Wednesday, October 16, 1996
FILM:
Million Man March inspires director Spike Lee’s latest,
controversial film By Brandon Wilson
Daily Bruin Staff
In these days where all too often films get away with being
about absolutely nothing, it’s easy to give any film the benefit of
the doubt simply for having something or anything on it’s mind.
Watching Spike Lee’s new cinematic offering "Get on the Bus," a
road picture about a bus load of African-American men on their way
to last year’s Million Man March, makes you wonder why so few films
(and their numbers dwindle with every month) manage to escape from
Hollywood with any concerns that aren’t monetary.
Of course, a film shouldn’t be graded on a curve. And despite
the shortcomings of the industry in general, "Get on the Bus" has
plenty of shortcomings of its own, flaws which ultimately sink the
film and cast a shadow of doubt on its esteemed director.
Coming out exactly one year to the day after the Million Man
March on Washington, the film begins 72 hours before the event as a
group of men board a bus parked outside of L.A.’s First AME Church.
Rather than fill the bus with a group of men already friendly or
familiar with each other, the bus is populated by African-American
men from disparate walks of life, most of whom are complete
strangers to each other. Among them there’s: a son being dragged
under duress by his father, a devout Muslim trying to atone for the
sins of his youth, a biracial man with an LAPD badge in his
billfold, a UCLA film student documenting the trip with his
ever-present camcorder, a gum-chewing entrepreneur and two fellows
whose relationship is deeper and more intimate than most of the
other men would care to know about.
They pass the time on the road by talking, singing and doing
more talking. The men discover the commonalities about themselves
and learn to accept the diversity within their little
microcosm.
Unfortunately, all this is much less interesting than it
sounds.
All the social issues raised in "Get on the Bus" have been
raised over and over again, and unless you (a) know nothing about
the internal politics of the African-American community or (b) just
love to hear old issues restated without any new perspectives or
insights, it is hard not to get bored with the numerous ideological
donnybrooks on-board the bus.
The film works better when it simply allows the ensemble cast to
explore their characters than it does when it explores "The
Problems of the Race." The actors all manage to deliver some fine
performances, including standout turns by Andre Braugher as a
shallow but well-meaning wannabe actor, Isaiah Washington as half
of the group’s gay duo, and the always wonderful Ossie Davis as the
group’s elder statesman who makes up for missing the last historic
march at the nation’s capital. The actors (and Lee’s direction of
them) salvage the film and breathe life into the characters who
could have remained propped-up-cut-outs instead of becoming flesh
and blood.
But the most lamentable facet of "Get on the Bus" is the
apparent waning of director Spike Lee’s once formidable cinematic
prowess. "Malcolm X" seems to have sapped something essential in
Lee that he has yet to regain, because (with the possible exception
of "Crooklyn") his films have declined ever since he managed to
survive making an epic.
Right at the opening credits you know you’re in trouble. As King
of Pop Michael Jackson plays on the soundtrack (one of Lee’s many
dubious soundtrack choices), we get closeups of an African-American
man with different parts of his anatomy shackled. The image may be
heavy-handed, but it is arresting. Unfortunately, the images aren’t
structured to progress anywhere, and the shackles become redundant
and lose their bite long before "Directed by Spike Lee" flashes on
the screen.
Lee’s experimental streak used to be his best trait, but his
judgment about how much cinematic style the material can handle
seems to have deserted him. Elliott Davis’s cinematography seems to
make a movie of its own, and the shift in film stocks detracts
rather than enhances the story.
Even in Lee’s last film, the failed "Girl 6," his stylistic
excesses veered close to anarchy. With "Get on the Bus," it becomes
clear that Lee has given up his place at the forefront of American
cinema, and unless he regains his earlier clarity, Lee will join
that ever-growing fraternity of filmmakers whose early work is
bittersweetly regarded as the best it ever got.
Columbia Pictures
At the First AME Church in South Central L.A.,the characters of
‘Get on the Bus’ begin their journey for the Million Man March in
Washington, D.C.