Celebrating Viola Davis, Denzel Washington & the Legacy of August Wilson

Fences Stars Viola Davis & Denzel Washington Win 2010 Tony Awards

August Wilson's Leading Lady

Viola Davis, currently appearing in Fences opposite Denzel Washington, knows a thing or two about scene stealing. Just ask Meryl Streep. Here's hoping that the Oscar-nominated actress brings home another Tony this weekend.

August Wilson's Leading Lady: An Ode to Viola Davis
by Salamishah Tillet

On Sunday the American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards will air on CBS. Despite the recession, audiences continued to flock to theater, especially to see shows that featured Hollywood hot-list actors as Cate Blanchett, Scarlett Johansson, Liev Schreiber, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Denzel Washington. But this year it is the lesser-known Viola Davis, nominated for best lead actress for her role in Fences, whowas the standout performance of the year.

Many filmgoers first noticed Davis in 2008, when she was nominated for an Oscar for her brief role in Doubt, when she effectively stole the scene from Meryl Streep. In the movie, Davis played Mrs. Miller, a mother who shockingly announces that she will keep her son in school--despite the fact that the head mistress (Streep) is dropping some very strong hints that the head priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has been molesting the boy.

That one heart-wrenching scene garnered much attention for Davis, who, until then, had been toiling in relative movie obscurity. The ChicagoSunTimes veteran film critic Roger Ebert heaped praise on her brief scene, declaring that it ''was good as any I've seen this year. It lasts about 10 minutes, but it is the emotional heart and soul of Doubt, and if Viola Davis isn't nominated by the Academy, an injustice will have been done.'' Davis, who previously appeared in Antwone Fisher, Nights in Rodanthe and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, didn't win the Oscar. But Hollywood had--finally--taken notice.

For theatergoers, particularly August Wilson fans, Davis is a more familiar face. In 2001, she won the Tony Award for best performance for a featured actress for her role in Wilson's King Hedley II. However, much like her bravura turn in Doubt, Davis' performance in the Broadway revival of Wilson's Fences, was a coup de theatre. Her dignified, breathtaking and thoughtful performance not only upstages the lead character, Troy Maxson, brilliantly played by Denzel Washington, but also dismantles old stereotypes about bad black mothers and the new caricatures of single black women as well.

Wilson's 10-play Pittsburgh cycle, which chronicles the African-American experience throughout the 20th century, is often criticized for depicting black female characters who play a secondary role to his male characters. In the case of Fences, Rose has suppressed most of her dreams in order to help her husband, Troy, cope with his failed ones. In the hands of a less capable actress, Rose could be seen as just another Wilson woman, a moral centerpiece but marginalized character.

But with her performance, Davis managed to move Rose from the sidelines to center stage. Her performance is not only well-worth the price of the ticket; the Tony Awards Nominating Committee apparently thought so, too, nominating her for lead actress for a role that traditionally is considered a supporting role. When Davis first takes to the stage, in vintage dress and apron, bursting with joy and deep laughter, you think that all is well in the world. As Rose, an industrious, big-hearted, but reticent 1950s housewife, Davis moves around the bigger than life actor, Washington, and his ''too big'' character with effortless ease.

Read Full Essay @ The Root

SeeingBlack.com: Can We Cheer Our Heroes?

Can We Cheer Our Heroes?

By Esther Iverem--SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic

In “The Book of Eli,” Denzel Washington walks the road of a post-apocalyptic United States with crude but effective weapons, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes on his iPod and the perfect shades on his face. He is the ultimate Hollywood action hero with a serious edge and twist—a righteous man who only resorts to violence when provoked and in self-defense.

So why no Internet buzz about this Black film hero? I admit it, part of my query has to do with the over-the-top analysis in some quarters of “Avatar” as racist, typical colonialist narrative, one post even referred to it as “Orientalist fantasy” because of the elevation of the White hero. While I understood these critiques, I thought that the film’s over-riding narrative was about a triumph created by and for a “people of color” and about a triumph of nature and spirit over death machines and destruction.

I did see commentary by many who shared my view but I stayed out of the fray. I had written my short review of the film and I stood by it. But, still, a question lingered in my mind—are we Black filmgoers conditioned to not see our heroes? Or conditioned to see and cheer only Black stereotypical heroes—ghetto superstars, musicians, athletes etc.—and mainly men? If Neytiri of the Navi (played by Zoe Saldana) in “Avatar” was not a hero, then I don’t know what a hero is.

Then it took me a long time to write about “The Book of Eli,” which with its strong Christian underpinnings, seems like the perfect answer for all those like the Pope who considered Avatar’s spiritual message pagan-like and sacrilegious. Not since Morpheus kicked some serous ass in “The Matrix” have I seen a Black film star get the better of so many serious fight scenes. Not since Will Smith in “I Am Legend,” have I seen a Black hero, framed by a superior intellect, slay those who dare threaten what is left of humanity.

