Black Girl (1972 film)

Black Girl is an American family drama film directed by Ossie Davis based on a 1969 play written by J.E. Franklin.[1] The film explores issues and experiences of black womanhood in the 1970s, including how black women were depicted and common stereotypes of the period. According to Melvin Donalson in Black Directors in Hollywood, "Black Girl is a film that explores the intricate and sometimes painful connections between mothers and daughters."[2]

Black Girl
Directed byOssie Davis
Produced by
  • Robert H. Greenberg
  • Lee Savin
Screenplay byJ.E. Franklin
Based onBlack Girl
by J. E. Franklin
Starring
Music by
CinematographyGlenwood J. Swanson
Edited byGraham Lee Mahin
Distributed byCinerama Releasing Corporation
Release date
  • November 9, 1972 (1972-11-09)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

A young woman defies the low expectations thrust upon her by her family, determined to distract the pursuance of her dreams of becoming a dancer. The story begins in Mama Rosie's house, where Billie lives with her mother Mama Rosie and grandmother Madear. Billie Jean, the youngest of three girls, desperately wishes to avoid the fate of her two sisters Norma Faye and Ruth Ann. The elder sisters have left home, married creating families of their own. The sisters visit their mother each day out of boredom, deflecting their own failures onto their youngest sister Billie. The oldest sister Norma Faye and the middle Ruth Ann have failed to finished high school, lacking a vision to create any future aspirations of their own. Billie Jean dreams of becoming a successful dancer, but her mother and sisters belittle her attempts to improve herself.

Mama Rosie compares her daughters unfavorably with Netta, a young lady from the neighborhood, whom she loves like a daughter. Mama Rosie has formed a bond with Netta, whose natural mother suffers from severe mental illness. Netta is achieving success as she pursues her education, attending college in a city nearby, which offers Netta hope for a promising career upon completion. Resented by Mama Rosie's daughters Norma Faye and Ruth Ann, Netta is met with hatred, threats and potential violence upon her arrival to visit Mama Rosie from college. Nevertheless, despite the confrontational confusion, Netta has plans for Billie Jean to finish high school and to apply for college at the end of the school term.

Billie Jean's sisters never have understood, envisioned, nor dared to imagine any aspirations of their own because of a lack of an education, motivation and insecurities. Throughout the movie, Mama Rosie speaks about dreams she held from her youth, which she never fulfilled due to a life of failed marriages, children, and self-distractions. Mama Rosie now lives her life through Netta as she cheers Netta on to become a teacher. The ex-husband of Mama Rosie, and father of the two eldest daughters, returns to town to visit the family with hopes to rekindle a relationship with Mama Rosie.

Conversations of vulgarities ensue from the visiting father Earl as he talks about how Billie can make it by dancing in a Detroit bar. The grandmother's church-going, live-in boyfriend Herbert objects to the disrespectful conversation, reminding Earl, he speaks among the company of women and a teen. Mama Rose, interjects, advising Herbert, that everyone present is grown and married except Billie. The scene alludes to why the family could possibly be in such a dysfunctional place. Not only does the family suffer from aspirations to improve their lives, but they seem to have lost integrity as well as a sense of decency and substance. The movie progresses with Earl and Mama Rosie taking a ride to a near by neighborhood park. As the two enter, they are met with the sound of youthful laughter, children playing, in a sunny park. Earl runs around the park, as Mama Rosie looks with laughter as if they both are remember their days of youth and dreams. Earl and Mama Rosie then discuss their bittersweet past, a time too late to renew.

Mama Rosie and Earl soon part company after discussing their current life. Rosie returns home with a sense of imbalance imposed upon her by Earl's presence. Rosie and her mother engage in an unsuccessful conversation that takes a sour turn, awakening painful, old wounds. Both Madear and Rosie are forced to face inner truths that lead to additional conflict in the concluding scenes. The movie moves with the elder sisters ganging up on Billie Jean, holding her down, insisting Billie Jean needs to be institutionalized as they fail to understand and respect Billie's goals.

