Bolivion

#7 Cornbread, Earl and Me

Update: I renewed bolivion.com earlier, so we should be moving back real soon, and all this will follow...

This is the first of Bolivion's guest reviewers for the Month, so without any futher introduction, I give you Calvin's review of Cornbread, Earl and Me!

I had heard about Cornbread, Earl, and Me. For some reason everytime I heard about it, it was supposed to be a basketball movie. Basketball was so peripheral to this movie, I mean honestly there was very little basketball shown at all. True, Jamaal Wilks of the Golden State Warriors and L.A. Lakers played Cornbread, but to call this a basketball movie is akin to calling Jerry Maguire a football movie, there is so much more to the story.

Anyway, I didn’t see this movie in my childhood, I saw it for the first time about a year ago as a matter of fact. The first time I saw it I sort of happened upon it while flipping channels on digital cable. I heard some music that was familiar (the introduction to Ghostface Killah’s Black Jesus) and I was like, “Man I need to see the rest of this movie”. I happened to catch a replay of it later on that day, and I’m glad I did.

The movie itself is a story of tragic mistaken identity. The police (played by one of those generic “Mr. Big type” White dudes from the films of the time and Bernie Casey, best known to our generation as John Slade in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka!) chase a lanky black man accused of rape through various alleyways and such. Meanwhile Nathaniel “Cornbread” Hamilton is in Charlie’s grocery store hanging out, shooting the breeze with younger kids Earl (Tierre Turner who has grown up to become a stunt coordinator for films like Training Day and Antown Fisher) and Wilford Robinson, played by a young and precocious Lawrence Fishburne. Cornbread is tall and lanky too. They have gone inside to escape a sudden rainstorm. I think you see where this is going.

After awhile they all have to leave the store, after Cornbread buys drinks for himself and the kids. Earl and Wilford begin to argue about how fast Cornbread can run. He’s the quintessential good-guy athlete in the neighborhood, gang members leave him alone and kids look up to him. He tells them that he can probably make it home in 45 seconds or so and takes off running through the rainy street. He passes a loud garbage truck and then the alley where the accused rapist and police had been running. The police hit the corner and see Cornbread, who they think is the rapist and yell for him to put his hands up, but he can’t hear them very well over the noise of the garbage truck. He is also carrying his bottle of orange juice which was given a weird sheen by the director, I guess in an effort to show that it could have been mistaken for a weapon. The police shoot him.

Wilford then runs down the street yelling loudly about the police shooting Cornbread when “he wasn’t even doing anything” and this sets off a mini-riot in the neighborhood. From this point onward the movie changes focus as a corrupt detective begins an “investigation” into Cornbread’s death, hoping to brush it under the rug.

The movie spends a great deal of time dealing fairly accurately with the intimidation practices of many police departments on the Black community, hushing up just about all of the witnesses with fear as the primary tactic. Only one witness seems willing to tell the real story, Wilford.

What follows is a long court scene with a Coroner heading up the proceedings. He can’t exactly be described as racist, but he is definitely “no-nonsense”. Wilford and his mother (played by the late Rosalind Cash….Dean Hughes on A Different World) watch as people in the neighborhood take the stand and blatently lie about what they witnessed. They even make Earl cry on the stand as he remains hush mouthed. Of course Ms. Robinson tells Wilford to “be a man” when he goes up on the stand and he proceeds to tell the truth as it happens. This compels Bernie Casey to get up and say that after hearing the boy’s account they may have in fact shot the wrong guy. Thus the movie ends pretty happily.

Cornbread, Earl, and Me wasn’t the movie I was expecting. I was more surprised to see a young Larry Fishburne than anything else! There were other old standby’s from that period like a brief appearance by Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas as well as Madge Sinclair and Moses Gunn. A lot of “that guy/woman” type actors in bit parts all over the place.

The music however is the big key to this movie. The music is almost overly dramatic at times, but it was a far cry better than the music in most of the blaxploitation films of the period. And as I mentioned at the outset, there was that bit from the Ghosstface album, so those who enjoy finding out where certain artists get the inspiration for their music will enjoy that.

They don’t show Cornbread, Earl, and Me that often on TV which is a shame because it’s a story worth being told over and again. If you happen to catch it you won’t be disappointed.

