The Horse's Head

December 20^th, 2005: Cutting things a little too close to the holidays, the National Film Preservation Board selects 25 more films for the National Film Registry, bringing our total to 425 films. I have just completed watching and writing about all 25, so you know what that means. Here again is the Class of 2005:

• San Francisco Earthquake & Fire, April 18th, 1906 (1906): “might be played up a bit for the cameras, but the footage is nevertheless welcome in the National Film Registry”.
• Jeffries-Johnson World’s Championship Boxing Contest (1910): “on the list for the event it is covering rather than anything noteworthy about the film itself.”
• The Making of an American (1920): “a surprisingly well made film that encapsulates the immigrant boom of the early 20th century”
• Hands Up! (1926): “an enjoyable, if not integral, silent comedy from an unsung artist.”
• The Cameraman (1928): “[Buster] Keaton’s last creative hurrah in a decade long hot streak”.
• The Power of the Press (1928): “exhibits the confident skill of a young director [Frank Capra] who will go on to help define the sound era.”
• H2O (1929): “it’s nice to know that avant-garde filmmaking was happening as early as the late ‘20s.”
• Baby Face (1933): “a hidden gem from the ‘30s”, “the unaltered version is definitely the superior film”.
• Imitation of Life (1934): “the handling of its subject matter makes for a cringe-worthy watch today.”
• Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940 (1940): “You had me at Zora Neale Hurston”.
• Mom and Dad (1945): “one of the NFR’s more bizarre entries”.
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947): “wonderfully imbued with the Christmas spirit”
• Giant (1956): “still entertaining, but definitely doesn’t pack the punch it used to.”
• House of Usher (1960): “I am all for Roger Corman being on this list.”
• A Raisin in the Sun (1961): “continues to be an important film due to the strength and ongoing relevance of its source material”.
• The Music Man (1962): “a feel-good film that represents the end of the movie musical’s reign in Hollywood.”
• A Time for Burning (1966): “offers a more realistic approach [to Civil Rights] with its share of current-day parallels.”
• Cool Hand Luke (1967): “bountiful iconic moments, a never-better Paul Newman, and some stunning imagery”
• The French Connection (1971): “the high-energy antihero action movie that came to define the early ‘70s.”
• The Sting (1973): “still an entertaining movie”, “another ‘minor classic’ on the list.”
• The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (1975): “a touching report of time and place”
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): “the greatest B-movie musical in film history”.
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982): “an iconic slice of ‘80s pop culture”.
• Hoop Dreams (1994): “I can’t remember the last time I was so moved by a documentary.”
• Toy Story (1995): “Not since ‘Snow White’ has one animated film been such a big game changer”.

The Plot: The Youngers are three generations of an African-American family living in a cramped apartment in Chicago and expecting a $10,000 life insurance check following the death of patriarch Walter Lee Sr. His son Walter Jr. (Sidney Poitier) wants to use the money to open and run a neighborhood liquor store, allowing him to better provide for his wife Ruth and son Travis (Ruby Dee and Stephen Perry). Walter’s outspoken sister Beneatha (Diana Sands) wants to use the money to go to school and become a doctor, but is aware that their mother Lena (Claudia McNeil) is the only person who can decide where the money goes. When the check finally arrives, Lena uses the money to buy a house in the White neighborhood of Clybourne Park. What follows is an exploration of racism and discrimination in America, and a contemplation on who in this country is truly entitled to follow their dreams.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up on “A Raisin in the Sun” is two very brief sentences; the first calls the film a “[m]odel film adaptation”, and the second describes the cast as “a veritable who’s who of the civil rights era”. Compared to the lengthy paragraphs other 2005 NFR entries received, the “Raisin” write-up is disappointing, if not downright insulting.

But Does It Really?: It’s a miracle the film version of “A Raisin in the Sun” got made at all, especially in 1961 with almost all of its stage creatives intact and minimal Hollywood meddling. 65 years later, I’m happy to report that the film still works, packing the same dramatic punch as it always has (though it’s also disappointing how little of the film feels dated in regards to systemic racism in America). “Raisin” isn’t the most incredible film adaptation of a play, but continues to be an important film due to the strength and ongoing relevance of its source material, aided by some top-notch performances. “A Raisin in the Sun” is certainly worthy of recognition and preservation, if for nothing else the preservation of Lorraine Hansberry and her work.