The grandmother Madear comes to Billie's aid and reminds her daughter Rosie of her past dreams. Madear asks Rosie to please allow Billie to fulfill her dreams regardless of anyone's understanding, without interference. Madear pleads on behalf of Billie Jean's rights to be respected to live and follow her own dreams. Madear objects to any further judgment or hindrance from the family toward Billie Jean. The film ends with Billie Jean's leaving home to attend college despite protest from her envious sisters. Billie enters a cab of her future, and Madear and Mama Rosie look from the front porch with mixed emotions. The matriarchs look with apprehension, hope, faith, and a sense of peace.

Cast

Feminism

Davis was not afraid to focus on realistic and sometimes uncomfortable issues. A central theme of his was the depiction of black women in that time period. Black Girl was released "against the backdrop of the surging feminist movement in the early 1970s".[3]

Davis explores the emerging women's liberation that followed the Black Power movement through the characters' stories, especially that of Mama Rosie as a single black mother struggling to support her family while refusing to allow her ex-husband to save her. "Davis gave notice that working-class black women—who were not prostitutes, drug users, or gun-toting heroines—had stories to tell that were provocative and relevant."[4]

The role of black women in films was changing. "The role of black women in films, always previously confined to servant roles, with only white-looking women being allowed to be sexually alluring (and sinful), did not reflect their status in the black community."[5]

Blaxploitation

Blaxploitation films in the 1970s exploited the stereotypes of African Americans in the roles they played. The genre promoted popular images of black men and women using traits of extraordinary cool, sexuality, and violence. Black Girl embraces some of these traits, in depicting the sexuality of the older sisters, and in a violent scene where the oldest sister pulls a knife on Netta, the foster sister.[6] Roger Ebert stated that in Black Girl "we see a black family with more depth and complexity than the movies usually permit"[7]

Reception

Melvin Donalson wrote: "Studios were perhaps unenthusiastic about marketing a film that explored emotional and psychological dimensions of black womanhood, and perhaps audiences were still hungry for the trendy black urban action films that dominated the period."[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated it three out of four stars and wrote, "Black Girl is a movie so filled with things it wants to say that sometimes the messages are lost in a confusion of story lines. A more disciplined movie might have been made by eliminating some of the material and organizing the rest, but I'm not sure it would have been a better movie or a more moving experience."[9] Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote, "I suspect that the real difference between the successful play and the failed movie lies in Ossie Davis's direction, which ranges from pedestrian to downright helpless."[10] Variety quoted their own review, which called it "the best study of Negro family life since Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun".[11]

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See also

References
  1. Franklin, J.E. (1971). Black Girl: A Play in Two Acts. New York City: Dramatists Play Service, Inc. ISBN 978-0822201250.
  2. Donalson, Melvin. Black Directors in Hollywood.
  3. Donalson, Melvin. Black Directors in Hollywood.
  4. Donalson, Melvin (2003). Black Directors in Hollywood. University of Texas Press. pp. 29.
  5. Null, Gary. Black Hollywood the negro in motion pictures. Citadel Press. p. 216.
  6. Donalson, Melvin (2003). Black Directors in Hollywood. University of Texas Press. pp. 45.
  7. Ebert, Roger. "Black Girl".
  8. Donalson, Melvin. Black Directors in Hollywood.
  9. Ebert, Roger (1973-02-06). "Black Girl". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
  10. Greenspun, Roger (1972-11-10). "Black Girl (1972)". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
  11. "Lee Savin". Variety. 1995-01-29. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
  • Donalson, Melvin. Black Directoris in Hollywood. University of Texas Press. pp. 25–30, 45, 204.
  • New York Times Movie Review by Roger Greenspun
  • Hooks, Bell. Ain't I a Woman black women and feminism. South End Press. p. 161.
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