Read the Full Essay @ SeeingBlack.com

Debating the Great Debaters...Still.

from CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

"Debating" The Great Debaters
by Mark Anthony Neal

I recently weighed in on the significance of Denzel Washington's performances as Frank Lucas in American Gangster and Melvin B. Tolson in The Great Debaters. There are many who want to make critical distinctions between a Harlem drug lord—or dope dealer as Bomani Jones so eloquently asserts—and a celebrated modernist poet who happened to coach one of the most accomplished college debate teams in the 1930s. I argue though that both men, and the worlds they inhabited, provide a rich entrée into the nuanced and complicated lives that everyday black folk lead—lives that rarely get depicted via Hollywood Cinema. That said, The Great Debaters takes liberties with historical realities, often solely for the effect of creating a classic Hollywood tale. In this regard the film—despite the earnest intents of the director (Washington) and the film's producer Oprah Winfrey—does a disservice, by being dismissive of the real political struggles engaged by those depicted in the film.

Read the Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ VIBE.COM

On-Line Dating with The Great Debaters and the Jena 6: A Bloggers' Roundtable

News & Notes, January 2, 2008 · Denzel Washington's latest movie, The Great Debaters, is stirring up controversy about how much it actually sticks to the historical record. Plus, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are seeking a pardon for the Jena 6.

Our panel of bloggers debate that and more; they include Casey Lartigue of The Casey Lartigue Show!, Jozen Cummings of Broke Thoughts, and Mark Anthony Neal of Critical Noir.

Listen Here


Also, William Jelani Cobb on Richard Pryor and Mudbone

Denzel Washington and the "Race Man" Syndrome

from the Washington Post (Outlook)

RACE MAN
Does Denzel Always Have to Represent?
by Mark Anthony Neal

Sunday, December 23, 2007; Page B02

For most of his career, Denzel Washington has been the epitome of a "race man" -- a well-mannered, well-intentioned role model thoroughly committed to black uplift. He's maintaining that tradition in "The Great Debaters," a new film in which he plays a champion debate coach in the segregated South.

But his recent portrayal of the murderous Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas in "American Gangster," following his Oscar-winning performance as the corrupt cop Alonzo in "Training Day," has shaken his standing as a race man -- and has prompted speculation that, after years of playing characters who symbolized African Americans' mainstream acceptance, he's finally selling out to a commercial culture eager to make a buck off of portraying black men as thugs.

That's not how I see it. To me, the more important question that Washington's career choices raise is: Why, as the nation grows to appreciate the many different ways of being black, do we still need race men at all?

"Race man" is a term from the beginning of the 20th century that describes black men of stature and integrity who represented the best that African Americans had to offer in the face of Jim Crow segregation. It has lost some of its resonance in a post-civil rights world, but it remains an unspoken measure of commitment to uplifting the race. Race men inspire pride; their work, their actions and their speech represent excellence instead of evoking shame and embarrassment. Thus the pundit Tavis Smiley and the Rev. Jesse Jackson (even with an illegitimate child) can be race men, whereas the comedian Dave Chappelle and the rapper/mogul Jay-Z can never be.

Sidney Poitier had impeccable race-man cred. The legendary black actor was one of the first to achieve mainstream success, and he never wavered. In films such as "The Defiant Ones" (1958), "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) and even "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), he made us proud to be black. At the height of the black-power movement, when his articulate, educated and even affable characters were often measured against fiery political icons such as Malcolm X and the Black Panther leader H. Rap Brown, some blacks felt ambivalent about Poitier. But the actor's willingness to support the civil rights movement appeased those who wanted a more radical image.

There's little doubt that Poitier and contemporaries such as James Earl Jones and Raymond St. Jacques influenced Washington in his choice of roles. Early in his career, he was often drawn to the part of the heroic do-gooder; his roles in "Cry Freedom" (as the martyred anti-apartheid hero Steve Biko) and the Civil War epic "Glory" (which won him a 1990 Academy Award for best supporting actor) displayed his gravitas. The tear he shed when his character, Pvt. Trip, was flogged in "Glory" lent black men a depth of humanity not seen in American cinema before or since.

In his collaborations with director Spike Lee, Washington complicated the race-man ethos. No longer defined solely by their willingness to stand up for their race, characters such as Bleek Gilliam ("Mo' Better Blues"), Jake Shuttlesworth ("He Got Game") and Detective Keith Frazier ("Inside Man") represented the new race man, whose main emphasis was on being manly. These characters were self-absorbed and selfish and demanded the respect they thought they deserved. Still, many black audiences embraced them, if only because Washington had earned their trust, especially after his signature collaboration with Lee on the film "Malcolm X."

But that trust began to erode with Washington's portrayal of Alonzo in "Training Day." When he finally won the coveted Best Actor Oscar for that role, on the same night that Halle Berry won Best Actress, much was made of their being rewarded for portraying characters who demeaned African Americans. And yet it was easy to give Washington a pass, because the Motion Picture Academy had ignored his more celebrated roles as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and Malcolm X.

Read the Full Essay...