Shout Outs: Beneatha and Ruth briefly mention both Mrs. Miniver and Scarlett O’Hara while teasing Lena about her new gardening hat.

Everybody Gets One: Lorraine Hansberry’s writing career began in 1951 when she moved to New York and joined the staff of Freedom, a progressive Black newspaper whose writing team included Paul Robeson and Alice Childress. Hansberry was able to become a full-time writer when her then-husband Robert Nemiroff co-wrote the hit song “Cindy, Oh Cindy”. “A Raisin in the Sun” was based on Hansberry’s childhood in Chicago, including her father’s legal battle against a racist White neighborhood, culminating in the 1940 Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee (which paved the way for later cases that deemed restrictive covenants unconstitutional). “Raisin” premiered in New York in March 1959, making Lorraine Hansberry the first female African-American playwright on Broadway.

Wow, That’s Dated: The $10,000 check would be worth over $100,000 in today’s money. Other than that, not a hell of a lot.

Title Track: The title, of course, comes from a line in Langston Hughes’ 1951 poem “Harlem”: “What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?”

Seriously, Oscars?: Although the film received a number of precursor awards and nominations (and won a special prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival), “A Raisin in the Sun” failed to be nominated in any category at the Oscars. Columbia’s major contender that year was the far less controversial WWII movie “The Guns of Navarone”.

• This is definitely one of the few NFR movies to consistently pass the Bechdel test. Yes, Lena, Ruth, and Beneatha spend a lot of time talking about race relations and that check, but at least it’s not all about Walter.
• Like Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Sands was a remarkable talent who died far too young. Beneatha is as close to a stand-in for Hansberry as we get, with her vocal activism and atheist beliefs, the latter leading to Lena’s very powerful line “In my mother’s house, there is still God.” Fun Fact: Diana Sands and I share a birthday!

• Rounding out the lead quartet is the always great Ruby Dee. Ruth isn’t as flashy as the other characters, but she ties everything together. And when Ruth finally smiles at the prospect of a new house, it’s one of the most uplifting moments in this or any movie. It’s still unfathomable how Dee or anyone else in the cast didn’t get an Oscar nomination. For the record, Ruby Dee would get her first and only Oscar nomination 46 years later for slapping Denzel Washington in “American Gangster”.

• I recently re-read the original play, and when it got to Ruth discovering she’s pregnant and putting a down payment on an abortion, I assumed this was all cut for the movie. To my shock, it’s all still there. Nobody directly says the word “abortion”, but it is made very clear what is going on. As far as I can tell the Hays Code only objected to the film’s depictions of racism, and the abortion storyline slipped under their radar. Another instance of the Hays Code being chipped away at in its final years.
• Sorta shoutout to veteran cinematographer Charles Lawton Jr. While most of the cinematography fares well within the confines of a cramped apartment, there are a few obvious moments where no one could figure out the best place to put the camera, with actors awkwardly upstaging each other or not in full view of the camera. Still, there are decent compositions throughout, plus creative blocking that moves the characters around organically.
• Both of Beneatha’s suitors are played by actors on their way to bigger and better things. Her Nigerian boyfriend Joseph Asagai is played by Ivan Dixon, who went on to star in future NFR entry “Nothing But a Man” and direct “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” (he was also Kinch on “Hogan’s Heroes”, but who cares about that?). The more straight-laced George Murchison is played by future Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. in his film debut!
• One of the handful of “opened-up” scenes that remains in the final film is a sequence of the Youngers visiting their new house before they move in. In a depressing case of life imitating art, while filming these scenes in a Chicago suburb, a White neighbor contacted the homeowner of the house being filmed at, afraid they were selling their house to a Black family. This is just one example of the constant racism faced by the cast and crew during this film’s production, including the cast’s difficulty finding housing when filming moved to Los Angeles.
• Showing up near the end as token White character Mark Lindner is John Fiedler, aka the voice of Piglet, aka Juror #2. It is so weird hearing Piglet nervously navigating a misguided conversation about race relations. Oh d-d-dear indeed.
• My one major complaint about the movie is the score by Laurence Rosenthal, particularly in the scene where Bobo tells Walter about what happened to Willie Harris. In what is already the most intense scene in the film, the score unnecessarily ramps things up, becoming too intrusive and oversaturating the moment.
• Despite everything that’s happened, the film manages to end on a hopeful note, or at least leaves it up to your interpretation. Despite all their hardships, I believe the Youngers…oh man I just got it! Lena’s plant is a metaphor! It’s growing and flourishing despite its stifling environment. It all makes sense now!