#6 The Color Purple

The Color Purple came out in 1985. It was critically acclaimed and copped 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Whoopi Goldberg), and Best Supporting Actress (Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery). Yet, it was frozen out worse than Michael Jordan in that year's all star game. No wins.

Yes, this movie came out in 85, however, I was not allowed to watch it until 1988. Even then, my cousin and I had to sneak and watch it when everyone went to work one summer's day. I wasn't prepared for how long this shit was, but for some reason it wasn't boring. It held my attention for that amount of time, and has had it ever since.

The story follows Celie's (whoopi) life from her abusive father to her abusive husband, Albert ska Mista (Danny Glover). In the process she gets separated from her sister Nettie (Akosua Busia) and her children, and has to rear Mista's kids and put up with his abuse, watch his ex Shug Avery (with that 'Nasty Woman's disease, according to Old Mista) move in and out, and all other kinds of shit, til one day she was like, fuck it, and left.

I think this movie was the jump-off to the Oprah movement as an actress. After this, she was in the Native Son remake and that miniseries The Women of Brewster Place, which is something I would NEVER have watched on my own, but being on punishment at granny's house will open a person up to things he would not do on a normal basis, like read encyclopedias for leisure.

There are wayyy too many great scenes out of this to go through them all. But I think one of the best is the jook joint scene where Shug is performing. Damn near all the principal characters were there at one point:

Mista brought Celie out for the performance, and them women just dogged her something awful. But it was more than made up for when Shug sung "Miss Celie's Blues...'

Sofia was there with her boxer boyfriend, who I believe got knocked out in the fight.

Harpo (mista's son) was running the joint with his girl, Squeak (You said this here our jook joint!)

The trouble really started when Squeak tried to sass Sofia and got knocked into the water. The whole place erupted into a fight, with mista getting some licks in and Celie tickled pink, which, would pale in comparison with her getting tickled by Shug later on. I mean, Celie became a bonafide stalker after that.

Oh, I cannot leave out the whole 'God's Tryin' to Tell You Somethin'' scene. It brought Shug home for forgiveness from her preacher father, and opened the window for even Mista to redeem himself by making a way for Nettie and Celie's kids to come home. I would sit through it again just for those two scenes (and the dinner table, can't leave that out....).

I'm trying to find the flaws here. One that may have stood out was the length. But the story was told so well, and the performances so compelling that getting wrapped up in it was next to impossible. I'm not sure how well it stayed close to the book either, since I never read it. I only heard that it was more brutal and there was a lot of black male bashing, so I kinda lost the desire to read it. Maybe I will as a primer to Alice Walker being on UA's campus next month for a talk.

Oh yeah, the soundtrack is rare on CD and like $95...

#5 The Five Heartbeats

Robert Townsend can be forgiven for B.A.P.S. and Meteor Man, because of Hollywood Shuffle (which I may do) and this...

This movie I had on VHS for the longest. It was on the tape with Jo Jo Dancer, back when I would try to squeeze 3 movies on one tape. I'm too embarassed to tell ya'll what the third movie is.

This is another one of those movies you have to come across at least once if you're black. It follows the career of Duck (Townsend), his brother J.T. (Leon), and their homies Choirboy (Tico Wells), Dresser (Harry Lennix), and Eddie Kane Jr. (Michael Wright). They start off singing in talent shows, when Jimmy (Chuck Patterson) watches them and wants to manage, much to the dismay of his wife Elanor (Diahann Carroll). They improve somewhat, but they need some moves, in comes Sarge (Harold Nicolas), who dresses down Dresser and his lame moves. They win a big talent competition and get signed by Big Red Records, the owner of which, Big Red (Hawthorne James) has a jones for Elanor. The Hearbeats get large, then problems start with Eddie, who starts to get high and drunk all the time, missing shows n shit, taunting the Heartbeats rival in Flash (John Canada Terrell), "You want my spot Flash?"

Turns out, Eddie was trying to leave the Heartbeats through Big Red's influence, and Jimmy wasn't having it. So, Red had Jimmy whacked, the Hearbeats was fucked up about it and left for A&B Records, without Eddie, as Flash took his spot. Betrayal sets in, the Hearbeats break up and years later reconcile, blah blah blah, I know ya'll seen it...

