a rare crossover moneymaker—also became the first Black-themed picture whose studio, Fox, went about unleashing a vigorous screening campaign, showing it more than five hundred times before its opening in theatres across the country.” The following year Sounder caught the attention of the Academy with Oscar nominations for Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson. Elder became the first Black screenwriter to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Soldier’s Stories
An outlier in director John Ford’s lengthy filmography, Sergeant Rutledge (1960) is his only film to feature a Black protagonist and one of the few films of the era to tackle the controversial topic of rape. It also represents a shift in Ford’s work towards more racial consciousness, something severely lacking in his previous films. Set in the 1880s, Woody Strode stars as Braxton Rutledge, a Sergeant in the 9th Calvary, one of four all-Black units who fought to protect the Western frontier. Rutledge has been court-martialed after being accused of the rape and murder a young white woman (Toby Michaels as Lucy). Juano Hernandez plays a small yet powerful role as Sergeant Skidmore, a fellow Sergeant and Rutledge’s character witness at his trial. Part Western and part message movie, Sergeant Rutledge switches back and forth from courtroom drama and murder mystery through a series of flashbacks. What stands out most about the film is Woody Strode’s commanding performance. A former athlete, Strode’s physical prowess and stature coupled with his sensitive portrayal challenged prevailing notions of Black male sexuality on screen. While Rutledge was the title role, Strode got third billing after white actors Jeffrey Hunter and Constance Towers. His potential as an actor suffered from a lack of leading roles. Strode went on to work with Ford on three more films Two Rode Together (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and 7 Women (1965).
A Soldier’s Story (1984) was the second of three films in which director Norman Jewison tackled the difficult subject of racism. Set in rural Louisiana during the final days of WWII, Howard E. Rollins, Jr. stars as Captain Richard Davenport, a JAG officer sent to investigate the murder of Vernon Waters (Adolph Caesar), a Sergeant in an all-Black Army unit. All fingers point to the murder being a hate crime but as the mystery unfolds the story takes a different direction. Based on Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, “A Soldier’s Play,” the story was a loose adaptation of Herman Melville’s novella “Billy Budd.” Warner Bros. originally paid for the movie rights but the project ended up bouncing from studio to studio until it eventually landed at Columbia. The commercial value of A Soldier’s Story, given its provocative subject matter, came into question. Jewison, who felt very strongly about the script, offered to waive his director’s fee as a cost saving measure. In the end, he agreed to the lowest fee allowed by the Directors Guild of America and cast lesser-known actors in many of the principal roles. A Soldier’s Story is driven by powerhouse performances including one by then up-and-comer Denzel Washington. The film’s distribution was almost derailed by a PG-R rating (a precursor to PG-13) which Jewison fought back against and won. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Adolph Caesar.
When a Stranger Comes to Town
Paving the way for films like A Soldier’s Story was the Norman Jewison vehicle In the Heat of the Night (1967). In this detective drama set in the deep South, Sidney Poitier delivers a masterful performance in his iconic role of Virgil Tibbs. Poitier plays beautifully opposite method actor Rod Steiger in his Academy Award winning role of Police Chief Bill Gillespie. Poitier was instrumental in the film’s success. He insisted on filming in the North rather than in Mississippi due to a dangerous encounter he and actor Harry Belafonte had traveling in the segregated South. Production moved to Sparta, Illinois which stood in for Sparta, Mississippi. Then there was the “slap heard ‘round the world.” The script called for Larry Gates, who played Eric Endicott, to slap Tibbs. Poitier insisted that his character slap him back, resulting in one of the most powerful moments in cinematic history. Also, Poitier’s delivery of the statement “They call me Mister Tibbs!” became one of the most quoted lines of any film. In the Heat of the Night was also notable for cinematographer Haskell Wexler’s use of lighting with special consideration for Poitier’s darker skin tone. In the Heat of the Night was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won several including the coveted Best Picture Oscar. Poitier went on to play Detective Virgil Tibbs in two more films: They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) and The Organization (1971).
One of the brilliant minds to come out of the L.A. Rebellion film movement is acclaimed filmmaker Charles Burnett. His work primarily focuses on working-class Black families, in particular Southern transplants adjusting to life in Los Angeles. Burnett was inspired by his own family’s story and he wrote and directed To Sleep with Anger (1990), a subdued drama about the familial tensions brought on when a mysterious figure from the past comes to visit. Danny Glover plays Harry, a trickster and disruptor who brings bad energy to the family abode. To Sleep with Anger is an intergenerational drama with a touch of magical realism. The story explores themes of tradition, modernity, morality and superstition and features an all-Black cast. About the film, Burnett said, “we tried to find something that relates to them other than something manufactured by people who have no idea what Black life is like. We were looking for stories that spoke to people of color told by people of color, things they hadn’t seen onscreen before that represents a common culture.” To Sleep with Anger has been called a neglected masterpiece and a hidden gem of independent Black cinema. It initially suffered from a very limited theatrical release. However, the film went on to win various critic awards and has garnered more appreciation in recent years, including being added to the National Film Registry in 2017.
Independent Women
Losing Ground (1982) was one of the first feature length movies directed by a Black woman. Kathleen Collins was a teacher, poet, activist and filmmaker and Losing Ground was one of two films she made. Shot in New York and made on a shoestring budget, the film follows Sara Rogers (Seret Scott), a philosophy professor, and her artist husband Victor (Bill Gunn) as their professional pursuits and search for individual freedom and ecstasy drives them apart. Collins adeptly explores the tension between intellect and creativity and logic and reason. Bright colors and a picturesque setting contrast with the characters emotional turmoil. A movie-within-the-movie casts Professor Rogers as part of a vaudeville duo with Duke (Duane Jones), an enigmatic actor and Rogers’ new love interest. Rogers was cast by one of her students who was so taken with her and lovingly described her as reminiscent of Pearl McCormack in The Scar of Shame (1929) and Dorothy Dandridge in Bright Road (1953). Despite Losing Ground’s success on the festival circuit, it never got a theatrical release. Years later, Losing Ground was rediscovered thanks to the help of Collins’ daughter Nina who had the film professionally restored. In the past couple of years, Losing Ground was added to the National Film Registry and was recently distributed by Milestone and Kino Lorber.
Cheryl Dunye’s semi-autobiographical debut film The Watermelon Woman (1996) is groundbreaking. Dunye was the first out Black lesbian to direct a feature-length film and it is considered by many to be a landmark in both Black and lesbian cinema. It is recognized as part of the New Queer Cinema movement, or Queer New Wave, of the 1990s in which independent filmmakers were driving the narrative about queerness. The idea for The Watermelon Woman came to Dunye as she conducted research on Black lesbians in early film history. Her research came up empty, so she made one up: a fictitious 1930s actress Fae Richards (Lisa Marie Bronson), dubbed the “Watermelon Woman,” a play on the title of Melvin Van Peeble’s film Watermelon Man (1970). Dunye’s film focuses on Black joy rather than Black suffering and explores themes of lesbian love, interracial relationships, friendship and film studies. Dunye stars as a version of herself, a video store clerk who begins a romance with a customer and searches for information about the elusive Watermelon Woman. Dunye caught flack for featuring an extended lesbian sex scene in a film partially funded by an NEA grant. However, for Dunye the scene was a political act because it depicted not only two women making love but also a Black woman experiencing sexual pleasure. About the representation of Black characters on film Dunye said “there are so many Blacknesses. There is not one kind of monolithic Black life or identity. There’s every kind of Blackness.”
