THE ONE AND ONLY DICK GREGORY (B) - The family of the stand-up comic, civil rights activist and healthy-living guru backs this loving overview of the life of Dick Gregory. The archival footage is fascinating, as we watch him break big in Chicago in the late 1950s and early '60s. Gregory is an engaging figure, with a stand-up style that influenced Dave Chappelle, who appears here as a talking head alongside other modern comics like Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes and Kevin Hart.
The film is thorough in its chronicle of Gregory's awakening of conscious around 1963 and The Rev. Martin Luther King's March on Washington. Gregory was patently outspoken (his first autobiography, from 1964 was titled with a racial epithet), and he used fasting as a method of drawing attention to causes. He was a noted vegan who sought to improve Americans' diet to fend off obesity and diabetes. (Alas, he didn't succeed.)
Andre Gaines, debuting as a writer-director, does a workmanlike job juggling the video archives with current interviews, including Gregory's wife and a few of his kids, plus the widow of Medgar Evers, Myrlie. The visuals, at least in the first 15 minutes, can be dizzying and distracting, with needless razzle-dazzle added to the old black-and-white footage. While not a hagiography, it is rather protective of its subject, and while some of Gregory's faults are mentioned, you might get the feeling that a few things are glossed over. Still, this is a valuable biography that does justice to a truly driven performer and activist, never forgetting to remind us how funny Gregory was.
BLACK WAX (1983) (B) - This documentary from blues archivist Robert Mugge spends time with self-proclaimed "bluesologist" Gil Scott-Heron, whose jazzy compositions presaged rap. This is a choppy visit with the musician, alternating between his performances and musings in concert with a separate traipse through Washington, D.C., neighborhoods, with Scott-Heron offering philosophical musings in opposition to the Reaganism of the day.
The music in concert has a heavily jazz tilt. Highlights include "Waiting for the Axe to Fall" and "Johannesburg." Scott-Heron traipses through a cheesy museum of American history, having fun mocking poorly constructed replicas of presidents like Nixon and Ford. He was a key political voice for urban America, and many of his takes would not seem out of place in our current climate, which is a sad commentary. Here, the music and the monologues have a simple power to them, with Scott-Heron sharp and insightful, before drugs would drag down his career and his life.
BONUS TRACK
Gil Scott-Heron with "B Movie," his diatribe about Ronald Ray Gun:
No comments:
Post a Comment