This movie has a lot of great scenes, and a What the Fuck moment. Allegedly, the scene where Bird (Roy Fegan) was hung out of a window happened to Jackie Wilson. We already know it happened to Vanilla Ice, lol. Another great scene is where Eddie, after Flash takes his spot and he becomes a full time crackhead, approaches the Heartbeats after a show, dressed in one of their costumes from 1965 like, 'ANNNNNNG!', and follow that up singing...

"Nights like this... IIIII wish...that raindrops would fa-ha-ha-ha-hallll..."

Eddie was definitely the most interesting character. From the moment he is introduced in the movie, you knew he was going to be at the center of some shit.

Oh, a WTF moment was the whole time Duck was talking to that broad from the charm school, Tanya. First off, he started stalking her ass, and knew she had a nigga. THEN he starts leaving her poetry notes. THEN, when he approaches her about it, she don't even know who she is, and her moms hands him a box from the Salvation Army. He saved himself a little digninty by leaving her alone at that point, but as SOON as that nigga got rich, she found his ass. And he fell for it, then wondered why she would start creeping with his brother. No respect.

Oh, and Leon and Lester's Country and Western rap foretold Nelly and Tim McGraw. Scary, huh?

The soundtrack to this is cool, with a version of 'Nights Like This' done by After 7, and 'Stay in My Corner' and 'A Heart Is A House For Love' by the Dells.

This is one movie I enjoyed over, and over and over again, since at the time I only had like four movies. But today I will still sit down and watch it, even if only to sing along with Eddie... Nights like this IIIII wish...that raindrops would fa-ha-ha-ha-hallll...

Next: The Color Purple, after the Super Bowl...

#4 Head of State

When this movie comes up, I always think about this exchange:

"Mays, we would like you to run for President."

"Of what?"

"Of the United States."

"Of what?"

"Of America."

"Which America?"

"NORTH!!"

What can I say about Chris Rock that has not been said, or that he hasn't said himself?

His stand-up? On point.

His show? One of the best on tv, when it was on.

His movies? Ehhh, not so great. As Pookie in New Jack City, he was cool. Had the crackhead look and everything.

Head of State was ok. Not super-great, but decent entertainment. It follows Mays Gilliam as he is chosen by the party (it never says which one, but you can sort of tell...) to run for president after his girl dumps him (Robin Givens, who spent that time forward trying to get back with him), he loses his Alderman job, his bike, his car, etc. His campaign starts off rocky, as Mays comes off as not himself. Once he starts to talk to the people in his own laguage, he does better. No one wants to run for him as VP, so Mays chooses his brother Mitch (Bernie Mac) to do so. The campaign takes off, but has some setbacks, as the challenger, current VP Bryan Lewis uses Mays' soundbites against him, and his campaign manager informs him that he wasn't even supposed to win, just set it up for Sen. Bill Arnott to run in '08, some shit. But Mays overcomes it all. It also contains the token love interest in Tamela Jones.

The idea of a black man as president is not a new one, and I can't say whether it is being explored further or not, but every now and then it pops up. Morgan Freeman was president in Deep Impact, to which I was like, yeah, sure, there WOULD be a black president during some Exticntion Level Event shit. But I think this idea really became borne with James Earl Jones in 'The Man' (1972), where a black senator becomes Presdent when a freak accident kills the President and the Speaker of the House, and the VP declines the job.

But, back to this. I saw this on HBO, declining to see it in the movies because I thought it would be mad silly/borderline coonish. While it has its silly moments, like the old white people C-walking at the fundraiser and Mays and Mitch kicking each other's ass, AND the whole 'I thought I told you that we won't stop' shit, Head of State was entertaining enough that I didn't turn when it was on, and I had nothing to really do.

Next: The Five Heartbeats

#3 The Emperor Jones

I've seen this movie twice, which I think is the least I have seen any movie on this list. The first time I saw it was the summer of 2001. I was becoming familiar with the wonders of (free) digital cable in my apartment in LA. Black Starz (or, BET movies) was the panacea! New Jack City! A Huey P. Newton Story! And this one, The Emperor Jones starring Paul Robeson.

