DVD and movie guru Bill Kelley III gleaned the best movies that speak to or depict the black and African American experience. Check out his top thirteen list of fiction and non-fiction black films released on DVD in 2008-09.
“IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT: 40TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION”
DVD widescreen, 1967, not rated
Best extra: A featurette on Quincy Jones, whose jazz- and blues-flavored score for the movie broke new ground.
IT’S A TRIBUTE to the strong acting and storytelling of “In the Heat of the Night” that the movie can be watched not just as a historical artifact but also as a tense drama. The story of a black police officer and white sheriff solving a murder mystery in an overheated, racist Mississippi town is now so familiar that even those who haven’t seen the movie know the setup. Despite this familiarity, “Heat,” anchored by the performances of Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, holds up remarkably well.
“Heat” celebrates its 40th anniversary with a new release including three featurettes that turn the spotlight on its place in movie history. Winner for best title: “The Slap Heard Around the World,” a rumination on the scene in which Poitier is slapped by a white aristocrat – and slaps him right back. “Turning up the Heat” takes a look at the tension of making a 60s-era racially charged movie. The most interesting of the three, however, is one on Qunicy Jones, who is now a respected elder of the music industry, but was then a young innovator.
The release also includes an excellent commentary – not new to this disc, but a carryover from a previous one – that splices together the words of director Norman Jewison, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, Steiger and actress Lee Grant. Compelling and entertaining, it’s a tightly edited discussion of the movie that captures Steiger’s bluster and Jewison’s thoughtfulness very effectively – an excellent second course for anyone who’s hungry for more about this movie.
— Caroline Luzzatto
“THE EXPRESS”
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2008, PG for thematic content, violence and language involving racism, and for brief sensuality
Best extra: The Blu-ray only “50th Anniversary of the Syracuse National Championship” examines the 1959 National Championship team, through vintage game film and interviews with surviving team members.
SPORTS MOVIES HAVE always been, by their nature, formulaic. Consider “The Express,” the recent biopic of legendary Syracuse running back Ernie Davis, the first African American Heisman Trophy winner. It’s as if the producers took one part “Remember The Titans,” one part “Pride Of The Yankees” and one part “Brian’s Song,” mixed thoroughly and baked for 130 minutes. Somehow, it manages to come out okay. Fans – of the genre, team, sport, etc. – will certainly be pleased with the results.
The high contrast Blu-ray picture is stunning, with exceptional depth and sharpness, while the uncompressed soundtrack is hard-hitting with those football collisions.
Most of the documentaries are in hi-def, except for the 15-minute retrospective on the 1959 National Championship team and a short featurette from Syracuse highlighting the on campus production and the premiere.
The commentary with Norfolk native director Gary Fleder tends to be monotonous at times (thanks mainly to Fleder’s delivery), but proves quite informative. Fleder expounds at length on all the major aspects – casting, editing, performances and the like – of creating a major motion picture. All in all, a worthwhile listen.
— Robert Hatfield
“THE LONGSHOTS”
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2008, PG for some thematic elements, mild language and brief rude humor
Best extra: "Jasmine Plummer: The Real Longshot" (in standard-def).
WHO SAID GIRLS can't play football? Jasmine Plummer played quarterback for her Pop Warner team. Her goal was to take the team all the way to the Super Bowl. KeKe Palmer brings Plummer's story to the big screen in "The Longshots." Ice Cube stars as Plummer's uncle and coach, Curtis Plummer.
In "Jasmine Plummer: The Real Longshot," we meet the real Curtis and Jasmine, who now plays basketball and hopes to play in the WNBA. Jasmine lets girls know that "you can be a girl and still be an athlete," Curtis Plummer said.
In "Making The Longshots," Palmer talks about the joys of working with Ice Cube and director Fred Durst. Durst and Ice Cube go way back too. Durst, co-founder of Limp Bizkit, remembers hanging with Ice Cube on the road.
Ice Cube has a diverse range of talents, Durst said. That's why he's such a joy to work with. Ice Cube, who has starred in violent and family films, says he can't wait to work with Durst again.
