THE 24TH REVIEW: Exhuming Suppressed Buried Black History

 

Based on real events in the long infamous US past, the historical drama The 24th takes place during WW I, and a Houston army contingent known back then as the 24th Regiment. But this is not a war movie, while at the same time it is, very much so. Namely, the endless war against African Americans from the inception of this nation, and essentially to this very day. And the repeatedly buried black history of defiant, desperate resistance and rebellion, however bereft of hope.

Known as the Camp Logan Mutiny taking place on August  23rd back in 1917, a mass rebellion of those 156 segregated soldiers of the Third Battalion occurred in reaction to the Houston escalating racist assaults and outright massacres all around them. While an evident spark igniting the uprising however futile, was in some cases the personally experienced East St. Louis Massacre ending just a month earlier, when up to 250 African Americans were murdered by whites,  and another 6,000 left homeless following the rampage burning down their homes, beginning that May.

And the Army unwilling to do anything to protect the soldiers, or prosecuting those responsible. Leading to the armed attack one night against those brutalizing Houston whites, including the police, responsible for the torture and murders of terrified African Americans civilians of Houston as well. The resulting trial, the largest murder trial in US history, led to the execution of nineteen of those brave and defiant soliders, and the rest sentenced to life imprisonment hard labor.

Helmed by first time director Kevin Willmott (BlacKkKlansman, Da 5 Bloods screenwriter) and co-written and starring Trai Byers, The 24th is yet another exemplary example of persistent filmmakers of conviction stepping in to exhume that invisibilized black past - where US history and the cowardly, abominable suppressed education system fear to tread. 

And while it may be noted that the film is being released during this Black Lives Matter moment - along with Emperor, and the Samuel Jackson narrated Enslaved - potentially ushering in a commendable and urgent Black Renaissance in movies, that convergence which could not be more timely, may be more coincidental than otherwise. And quite possibly a reaction against a very different, loathesome convergence - the long surging racist white backlash against this country's first Black president, than anything else.

Prairie Miller

The Big Ugly: Gangster Thriller, Greed, Oil And A Rural Appalachia Uprising

Move over, The Ugly American, boasting Brando front and center or not. A gangster thriller gone global that may endure for it's provocative title if nothing else, The Big Ugly could not have encapsulated planetary US imperialism thuggery more. Playing out in discovered West Virginia oil-rich land around a local creek known as Big Ugly, this Scott Wiper sophomoric sendup of well worn gangster territory, promises so much more while delivering exceedingly less.

The film follows the unfortunate escapades of London mobsters played by Malcolm McDowell and Vinnie Jones, as they are lured to rural West Virginia to invest in a money laundering oil venture concocted by shady businessman, Ron Perlman. And though by no means saintly operatives themselves, the comparatively gentlemanly Brits get caught up in the deadly bully instincts of those avaricious oil Yanks, with tragic consequences. And while dredging up oil exploitation gangster capitalism via the otherwise tired narrative proceedings, Appalachian rebels as the ripped off rural masses happen to rise up to reclaim their confiscated land - though they should have grabbed a lot more screen time, and been placed decisively front and center in the story. 

Meanwhile, with UK sacrificial racketeers turning up, would that be British Brexit anxiety chiming in - now that Boris has left the country vulnerable and on its own for the anticipated US economic feeding frenzy? Who can say. On the other hand, spending screen time with the likes of that OG - or rather OJ, original Joker  - that Clockwork Orange classic unhinged thug, Malcolm McDowell while pondering his take on gangsters then and now, usually tends to feel like it might have been an otherwise missed opportunity.

Prairie Miller

Dateline: Saigon Review: Fake News, Nothing New

 Though the notion of fake news has a specific connection at this moment in time to the sitting president lashing out at media reports unfavorable to him, that concept has a surprisingly much longer and secretive tarnished US history - with no particular party affiliation in collusion with the media as well. And Dateline: Saigon, the documentary delving into the Vietnam War as covered by fearless journalist back then, simultaneously reveals a huge trove of US state secrets conducting that war covertly as if, say - directing a Hollywood movie.

