BEFORE: I dropped this one into the chain just a couple weeks before the Oscars, just in case it was likely to win something - umm, it didn't, despite three nominations. Then since I'd made room for it (by doubling up on Samuel L. Jackson films), I figured I might as well keep it in, or else then I'd have a hole in the schedule. Tomorrow's film has such a large cast, there were probably at least a dozen ways to get there - I could have linked there from "Freedomland", for example, if I'd wanted to skip "Harriet" and this one. But, I'm all about packing the schedule with more films rather than sitting out for a couple days, so the schedule stands.
Leslie Odom Jr. carries over from "Harriet".
THE PLOT: A fictional account of one incredible night where icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown gathered, discussing their roles in the Civil Rights movement and cultural upheaval of the 1960s.
AFTER: I'm pretty underwhelmed by this one, now I'm wondering what all the fuss was about. At least the film is very clear that the events depicted are fictional, that there probably was never a night such as this, when THESE four men gathered in THIS manner and had THOSE discussions. Which is a bit of a shame, really, I mean I know this is based on a play, but if these four men's lives were so colorful and interesting, then why not pick a real event where we know they were all in attendance? And if there was no time they were together, then why put them together, and why in THIS particular fashion? I don't quite know, I'm scratching my head.
So I kind of have to read between the lines here, and extrapolate from the fictional conversations that were placed in these characters' mouths, and determine in reverse what, exactly, the playwright felt was important. I've never seen this other play (and film) called "Insignificance", but it similarly put four famous characters together in a hotel room - Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein and Sen. Joseph McCarthy - and then wrote what could have happened. You can do this with any four people, or it's like asking someone "What three famous people, living or dead, would you like to have dinner with?" (I'd choose the living people, they tend to have livelier conversations, though the dead don't eat as much, and you can probably stick them with the bill.)
The film opens with a montage of each of the characters at a low point in their lives - Ali almost loses a fight in the U.K., Sam Cooke bombs in front of a white crowd at the Copa, Jim Brown visits an old football friend who'll sit with him on the porch but doesn't allow black people into his house, and Malcolm X questions whether he should leave the Nation of Islam in a discussion with his wife.
The night in question takes place on February 25, 1964, right after Cassius Clay wins a boxing match against Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion. NFL player Jim Brown is a ringside commentator, and Sam Cooke and Malcolm X were in the crowd. (Supposedly.) And the night becomes one of great personal change for all of the men - Cassius Clay decides to commit to being a Muslim (or Moo-slim, as he says) and change his name to Muhammed Ali, Jim Brown reveals he's leaving the NFL to pursue more acting roles, and Sam Cooke decides to stop writing songs he thinks white people will enjoy and write something meaningful about civil rights. Malcolm X still struggles with his future plans, but perhaps I'll get some more understanding about him in tomorrow's movie.
There are a few things here that don't really add up, like they don't really make sense - I just sort of noticed the contradictions inherent to Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali. He wants to be a Muslim and practice non-violence, which is why he refused to serve in Vietnam, but isn't his whole boxing career based on hitting other men? How did he resolve those two things? He was always bragging about himself and saying he could beat this guy or whup that fighter's ass, and that all seems pretty violent, right? It's a bit like a librarian who doesn't like to read, or a NASCAR driver who doesn't own a car, it's just a bit weird. And why would the Nation of Islam want a boxer in their ranks, anyway, somebody who beats up other men for a living, if they claim to practice non-violence?
The big NITPICK POINT for me, though, was Sam Cooke talking about song royalties, how he wanted somebody big, like the Rolling Stones, to cover one of his songs, because his friend Bobby Womack wrote the song "It's All Over Now", which the Rolling Stones covered and then had a Number 1 hit with. Umm, OK, except I couldn't find any Stones covers of Cooke's songs except "Good Times", and that wasn't released as a single AND they recorded it after Sam Cooke died. It's true that the Stones hit #1 on the charts with that Bobby Womack song, but not until July of 1964, and this film takes place in February 1964 - so Sam Cooke couldn't possibly have known about the Stones' success with that song, it hadn't happened yet.
Now the song that Sam Cooke DID write, the big inspirational anthem about civil rights, was "A Change Is Gonna Come" - and sure, it was a modest hit, and it maybe inspired a ton of people about the kind of change they wanted to see in the world, but then again - that's it? A song? That's the big payoff here, the men meet in a hotel room and talk about their hopes and dreams and enacting change in the world, and all we get from that is one song? Harriet Tubman freed hundreds of slaves from the South and brought them to safety in the North, to me THAT'S social change, not a 45 single on the RCA label. Maybe it's just me, and maybe it's the fact that I watched "Harriet" right before this one, but I'm left saying, "That's it?"
Maybe that is the point, I don't know, that people have to act quickly when they see injustice in the world, because we've all got such a very short window to make a difference, however we see that. Sam Cooke died in December 1964 and Malcolm X was assassinated in February 1965 - so (sorry, SPOILER ALERT) two of this film's main characters were dead about a year after the night depicted. You gotta get together with your friends whenever you can, I guess, because we're here for a good time, not a long time.
Sam Cooke, by the way, died in a hotel in Los Angeles - and forgive me for thinking that THAT story might have been a whole lot more interesting. Weirder and sadder, sure, but way more interesting. He was shot by the hotel manager, in what was ruled a "justifiable homicide" - he burst into her room wearing only a sport jacket and one shoe, and he was disoriented and screaming, "Where's the girl?" so she shot him in self-defense. There are a number of possible scenarios to explain this, he'd been seen with a woman at the hotel, one who claimed he had tied her up and molested her, until she was able to grab her clothes and escape. It's also possible that this woman robbed HIM, took his clothes and money and left the hotel. Some people have claimed the whole thing was a giant conspiracy, arranged by his manager, Allen Klein, to have Cooke killed so he'd lose all the rights to his recordings. You can read the whole story on Wikipedia, it's quite fascinating and mysterious. Weird and sad, sure, but fascinating and mysterious.
Instead, I have to judge this film based on four guys talking in a hotel room. They eat a bit, drink a bit, but there are no women present so they don't even do what most people go to a hotel room to do. OK, they go out on the roof and watch some fireworks, big freaking deal - you've seen one fireworks show, you've seen them all. Sorry, but this was mostly boring, and a terrific example of why a director's motto should be "Show, don't just tell." It's not really much of a "legendary night" when the after-party is so dullsville.
Also starring Kingsley Ben-Adir (last seen in "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword"), Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge (last seen in "Straight Outta Compton"), Lance Reddick (last seen in "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum"), Christian Magby, Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson, Michael Imperioli (last seen in "I Shot Andy Warhol"), Lawrence Gilliard Jr. (last seen in "Cecil B. Demented"), Beau Bridges (last seen in "The Mountain Between Us"), Emily Bridges, Jeremy Pope, Christopher Gorham (last seen in "A Life Less Ordinary"), Jerome A. Wilson, Amondre D. Jackson, Aaron D. Alexander, Randall Newsome (last seen in "Love Happens"), Alan Wells, Sean Monaghan, Derek Roberts (last seen in "The 5th Wave"), Hunter Burke, Robert Stevens Wayne, Matt Fowler, Dustin Lewis (last seen in "First Man"), Lucretia Johnson with archive footage of Mike Wallace.
RATING: 5 out of 10 bodyguards
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