• “A Raisin in the Sun” has continued being performed on stage throughout the last nearly 70 years, and has returned to Broadway twice (three times if you count the 1973 musical “Raisin”). The play’s first revival in 2004 starred Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and…I forget who played Walter. The second revival in 2014 starred Denzel Washington, Sophie Okonedo, Anika Noni Rose, and LaTayna Richardson Jackson impressively serving as a last-minute replacement for Diahann Carroll.

• “Raisin” has been filmed for television twice. A 1989 taping for “American Playhouse” starred Danny Glover, Esther Rolle, and Starletta DuPois, with John Fiedler reprising his role from the original Broadway production and film 30 years later! A 2008 TV movie saw almost the entire cast of the 2004 Broadway production reprising their roles, plus John Stamos for some reason. They even got Morgan Freeman to narrate!

The Plot: The legendary “steel-driving man” of folk lore comes to the big screen in “John Henry and the Inky-Poo”. Born a fully grown man, John Henry (voice by Rex Ingram) goes working on the railroad (presumably all the live long day), hammering steel rails into the track more powerfully than any other man on the job. One day, the railroad workers are threatened by the appearance of a steam engine (an “inky-poo”) that can do their job in a fraction of the time. But John Henry, believing that a man can beat any machine, challenges the inky-poo to a steel-driving contest. George Pal’s classic Puppetoons series brings this beloved tale to life in one of the first animated shorts to showcase African-Americans in a positive light.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up gives context on both John Henry the legend and “John Henry” the film. There’s also a quote from Ebony that praises the “dignity, imagination, poetry, and love” the short gives to the John Henry legend.

But Does It Really?: Longtime readers may recall that this is the second Puppetoon short I’ve covered on this blog, the first was “Tulips Shall Grow” way back in 2017. On its own, “John Henry” is an engaging short and another great encapsulation of Puppetoon’s unique stop-motion aesthetic, but its NFR standing begs the question: Do we really need two of these shorts on the list? I dunno, it just feels like overkill. Then again, we have multiple cartoons on the list from the big dogs at Disney and Warner Bros., so why not a second Puppetoon? I’ll give “John Henry” a pass for its positive-in-its-day representation of African-Americans and get on with this post.

Seriously, Oscars?: “John Henry” received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short, losing to the Tom & Jerry short “The Cat Concerto”, which is still widely considered one of the best animated shorts of all time (plagiarism issues aside, but that’s another story). The “John Henry” nomination was the sixth of George Pal’s seven consecutive nominations in the category, and although he never won an Oscar, he did receive a special plaque from the Academy in 1944 for his Puppetoons series.

• I’ve covered George Pal/Puppetoons in greater detail in my “Tulips Shall Grow” post, but I will take this time to remind you that George Pal would go on to produce the sci-fi movie “When Worlds Collide”, which earned him a name drop in the song “Science Fiction Double Feature” at the beginning of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

While “V-E + 1” isn’t available for viewing on its own, the footage was incorporated into the 1988 Emil Weiss documentary “Falkenau, vision de l’impossible” [aka “Falkenau, The Impossible”], which can be viewed here.