The movie was a joy to make, Durst said. He's excited to see Jasmine Plummer's reaction. "I just hope she enjoys it," he said.
The Blu-ray imagery was solid with plenty of detail, excellent contrast, with muted colors giving the down and out small town of Minden that depressed look, since the town factory was shut down.
— DeAnne M. Bradley
“MONSTER'S BALL”
Blu-ray widescreen, 2001, R for strong sexual content, language and violence
Best extra: For some reason, Lions Gate dropped both the audio commentary with director Marc Forster, Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry and one with Forster and the film's cinematographer. All that's left is one with director Marc Forster and the writers. What gives?
HALLE BERRY won an Oscar for her work in this critically acclaimed film about how racism is passed down from one generation to the next. The late Heath Ledger plays Thornton's son.
As with Lions Gate release of "Universal Soldier" this week, "Monster's Ball" also boasts a strong hi-def presentation. If you're a fan of the film, this is worth an upgrade over the previous DVD versions. The uncompressed audio isn't a huge upgrade considering how quiet and dialogue-driven the film is, but the image quality is deeper with exceptional detail.
The Blu-ray includes the uncut version of the film, which adds a few seconds to the already incredibly graphic sex scene between Thornton and Berry. The commentary with Forster and the writers is okay but worked much better when supported by the other two commentaries. All three give a well rounded look at the production but by itself it doesn't add up to all that much. Deleted scenes and some brief featurettes are also included.
— Josh Boone
“I GOT THAT FEELIN’: JAMES BROWN IN THE ‘60S”
Full-screen, 1968, unrated
Best extra: Interview footage with James Brown’s band, Al Sharpton, Dr. Cornel West and a 40-year James Brown friend placing the Boston show in context
MOST OF THE PERFORMANCES on this three disc set are from the same year, 1968, and feature the same songs, including “Try Me,” “I Got the Feelin,” “Cold Sweat,” and “Please Please Please.” On “Live at the Apollo,” these performances are in color, with bonus footage of the superstar on the T.A.M.I. show and in Paris. “Live at the Boston Garden” is the most electric of the shows.
The black and white footage of Brown in Boston is weak; the fuzziness and light balance make it seem Jurassic.
Nonetheless, the James Brown is legendary here; you see the fantastic showman, the mesmerizing dancer. Sweaty and screeching, he is exuding raw, hot energy and sex, so working the crowd into a frenzy that a number of young men hop on stage to touch him and bask in his calls for black pride. That’s perhaps because of the context of this performance, explained on the jewel of this set: “The Night James Brown Saved Boston” is a documentary about the April night in 1968 when Brown famously helped keep the city calm 24 hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. This film is nearly worth the price of the set alone, as it re-lives that night through Brown’s music, American culture and the politics of the day, all distilled by one of the best musicians of all time.
— Malcolm Venable
“MEET THE BROWNS”
Blu-ray, enhanced widescreen and digital copy for your PC or iPod, 2008, PG-13 for drug content, language including sexual references, thematic elements and brief violence
Best extra: “The Browns Are Born: The Story of Meet The Browns” taped in hi-def.
SURE, TYLER PERRY’S tear jerker stage plays turned blockbusters are predictable, but fans still pack the theaters. “Meet The Browns” offers more of the romance and gut-busting laughs that fans love. David and Tamala Mann return to the Perry camp. Angela Bassett and Rick Fox star as the lovebirds.
The Blu-ray and DVD takes us back to the stage play, but “the characters in the movie are much richer,” Perry says.
Apparently, Bassett was quite the acting coach. “I got a Yale education without having to pay the tuition,” Fox said. In the “Meet The Manns” feature, the couple shares comical stories about how they met and their first kiss. The discs also includes a hilarious segment featuring actress Jenifer Lewis.
The Blu-ray features a solid hi-def transfer with good contrast and sharpness, but Perry's film making resembles a TV sitcom rather than stylish cinema.
The documentaries are taped in hi-def, including three exclusive to Blu-ray, one where Mann breaks down his crazy wardrobe and gives some cooking tips, making homemade donuts. Also, a short featurette highlights composer Aaron Zigman’s two-month gig writing the score.