A little background on Paul. This, was a bad man, ya'll.

The Emperor Jones starts out with Brutus Jones (Robeson) leaving to be a porter on the train. Jeff (Frank Wilson) helps out on the job, but Jones stabs him after Jeff finds out he cheated in a crap game. Jones goes to prison, where he kills a white guard and escapes. He winds up on a prison ship shoveling coal, and being the nigga he is, he says, f' dat, and swims to an island. He is brought before their leader as a slave, but Smithers, a trader, buys his freedom. With Smithers, he plots to take over the island through what is believed to be witchraft. After succeeding, Brutus declares himself The Emperor Jones. But his rule is flawed, and those he got rid of look to take it back.

One day, the palace is empty but for Jones, Smithers, and the beat of war drums in the distance. Knowing that they are coming for him, Jones flees into the forest where he meets his demise.

I did not want to in effect tell the story on this one, because I would hope ya'll would see it if you have not already. Roberson did play this role as if he had been doing it for years, but it was not a mail-in performance by any stretch. The picture centered around him in a way that was more than likely unprecedented at the time for a major motion picture. There were others out making movies at this time, but not quite on this scale. However, if you can find a tape or DVD of this, I would definetly recommend you watch, if only to catch a glimpse of this true Reniassance Man in action.

Next: Head of State

#2 Cooley High

This movie movie along with The Wiz represent my first recollection of movies as a youngin. I saw it on TV when there used to be a 3 o'clock movie before the news instead of talk shows, and I don't think Oprah was in Chicago yet, so we are talking about a LONG time ago. This is also referred to as the '8th grade graduation movie' in some places, as 8th graders from various grammar schools sat through it sometime during their last year before high school. I kinda missed out on this experience because I went to one of those 7-12 magnet programs, where graduating from 8th grade was a 'yawn' at best.

This is another one of those movies that, if you have not seen at least some of it, you are not black. Please leave your Ghetto Pass at the door on your way out.

The story here follows a group of young black men through their senior year at Cooley High, led by Preacher (Glyn Turman) and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs). There's also Pooter (Corin Rogers) and to a lesser extent, Tyrone (Joseph Carter Wilson). These niggas get in trouble on the daily, from skipping Mr Mason's class (Garrett Morris) to go to the zoo (and if u been to Lincoln Park Zoo, you know the gorilla house is no joke, except now, they have glass instead of the bars, so your chances of getting hit with a gorilla turd like Pooter are slim to none). They cause trouble at a party, indirectly, of course (scene stolen by the Alicia Keys 'You Don't Know My Name' video). And, Preach and Cochise get caught up with Stone and Robert in a stolen car. Add to this Cochise getting a gang of pussy (including Preach's girl, the brown-skinned woman, not yella-ass Brenda). conning prostitutes and fights at the movies (scene stolen by the fugees for the Killing Me Softly video).

Oh yeah, lest I forget, Robert Townsend made a small appearance in the gym.

The climax of this movie had a lot of people fucked up. When Stone & Robert catch up with Cochise after they thought he ratted on them to get out of going to jail, they kick his ass somethin awful. Damon, who got beat up by Cochise at the party, gets in the last licks. He knocks Cochise into one of those 'L' girders, breaking his neck. Alot of people I know cried at this scene, and right after it when "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" came on, the original version by G.C. Cameron.

This is probably where the whole 'pour out a lil liquor' thing got popular from, as Cochise does it 'for the brothers who ain't here,' and, ironically or not, Preach does it for him at his burial. So, no, it was NOT Tupac...

As strong as this movie is (some say it was the basis for the TV show 'What's Happening!', the whole, skinny black kid wants to be a writer thing I guess...), the soundtrack to this film is stronger. If you love 60's Motown music, there's plenty of it, from the opening 'Fingertips' by Stevie Wonder to 'Reach Out (I'll Be There)' by the Four Tops. One song stands out for me though: 'Ooo Baby Baby' by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. This shit here is the ultimate 'your ass is in trouble' song. Think:

In this movie, Cochise is dancing and getting cozy with Damon's girl when its on. And this starts the fight and the breaking of that big-ass china cabinet.

In the Temptations movie (mini-series), Otis is getting off the bus all cozy with Florence Ballard and Josephine catches them.