Before he was a maverick filmmaker, Samuel Fuller was a budding screenwriter who joined the Army once the United States entered World War II, serving with the 16^th Infantry Regiment, 1^st Infantry Division. On May 8^th, 1945, two days before Victory in Europe Day (aka V-E Day) and the official end of the war, Fuller and his infantry liberated a German concentration camp in Falkenau, Czechoslovakia. Once the fighting ended, Fuller’s commanding officer ordered Fuller to grab his 16mm Bell & Howell movie camera (a gift from Fuller’s mother) and start filming. In roughly 20 minutes of black-and-white footage, Fuller documents the citizens of Falkenau (many of whom denied any knowledge of the camp’s existence) going into the camp and, upon military orders, picking up the dead bodies of the prisoners, dressing them, loading them onto a large wagon, taking the wagon across town to the cemetery, and giving the prisoners a proper burial. Reflecting on it over 40 years later, Fuller described the experience as “an impossible nightmare I’ll never forget”.

As of this writing, “V-E + 1” is the last NFR entry I’m covering about WWII, and without intending it, the film works as a somber coda to all the other NFR WWII films. After years of watching manipulative propaganda and fictionalized rabble rousing, “V-E + 1” provides a rare glimpse at what happens after a war. No celebrations, no triumphant music, just silent footage of survivors being forced to bury the dead. It was a sobering viewing experience for me; witnessing the weight of what was happening, as well as reflecting on everything I’ve learned about WWII in the last nine years of this blog. “V-E + 1” makes its case for NFR inclusion loud and clear, and I’m glad it has been inducted alongside its more patriotic contemporaries.

Why It Matters: No superlatives in the NFR write-up, just historical context, though there is mention of Fuller’s later filmography that “forced audiences to confront challenging societal issues”.

The Plot: Inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem of the same name, “Compensation” tells two love stories in two different time periods about African-Americans in Chicago, both between a deaf woman and a hearing man. In 1910, educated Malindy (Michelle A. Banks) teaches illiterate migrant worker Arthur (John Earl Jelks) how to read, and falls in love with him, despite her friends and family insisting that Arthur is beneath her. In 1993, librarian Nico (also John Earl Jelks) learns ASL to woo free-spirited Malaika (also Michelle A. Banks), who doesn’t date hearing men. As foretold in the Dunbar poem, the “boon of Death” comes for both of our couples; Arthur contracting tuberculosis in 1910, and Malaika living with an HIV/AIDS diagnosis in 1993. But “Compensation” transcends its slightly melodramatic story beats to paint a unique portrait of being Black and deaf on either side of the 20^th century.

Why It Matters: No superlatives from the NFR write-up, other than the film’s “unusual narrative approach”. The write-up is primarily a rehash of the story, with some additional context from NFPB chairwoman (and TCM mainstay) Jacqueline Stewart. Points deducted, however, from the write-up for misspelling screenwriter Marc Chéry’s first name. There’s also an interview with Zeinabu Davis conducted by the Library of Congress, plus a photo of Davis and Chéry celebrating their NFR induction.

But Does It Really?: As always, I’m looking for NFR titles that stand on their own unique piece of ground, and “Compensation” more than fits the bill. Unlike a lot of noisier NFR entries, “Compensation” is a quiet, contemplative movie; the kind of stripped down character study I’m always fond of, especially when it’s this well made. With its original perspective of the Black deaf community and its parallel timeline aesthetics (all masterfully shot in black and white), “Compensation” tells its story beautifully and compassionately. A yes for “Compensation”, the kind of underrated film the NFR has helped to highlight and celebrate through the years.

Shout Outs: Davis has cited fellow L.A. Rebellion/NFR movies “Daughters of the Dust” and “Killer of Sheep” as influences on this film. And thanks to a brief sequence of Nico and Malaika deciding which movie to see, we get glimpses of what was playing at your local movie theater in 1993, including “Jurassic Park” and a re-release of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (which I saw!).

Everybody Gets One: Originally intending to earn a master’s degree in African studies, Zeinabu irene Davis would get an MFA in film and video production from UCLA in 1989. As part of the second wave of African-American filmmakers in UCLA’s famous L.A. Rebellion, Davis’ initial short films centered around the hardships of Black women in both the past and present, with such titles as “Cycles” and “A Period Piece”. “Compensation” was Davis’ first feature film, a collaboration with her husband, Marc Arthur Chéry, whom Davis met when they were both students at UCLA. And yes, the I in Davis’ middle name irene isn’t capitalized. I don’t know why, but if e e cummings can do it, so can she.

