Won't Back Down
It was good to get into a movie theater today. Been a while. What can I tell you? Life is real. Anyway, it was raining freight trains when I ducked into he Regal Majestic 20 in silver Spring this afternoon to catch the latest Daniel Barnz movie, Won't Back Down. I like this theater because it has stadium seating, decent hot dogs and decent chips. I also liked that I was totally alone when I saw this film. Viola Davis (The Help, Antwone Fisher) drew me into big screen seats this week. Nobody cries like Viola Davis.
The Good: The casting and the acting was excellent. There is
a deep bench of acting talent in this film. Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal
(who play the main crusading characters, Jamie Gallagher and Nona Alberts), are
compelling. Davis, in particular has an on screen intensity that shines in any
role she plays. The supporting cast is also excellent: Rosie Perez and Bill
Nunn (Do the Right Thing), Oscar Isaac, Holly Hunter, Ving Rhames, Lance
Reddick and Kevin Jiggetts (The Wire), Emily Alyn Lind and Dante Brown, just to
name a few. If this film has any dynamism, blame it on gifts of all of those
folks. Won't Back Down is directed by
Daniel Barnz and co-writen by Barnz and Brin Hill. In this story, two strong
mothers, one a teacher, one a parent work together to right the wrongs of their
children's failing Pittsburgh city school. The revelation that inner city
schools in America are, almost entirely, awful is a fact I am happy to see made
plain on the big screen. Also, the desperation that many poof folks feel in
dealing with that fact is captured fairly well in this movie.
The Bad: For a “feel good” movie, it takes a long a long time
to make you feel good. It's very slow. Also, the title of the movie, Won't Back
Down, sucks. It sounds like the title of an old Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce
Willis, or Sylvester Stallone movie where everybody has shotguns. What sucks
more is all that the filmmakers got wrong about the demographics of the
struggling inner city school depicted in the movie. I couldn't help but wonder
where all of the white kids came from.
The schools that are in the worst shape in our country are
mostly black schools, especially in our urban areas. And the issues that give
those schools, and black children, the most difficulty have to do with racism
and poverty. That is as much true in Pittsburgh as it is in Washington, D.C.,
or Chicago. Won't Back Down backs away from saying this. Although the movie
says that it is “Based on Actual Events” (which means “pretty lie” in
film-speak), those actual events seem like they have been doctored up a whole
hell of a lot for the sake of political correctness (or the political agenda of
the filmmaker). The school depicted in the movie is a United Nations of young
folks, diversified to the extreme. I say again, most of the schools that are
failing in Pittsburgh are predominantly African-American in their make-up.
There is also a lot of union bashing in this movie. The
“good” parents and teachers--those who really have the best interest of the
kids at heart: Gyllenhaal as Jamie
Gallagher and Davis as Nona Alberts, are presented as almost saintly
protagonists. The Pittsburgh Teacher's Union, in turn, is cast as the
heartless, money grubbing, low school performance enabler. To say that such a
depiction of reality is stupid would be an insult to stupid people. For
example, the teacher's strike in Chicago just recently and if it wasn't for the
CTU raising their voices, many folks all over the world would not have known
about the ills (mostly black and brown and poor) children face in the Windy
City. Thank God for teachers unions, wherever they may be. When you talk about
the poor performance of schools in big cities in America and you don't talk
about how race and class issues factor in to that discussion, you haven't said
much. In this way, Won't Back Down doesn't say much (other than sentimentality,
predictability, cliché'). You know that the characters played by Gyllenhaal and
Davis are going to succeed from the beginning of the film. No surprises to
speak of.
Lastly, for just once, I would like to see a movie where
poor black and struggling black people save themselves, without the aid of a
great white hero (or heroine) to get the job done. While I know that all people
of all colors help all people of all colors, Hollywood is wearing blinders.
The most important question: Is it a Good Movie:
It was the type of movie I should have waited to see on
television and saved my 11 dollars. In light of all that has happened in
Chicago this year with teachers passionately fighting to help students, I had
hoped for a better film. Won't Back Down is a disappointment on that tip,
despite its very talented cast. On a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is king, this
picture is a 1.5, and I'm being generous.
--MLJ
No comments:
Post a Comment