This Weekend’s Film Festival Contemplates African-Americans & Oscar

February beholds two events — Black History Month and the Oscars. This Weekend's Film Festival looks at the intersection of the two topics. Up until recently African-Americans had not faired well at the Academy Awards. In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to even be invited as a guest to the Academy Awards, as a very nice door prize she took home a Best Supporting Actress statuette. Another African-American wouldn't win an Academy Award until 1963 when Sidney Poitier won for LILIES OF THE FIELD. Halle Berry became the first black woman to win Best Actress in 2002, the same year Denzel Washington won his Best Actor Oscar for TRAINING DAY. Since then 16 black men and women have been nominated for acting Oscars. Three of those nominees — Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, and Jennifer Hudson — appear in THE SECRET LIVES OF BEES, which arrived on DVD this week.

This week's lineup contains films nominated for the Academy Award or featuring black Oscar nominees. One is a great biopic on a legendary African-American leader from the leading black director, who has never been nominated for Best Director. We have a double feature of the first performances to win an actor and actress the top acting prizes. And we have an African-American parable that made Oscar history for all the wrong reasons.

In 1989, Spike Lee took the film world by storm with his racially charged drama DO THE RIGHT THING. For the film, he received an Oscar nomination for writing, but the landmark film was overlooked for Best Picture, which that year ironically went to DRIVING MISS DAISY, a film that Lee has criticized as being a safer, stereotyped portrayal of black men for which American could handle. Many white members of the audience couldn't handle the ambiguous violent ending. In 1992, Lee released MALCOLM X covering the life of the black Muslim leader from his youth as a low-level gangster to his time in prison where he converted to Islam to his rise in the ranks of the Nation of Islam to his assassination by jealous members of the group he so cherished. Denzel Washington was nominated for an Oscar for his searing performance. However, again, the Academy overlooked the original voice of Lee, who has never been nominated for Best Director, instead nominating the over-the-top SCENT OF A WOMAN. It is said that a life can only be understood in retrospect. Lee looks at Malcolm X's life as a trajectory toward inner healing from the wounds of racism and slavery. As I said in my original review, "Many good films create sympathy for characters, but few come close to empathy. Lee achieves that here." Lee builds Malcolm's story carefully making us understand logically and clearly his evolution of thought, belief and even feeling. In the end, the viewer doesn't just mourn the loss of a great African-American leader, but a great world leader. MALCOLM X stands as the answer to what DO THE RIGHT THING means. It also stands as one of the greatest biopics ever made.

MONSTER'S BALL won Halle Berry her deserved Oscar. Six African-American women had been nominated before her; the first was Dorothy Dandridge, who Berry played in the wonderful cable biopic INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE. One striking element of both Berry and Washington's winning roles in 2002 were they were given flawed human beings to play. These weren't magical negro roles they were playing (we'll get to that term more fully later). Especially for Berry, she was given a role where her character was not an angel or a devil, but a flawed human like us all. Her situation is bad — her husband is on Death Row, her son is obese, and she is about to lose her house. She takes it out on her child. Rarely do actresses of any color get such rich roles. Berry brought anger and pain and bravery to the part. She never holds back and allows the audience to judge Leticia as they will. Leticia is who she is, she's trying her best, and she won't apologize for it. When her story collides with that of Hank Grotowski, played wonderfully by Billy Bob Thornton, an unlikely romance is formed between a racist correctional officer and the widow of the man he just put to death. Milo Addica and Will Rokos' screenplay and Marc Forster's direction keep this improbable story grounded in reality. As I said in my original review, "The characters feel like they came from a novel." This is chiefly due to the dedication of the film's two lead actors.

When looking back over Sidney Poitier's career LILIES OF THE FIELD isn't one of his legendary performances. His roles in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? would come after. Poitier had established himself as a forceful screen presence in THE DEFIANT ONES (for which he received his first Oscar nomination), PORGY AND BESS and A RAISIN IN THE SUN previously. There was a time when a studio would rewrite a black character into a white character if they couldn't get Poitier to play it. Some critics see LILIES as a safe bet for Poitier — a consolation prize for not winning for THE DEFIANT ONES. Both films had won Poitier the Silver Bear prize for Best Actor at the Berlin Int'l Film Festival. While Poitier's LILIES role as handyman Homer Smith isn't his most memorable role, it still represents the unparalleled talent he brought to every role he took. His battle of wills with Lilia Skala's Mother Superior is a classic, pitting two hardheaded advisories against each other who learn to respect each other through unexpected similarities and a common goal. Others comment that the role is a classic example of the magical negro who sweeps in to save the day for white people. But in the truest sense of the term, Homer Smith avoids the stigma a bit. He's not perfect or overly wise. Homer doesn't only aid the West German nuns, but the Hispanic migrant workers when he helps build their chapel. The story celebrates people of various races coming together for the common good of their community. As I said in my original review, "The story is so simple, but ends up being greatly profound." LILIES OF THE FIELD is an uplifting tale, featuring one of cinema's greatest actors.

Few films feature more than one Oscar nominated actress, let alone three African-American nominated actresses. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, based on Sue Monk Kidd's bestselling novel, is much like the final film in this week's lineup, THE COLOR PURPLE. It works more as a parable then a straight hard-hitting drama. Many have criticized it as another example of the magical negro device. Dakota Fanning plays a 14-year-old white girl who runs away from her abusive father with her black caretaker Rosaleen, played by Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson. Lily is consumed by guilt over the death of her mother, and seeks answers at the home of August Boatwright, played by Oscar nominee Queen Latifah. Ms. Boatwright makes honey; Lily had found the honey jar's Black Madonna logo in her mother's possessions. August and her sisters — June (Alicia Key), a strong-willed cellist and activist, and May (Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo), a sensitive woman who holds all the worlds troubles on her shoulders — take Lily in. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood crafts her characters as archetypes representing different angles of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. As I said in my original review, "With dramatic material like this, knee-jerk cynicism is any easy reaction. But look closer to see what the story is trying to do… The Boatwright house is Dr. King’s dream… Everyone has a past and secrets and needs some healing. Even a country."

Eleven Oscar nominations and not a single win is the place THE COLOR PURPLE holds in Academy Award history. As I said in my original review, "Geraldine Page’s forgotten performance in THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL seems like an unlikely winner, in retrospect, compared to [Whoopi] Goldberg’s star making performance." Goldberg, as the central character Celie, projects brave honesty into her wounded character. Celie has had little in her life to be joyous about. She was raped by her father, virtually sold off to a cruel farmer, lost her only friend — her sister Nettie — when he husband sent her away. In a mirror story to Celie, Oprah Winfrey also received an Oscar nomination for her role as Sofia, a strong-willed black woman whose spirit is crushed when her temper leads to an altercation with the white mayor. But through a relationship with a wounded juke-joint singer named Shug Avery, played by Margaret Avery in an Oscar nominated performance, Celie begins to find her inner beauty and strength. Based on Alice Walker's award-winning novel, the Steven Spielberg film uses grand imagery and archetypal characters to craft an epic story of survival. In addition to its three acting nominations, the powerful drama also received nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Past criticisms for one-dimensional characters, contrivances, and overly picturesque imagery, audiences have been moved by this karmic story of survival, because Celie is a character we empathize with. In the end, Celie receives a shower of unlikely gifts from heaven, but to quote my original review, "Does anyone deserve it more than Celie?"

To witness a bit of black and Oscar history simply head to the videostore, update the Netflix queue, check out Zap2It.com for TV listings, or help keep Rick's Flicks Picks up and running by purchasing the videos at the links below.