True Life Story: African Americans and Their Film Portrayals

Film has been an entertainment staple in the United States for close to a century. We have laughed and cried to stories such as Gone With The Wind and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Over the years, there have been films which tell us a story and to make us feel either better or regale a story about our own current situation in life. There have also been a number of movies which have depicted real life tales and have given the general public an insight on the situations at hand.

In the early days of Black film, African Americans were depicted as subsidiary players, sometimes only being characterized as overly aggressive pundandts or unintelligent weeklings. In recent years, roles of African Americans have expanded to portray the depth and complexity which has always been there to behold. The following piece reviews two films which mesh the art of storytelling with the true and fascinating story of real African Americans.

Pride (2007)

Pride, starring Terrance Howard, is a film which opens the doors in the genre of Black film biographies. Coming just two years after Howard's pragmatic portrayal of a pimp who makes it big in the music business in 2005's Hustle and Flow, he dramatically switches gears to play a role model in 2007's Pride. The film is rounded out with the acting of Bernie Mac (Guess Who, Oceans 12, Bad Santa) and Kimberly Elise (Set It Off, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Manchurian Candidate, John Q).

Directed by Sunu Gonera, this film chronicles a teacher who raises the status of a group of downtrodden, inner city students through the unconventional sport of swimming for the students to find appreciation and self worth. Though this kind of story has been told in many times before; with the "mentee" finding different levels of atonement, Howard's acting ability, as well as break through performances by Evan Ross and Nate Parker brings this coming of age/self identifying film worth the $5 rental fee.

The Great White Hope (1970)

As mentioned before, there have been a number of movies which delineate the triumphs of African Americans in the arena of sports. The Great White Hope (1970) is yet another film which does just that.

Being a movie ahead of its time, this film capitalizes on the amazing acting abilities of James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander; whose performances fetched Oscar nominations for their riveting performances in order to tell the story of a great fighter who was brought down by lesser men. Though the character names were changed for the film, the story line is loosely based on the life of Jack Johnson and his life in the sport of boxing. In addition to being a thin account of Johnson's true life, it also takes excerpts from the play of the same name by Howard Sackler and directed by Martin Ritt. Though this film was not released on DVD until 2004, it has been etched in the mind of many as being a great film that assisted in the advancement of people of color.

Though there are countless movies which star African Americans and have proven that on several levels, Black actors and actresses have traditionally been under represented in Hollywood, these two movies are examples of movies which transcend the typical "me against the world" themed film. The messages which are conveyed in these films are both poignant and time resistant, bringing hope and self respect to an entirely new generation.