— DeAnne M. Bradley
“AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES 2”
Enhanced widescreen, 2008, not rated
Best extra: None
Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. guides 11 notable blacks on a journey for their ancestry in the PBS Home Video presentation of “African American Lives 2.”
In each of the four 60-minute episodes, Gates takes guests including Tina Turner, Chris Rock, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Morgan Freeman, Maya Angelou, Tom Joyner, Peter Gomes, Don Cheadle, Linda Johnson-Rice, Bliss Broyard and Kathleen Henderson through portions of a journey that reveals often-painful episodes of their family history.
Episode 1 — The Road Home, focuses on stories of the participants’ ancestors from the 20th century.
Episode 2 — A Way Out of No Way, continues to trace the guests’ lineages back through the late 1800s to the Civil War.
Episode 3 — We Come from People, reveals stories of participants’ ancestors during the early years of the United States.
Episode 4 — The Past Is Another Country, presents fascinating discoveries about lineages thanks to DNA analyses.
Actor Don Cheadle is told that his ancestors did not gain their freedom from slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation, because his ancestors belonged to American Indians on land that didn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the United States. It would be decades before Cheadle’s ancestors would be emancipated.
Bliss Broyard discusses her father, New York Times writer Anatole Broyard, making the conscious decision to pass as a white man. Gates reveals to Kathleen Henderson that the men who owned their family during slavery were cousins.
Watching comedian Chris Rock — in Episode 2 — being brought to tears as Gates tells him that Julius Tingman, Rock’s great-great grandfather, was a former slave who served in the Civil War (and later in public office) is one of the DVD’s most touching moments. Rock knew nothing of this ancestor before this exchange.
“African American Lives 2” is a gem.
— Cliff Redding
“A RAISIN IN THE SUN”
Enhanced widescreen, 2008, not rated
Best extra: The documentary “Dreams Worthwhile: The Journey of A Raisin in the Sun”
LORRAINE HANSBERRY’S LANDMARK play about a struggling black family that suddenly gets a financial windfall is adapted here for TV, with knockout performances by Phylicia Rashad, Sanaa Lathan, Audra McDonald and Sean “Diddy” Combs. There are only two extras here, a commentary with director Kenny Leon and a making of featurette.
The mini-documentary explains how the film was “updated” for today’s time, an odd declaration given that it’s a period piece, and that the producers continue to tell us it’s timeless, but never mind that. Another central theme in the documentary is the universality of the piece, what with its emphasis on the American dream of having a getting a better job, house, etc.
Most enlightening, though, are interviews with Hansberry’s sister and niece, which weave the playwright’s personal history of overcoming discrimination into a wider context of history, resulting in a far more moving testament to the enduring legacy of the play than the actors’ and producers’ gushing.
— Malcolm Venable
THE GREAT DEBATERS”
Enhanced widescreen, 2007, PG-13 for depiction of strong thematic material, including violence and disturbing images, and for language and brief sexuality
Best extra: Chesapeake's own Nate Parker plays a key role in the film and in "Learning the Art" on Disc Two, we see Parker and his fellow young actors in debate camp.
SURE IT'S DENZEL'S MOVIE, in that Washington both directs and stars in the picture — along with fellow Oscar winner Forest Whitaker — but locals will love it for the prominence of Parker. A former state champion wrestler from Great Bridge High, Parker plays the part of Henry Lowe, the star of a four-member debate team coached by Washington's character.
It's an inspiring story, based on real events, of a black college debate team making history in the 1930s when it earns an invitation to compete against powerhouse Harvard. Among the movie's many charms are the four young actors who get a chance to shine in the company of veteran stars.
This two-disc release plays on that, packed with such extras as "A New Generation of Actors," which explores the fresh faces in the film — including the youngest, who is coincidentally named Denzel Whitaker. Oprah Winfrey, who financed the film, heaps praise on Parker in this featurette.
In the debate-camp piece, we get to see Parker stumble slightly through his first day of camp before finishing with a flourish, beating an actual college debate team (albeit the freshman squad) with a polished performance.