In The Five Heartbeats (to be reviewed later), J.T. and Duck are doing that 'shy brother' rap to a girl that has a man, and that shit backfires.

But yea, this movie has high replay value, mainly due to that timeless music. However, the trouble they get into would now probably date to junior high kids more than high schoolers. I wonder, though, if that is just a reflection of lost innocence, or some kind of nostalgic view of the way things were perceived to be.

Tomorrow: The Emperor Jones

#1 Boyz N The Hood

I am taking a look at one of the movies that ushered in the era of the hood flick, Boyz N The Hood. You could debate that it started with Straight Out of Brooklyn, but since this is the movie that made it to wide release at the time, we will roll with it. It was a pretty compelling coming of age story of 3 young black men, Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Ricky (Morris Chestnut), and Doughboy (Ice Cube). Tre lived with his father Furious (Larry 'Call Me Laurence now' Fishburne) while Ricky and Doughboy lived with their moms (Trya Ferrell).

It goes through life in South Central at the time, hangin' out on the 'Shaw and what-not. It also shows life as it can be in the hood, as Doughboy had just gotten out the pen as the story got to the present, and Ricky being still in high school with a baby and 'in-house pussy', as Doughboy called it.

Of course, as in any hood movie, there is beef:

Between Ricky and Dough, as Ricky is momma's favorite.

Between the Styles men and this one obnoxious black cop. The same one who was called when Furious had a burglar (and showed up an hour or so later) was the one who stopped Tre in his bug and pointed his pistol at his head.

Between Dough and this nigga named Ferris, I think, who are playing that game of intimidation. Until it boils over and Ricky gets shot in that famous scene where he is running down the alley and blown away with the shotgun. Dough retalitates, ALMOST with Tre with him, until he got out of the car at the last minute. Tre's virgin ass winds up getting some grief pussy (not graph, OJ!) from his girl Brandi (Nia Long), which is a decent consolation prize.

The most interesting character in the movie I think was Furious. Why? Mainly because somehow I wished my dad was as cool as he was. I grew up like Ricky and Doughboy, with no real father figure around, so my frame of reference was severely limited to Cliff Huxtable and James Evans, as far as black dads go.

Furious tried to kick some knowledge, dropping tidbits here and there about gentrification, urban genocide, the proliferation of (then) gun shops and (still) liquor stores in communities of color, etc. People at the time paid more attention to the violence and the threat of violence more than those messages, much like when Doughboy shrugged it off when Ricky and Tre told him about it that afternoon.

The first time I saw this, it was 1991, the summer of my high school graduation. I went to see it with a couple of chruch buddies, and I will leave it at that. At the time, this was a big deal, because not only did this movie star mainly negroes, but there were black folk behind the camera as well. This was John Singleton's directorial debut, and it got him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Another thing that is readily attached to this movie is the violence it inspired that summer along with New Jack City. There were reports all over the place of people getting shot at various theaters in the city, and the suburbs would not show it, so, at the time, you were stuck. Of course, now you can see it all over cable and even network tv (if you count UPN...). It's a little bit sanitiized, to be sure, but mainly because of the cursing. When I first went to see it, I thought it would be wayyy more violent, but aside from a few beatdowns, Ricky getting shot (a scene that would be played over and over again on Chicago's streets and alleys for years afterward) and Doughboy and his crew retailiating, there was not much in the way of violence.

The soundtrack was decent for its time, with hits like "Growing Up In The Hood" by Compton's Most Wanted, "How To Survive In South Central" by Ice Cube, and "Just Me And You" by Toni Tony Tone. The original score was done by Stanley Clarke, who also did music for other films, such as Poetice Justice, Higher Learning, and Tap. When I get it I will add a link or something to one of the soundtrack's songs...

So that's about it. One last thing this movie brought up, and it is a recurrent theme throughout the history of black creative expression, was, is the movie too real? Did we really want White America to see on the screen what we knew was going on for decades? It was one of the questions I raised when I first saw Baby Boy. But, its like what Doughboy said:

"Either they don't know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood."

So at the time, I do think it was needed. And it stands up almost 15 years later.

Tomorrow: Cooley High, and it won't take so long to post!