Written and directed by first time filmmaker Tom Herman and narrated by Sam Waterston, Dateline: Saigon revisits the efforts of Viet Nam war correspondents - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett, and photojournalist Horst Faas, to record the truth on two war fronts, not just one. In other words, struggling against US government censorship bent on discrediting them, pressuring to report the Viet Nam War their way dishonestly, and as a winning venture.

And revealing not just about what transpired decades ago in that regard, but that nothing has changed - no matter which political party. And by extension, what the past can reveal concerning our present time, both historically and about the media.

While in the case of Peter Arnett,  covering Middle East US invasions and wars, along the US assault on Viet Nam - the JFK/Johnson government, CIA and Hoover's FBI were bent on destroying Arnett by shutting him down professionally, And necessitating personal protection as well for reporting the truth.

Dateline: Saigon - A rigorous and scathing chronicle of devastating defeat: The US War on Viet Nam, and on the US media.

Prairie Miller

ARTS EXPRESS TOP TEN BEST LIST 2019

ARTS EXPRESS RED EYE MOVIE REVIEWS - Red Hot And Saucy Top Ten 

Served Up Here

Cold Brook: 'Are you ready to be different?' - Part ghost tale, part Bartleby while at the same time a captivating slavery reparations fable, the film flirts with the supernatural even with its heart planted firmly in sobering class and race issues historically and now.

Dolemite Is My Name: With class, race and cultural divides up for satirical scrutiny, the entire explosive socio-political era that fed blaxploitation gets raw enlightenment on rewind. And with the ignited rebel instinct, lucid moment of the marginalized defining that subversive time.

Gloria Bell *Best Musical: Julianne Moore in a take no prisoners transformative middle age makeover moment of clarity from emotionally passive 'other woman' outcast to patriarchal payback uprising. And with lots of self-celebratory, breathlessly expressive emancipation in this somewhat feminist musical too.

In The Aisles: A metaphorical, muted lyrical elegy of unrelieved despair in the Kafkaesque corporate workplace catacombs of global capitalism, somewhere in the former GDR following German reunification - and the concurrent disappearance of a collective trucker brotherhood under socialism.

Joker: Fear of the masses - in a movie. Unlike say, Parasite's combo derisive mockery and apprehensive undercurrent of potential workingclass rebellion. Along with an erroneous official fear-mongering advisory that the portrayal of that anarchistic comic book villain would precipitate violence in America. But the Golden Lion top prize winner at the Venice Film Festival as more manifestation of a violence already grounded in US culture, and a reflection of simmering low wage police state millennial generation misery.

Official Secrets *Best Female Action Hero: "My motive was to stop a war and save lives - Yes, I'd do it again." Yet another instance of filmmakers of courage and conviction stepping up where unfortunately and unlike Keira Knightley's anti-Iraq War real life rebel - politicians and the press (including critics) fear to tread. Which is the reason you likely never heard of this best female action hero of the year. 

Pause: A vivid, near soliloquy, men distorting women and bypassing the hungering housewife soul. And relief for aging suppressed passions and frustrations do eventually break free for moments, but with only elusive windows of dramatic conjecture provided - as perhaps it should be.

Richard Jewell: 'Don't become an asshole, a little power can turn a person into a monster.' A real life unlikely designated hero in this emerging police state/corporate press collusion cautionary tale.

The Operative: Essential filmmaking of conviction indeed, a dramatic denunciation of the Mossad against Iran, penned by a former Israeli intelligence officer. And a brave movie stepping in to confront the challenges of current political censure and censorship offscreen - where timid and cowardly or complicit governments and corporate media fear to tread.

The Public: A mix of eloquence and satire, in this homeless mass uprising takeover of one of the last remaining US public service and social program sanctuaries for bookworms and the homeless alike, the public library.

** Note: 7 out of 10 were mysteriously 'disappeared' for their socio-political content. The others are inexplicably Hollywood.

AND...Worst Movie Of The Year: Parasite: 'On est tous le parasite de quelqu'un' [We are all the parasites of someone] Though billed as a kind of South Korean anti-capitalism satire - this eat the rich outing when not eating its own at the bottom of the economic food chain, comes off more as an empty plate...A condescending, pessimistic portrayal of human nature, bereft of class consciousness or ideology.
 ~ Prairie Miller