There are also two nice looks at the making of the movie's music, a pair of music videos, one short piece on the wardrobe and a historical look at the true story. Highlighting several of the extras are sporadic interviews with the real professor behind Washington's character, Melvin B. Tolson.
Tolson talks at length about what makes a great debater, and Disc Two wraps up with some of the eloquent teacher's pointed poetry. As good as the movie is, the DVD release is equally excellent.
— Kyle Tucker
“KING”
Enhanced widescreen, 2008, not rated
Best extra: Without a doubt, “Voices From the Civil Rights,” which shows ordinary people who lived through the civil rights period telling their stories. Listening to them, black baby boomers for the most part, tell what it was like to live during the tumultuous times of racial inequality brings the whole story home.
THE REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. was a young Baptist minister, not even in his 30s, when he was given the task of being the spokesman for a citywide bus boycott in Birmingham, Ala., and with it the voice of the civil rights movement.
In “King,” produced by the History Channel, we learn about his role in the civil rights movement, but the DVD goes much further. It talks about King the man, as well. We hear his son Martin Luther King III talk about what it was like to have him around the house as “daddy,” before the young King would learn of his father’s role in history.
A very cool feature of this documentary is how the producers inserted cutaways of people such as Bill Clinton, Bono, Condoleezza Rice, Chuck D., Forest Whitaker and others talk about King and what he means to them.
Through interviews and archival footage, you will come away with a deeper understanding of the man who led the civil rights movement.
This one is worth keeping in your DVD collection.
— Cliff Redding
“JOE LOUIS: AMERICA’S HERO … BETRAYED”
Full-screen, 2008, unrated
“MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI”
Enhanced widescreen, 2008, not rated
Best extra: A conversation with the producers, talking about how the bright-eyed, naïve Cassius Clay transformed into the professional, dynamic Muhammad Ali.
IN THE WORLD OF PRIZEFIGHTING, several figures have attained a level of notoriety that transcends decades. Two of these figures, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali stand among the tallest.
Joe Louis Barrow was the grandson of slaves who took violin lessons for a short while as a child after he and his family moved north from Alabama. Joe’s mother, we learn in “America’s Hero,” would give him a quarter a week to pay for lessons. But after a neighbor chided Joe, he used the money to rent a locker at a local gym, where he would learn to box. Joe Louis turned pro in 1934, and won his first 12 fights, 10 by knockout. By 1935, when Louis was only 21, he earned $400,000 in purses when the average wage was $1,400 a year.
Then came Max Schmeling. But, as the DVD reveals, the second bout with the Hitler-backed German turned into something else. After it was over, Joe Louis was a bona fide American hero, but that would erode over the years.
The HBO presentation features several individuals who provide firsthand stories about Louis and what he meant to them, as well as to his race and country, including his son, Joe Louis Barrow Jr.; comedian Dick Gregory; Bill Cosby; poet and author Maya Angelou; former President Jimmy Carter; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY; Lester Rodney, sports editor, the Daily Worker; Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records; Jerry Lewis, comedian; Gay Talese, author; and Rabbi Joshua Haberman.
Each person talks about Louis — also known as The Brown Bomber, Sepia Slugger, Dark Destroyer, Tan Tornado, Black Menace, Chocolate Soldier, Black Lightning, Mulatto Mauler, Dark Angel, Sepia Slasher (yes, these were some of the nicknames) — and how he affected them.
His son talks about not really knowing his father, having been born close to the breakup of Louis’ marriage to reporter Marva Trotter. Barrow becomes misty when he speaks of how the IRS seized a trust fund Louis had set up for him and his sister.
Gregory, Cosby, Angelou and Gordy all speak of the pride they felt during and after a Louis fight.
Angelou talks about how the people listening to Louis’ fights at her family’s store would often say, “Did you see that?” even though they were listening to the contests.
The DVD, though it has no “extra features,” is packed full of newsreel footage, still photographs, film of the icon in his later years and the all-entertaining interviews.
“MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI” takes us to the time in the 1960s, when a young man named Cassius Clay from Louisville, Ky., won the heart of America with his magnetism in and out of the ring.
What most people don’t realize, even though Muhammad Ali’s story is well known, is that it was in Miami that Ali became the person the world knows. It was in Miami where the young Cassius Clay got the idea to become a loudmouth, where he got the idea to make his fights more than a contest of two pugilists intent on knocking the other into submission.
The DVD brings home the fact that Ali got to Miami and began to evolve in Overtown, known as “Harlem South,” where the Fifth Street Gym became Ali’s testing ground. Ali spent six years in Miami, among the happiest periods in his life.
Through footage and interviews, the film chronicles Ali’s rise to his defeat of Sonny Liston to become the heavyweight champion.
It also includes Ali’s friendship with Malcolm X; his romp with the Beatles (initially they didn’t really want to be photographed with him, because they thought he was a loudmouth and was going to lose the title fight with Liston); and his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. “He didn’t want to be a black man sent by white men to kill brown men,” according to the program.
The coolest thing about this DVD, which includes a conversation with the producers, is that it shows how the bright-eyed, naïve Cassius Clay transformed into the professional, dynamic Muhammad Ali.
— Cliff Redding
“GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AL GREEN – 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION”
DVD full-screen 1984, not rated
Best extra: Acorn media has included a 90-minute interview with Al Green, where the soul-singer-turned-gospel-artist talks about his change of life. When the interviewer asked about Green’s conversion, the singer tells him that he woke up in the middle of the night praising God in a hotel room. Green offers a sanitized version of this gospel conversion.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Robert Mugge, an award-winning filmmaker who concentrates on musicians, made a documentary on soul singer Al Green, who had quit making pop music to concentrate on performing gospel in the early ’70s. The film investigates this conversion.
In October 1974, Mary Woodson, a girlfriend of Green’s, assaulted him before shooting herself to death at Green’s Memphis, Tenn., home. The story goes that Green and Woodson, who was married, got into an argument because she wanted Green to marry her. She assaulted the singer with a pot of boiling grits while he was in the shower.
Green cited this incident as a wake-up call. He went into the ministry, becoming an ordained minister. Actually, though, he had already begun to make the change toward gospel. The grits incident may have pushed him the rest of the way.
The original documentary was approximately 90 minutes long and is graciously included in this 25th anniversary edition, which comes with an additional 90 minutes of extras that include interviews with Green’s confederates, and others close to the entertainer. There are also cuts of Green performing and delivering the word from behind the pulpit. There are plenty of shots of Green in his glory, in and out of church.
Interesting, too, is the fact that Green returned to secular music shortly after this film was released.
“Gospel According to Al Green” provides an opportunity to see a legend perform when he was at his peak. Although Green didn’t have the raw, sexual attraction that James Brown — one of his heroes — the man had soul, then and now, as we can see through the release of his latest album. Right on!
— Cliff Redding
“THE WIZ: 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION”
Enhanced widescreen, 1978, G
Best extra: “Wiz on Down the Road” documents the making of the film with behind the scenes footage and late 70s interviews with producer Rob Cohen and director Sidney Lumet.
THE TALE STARTED as children’s novel “The Wonderful World of Oz.” Judy Garland starred as Dorothy in the 1939 film adaptation, “The Wizard of Oz.”
“The Wiz,” an all-black version of the story, debuted on Broadway in 1975 and won seven Tony awards. Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell and Ted Ross brought the Broadway hit to the big screen in 1978.
Celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary with this digitally remastered version that includes making-of extras and an eight-song soundtrack. The new digital quality makes for a yellow brick road that practically glows and an extra-bright Emerald City.
In the extras, director Sidney Lambert says he wondered about who would play Dorothy until he got a 5 a.m. call from Berry Gordy. The Motown Records founder suggested Ross. By the end of the day, the decision was made.
Just watching the making-of featurette in 2008 is entertaining. The producer and director declared the film to be the biggest New York City had ever seen. The anniversary DVD also includes the theatrical trailer. That, too, is very ’70s.
— DeAnne Bradley
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