Title Track: As mentioned throughout the movie, the title comes from the 1906 poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, who is described within the film as “America’s Negro Poet Laureate” of the early 1900s. The text of the poem is displayed and spoken throughout the film, including a version set to music and interpretive dance!

Seriously, Oscars?: Although “Compensation” was filmed in 1993, it would not be completed and screened until 1999. The film got a handful of festival prizes, and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature (Under $500,000), losing to…oh man, really? [Deep exhale] It lost to “The Blair Witch Project”. Yeah, I don’t like that any more than you do.

• John Earl Jelks is also quite good in this. It helps that Nico has a genuinely great rapport with the kids at the library, which will always endear me to any movie character. You can’t fake that.
• Marc Chéry is a public librarian by trade, so of course the handsome leading man in his screenplay works as a librarian. Coincidentally, Chéry briefly worked for Dr. Carla Hayden when she was the acting head of the Chicago Public Library. It’s all connected!
• Davis has stated that her favorite scene to shoot was the recreation of “The Railroad Porter”, the silent film Arthur and Malindy view at a local nickelodeon. “The Railroad Porter” was an actual silent film from 1912, allegedly the first with an all-Black cast and crew. Sadly, “The Railroad Porter” is a lost film, but Davis was able to faithfully reenact the film thanks to a detailed synopsis she found in her research. As you can imagine, this small part of the movie was the primary focus in the Library of Congress’ press release when “Compensation” made the NFR, to the point where I assumed it was a bigger part of the movie. Nope, just this one scene.
• A shout out to R. Kelly on the radio? Noooooo! This movie was doing so well.
• I didn’t know about the illness story beats going in, but I knew we were in trouble once Arthur started coughing. You don’t cough that loudly in a love story without it coming back later.
• Among the films Mailaika and Nico consider seeing is “Sleepless in Seattle”, which I’m still surprised isn’t on the NFR. Speaking of other movies, later on Nico is at the L train station sitting in front of a poster for “Son in Law”, which I assume is the closest Pauly Shore will ever get to making the NFR.
• The version of “Compensation” currently available through Criterion does an excellent job with the subtitles, which were supervised by Davis and Chéry for this release. Rather than just being standard closed captioning, the subtitles harken back to silent movie intertitles; fading in and out at different speeds, with occasional changes in font for emphasis. These choices help make the subtitles a part of the film viewing experience rather than any sort of distracting mandated accessibility.
• Admittedly the film lost me a bit towards the end, when Malaika and Nico separate and Nico goes on a spiritual journey to connect with his African roots. It’s all just ambiguous enough that I couldn’t figure out what was happening, but Davis has said in interviews that she purposefully left this plot line’s ending up to viewer interpretation. So…well done I guess? Side note: Great sound mixing during the breakup montage; it’s a full-on cacophony after an hour or so of leisurely silence. It really wakes you up for the last act.
• A few interesting tidbits in the credits. For starters, there are five credited ASL interpreters! Also I’m pretty sure they credit every background extra (which makes sense once you learn that almost all of them are the filmmakers’ friends and family). The Special Thanks section makes mention of both the Library of Congress and Gallaudet University, and there’s a line encouraging viewers to “[p]lease support public funding of alternative independent media!” Please let it not be too late for that.

• Although Michelle A. Banks has made very few on-camera acting appearances since “Compensation”, she has spent the last 30 years teaching and directing in the performing arts for both deaf and hearing children. Banks is currently the Artistic Director at the Visionaries of the Creative Arts (VOCA) in her native Washington D.C. John Earl Jelks continues acting on both stage and screen, receiving a Tony Award nomination in 2007 for his performance in August Wilson’s “Radio Golf”.

• While neither Zeinabu irene Davis or Marc Chéry seem to have any recent film credits, they are both still active in the film community, giving plenty of interviews and lectures over the years about their experience making “Compensation”. Davis’ most recent film is 2015’s “Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema from UCLA”, and she currently teaches Communication at UC San Diego. Davis is also one of the few NFR filmmakers to have spent a day in the Criterion Closet.