Movie critics are loving the new Quentin Tarantino film. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD takes place in 1969 when things were changing. I like Tarantino's work. Some of it. I do admit that I felt certain muscles in my butt area tighten when I saw him play a character who freely dropped the N-word in conversation. I dig his obvious appreciation for and inspirations from classic films. Those same muscles in my butt area would tighten again when white critics exalted him for some edgy originality he borrowed from Black directors such as Melvin Van Peebles of SWEET SWEETBACK and WATERMELON MAN and Ivan Dixon of THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR. Quentin Tarantino is one lucky white dude. Look at Oscar night in 2013. He won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay -- for DJANGO UNCHAINED. Django was a lead character introduced in a 1966 Italian western called DJANGO. He was played by Franco Nero a year before Hollywood audiences saw him as the incredibly handsome Lancelot in Warner Bros. CAMELOT. Nero appeared as Django again in another Italian western. But when Quentin re-imagined the Django story, set it in America and made him a tough, no-nonsense Black man, Quentin won an Oscar for his *original* screenplay. Did William Roberts get a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for 1960's THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN? No. Because the Academy knew it was a Wild West remake of 1954's SEVEN SAMURAI directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa. But things have changed. I want to see Tarantino's new film. It's set in the Los Angeles of my youth.
I grew up in South Central L.A. I was a teen there in 1969. I was home listening to KMPC on my transistor radio one day. Gary Owens of the NBC hit comedy series, ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN, was a weekday DJ on KMPC-AM. When the host broke in with a bulletin about a Hollywood death. I turned the volume up to hear what star from Old Hollywood had died. But, when the show cut over to a reporter to deliver the news, you could hear in his voice that he was shaken. The new young and very pregnant VALLEY OF THE DOLLS star, Sharon Tate, had been murdered. There were other fatalities at the gruesome crime scene. The Manson Clan also killed the sunny, carefree, welcoming, open-door vibe of the predominantly white Southern California that you saw reflected in pop culture. People now purchased locks for their doors.
My favorite summer vacation pastime was going to the movies -- especially in Hollywood. When I saw movies at The Egyptian, Grauman's Chinese Theatre or The Pantages, I was not the only Black person on Hollywood Blvd. There were also Black people onscreen. THE LEARNING TREE, directed by Gordon Parks was a popular Warner Bros. release in 1969.
100 RIFLES starring Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch and Jim Brown did quite well at the box office.
Rupert Crosse, a marvelous actor who'd graduated from indie films, co-starred with Steve McQueen in THE REIVERS. For his performance, late Mr. Crosse made history as the first Black man to be an Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actor.
Louis Armstrong, a jazz great in America and Europe since the 1920s, got applause when he appeared onscreen with Barbra Streisand in HELLO, DOLLY! He was not in the Broadway show. Like several top vocalists of the day, he'd recorded the title tune. His cover was a Billboard hit that topped The Beatles on the charts. That's why he was cast for the cameo in the 1969 movie.
The 60s was the first decade in which you saw Black people in lead roles on TV shows -- and they were not playing maids or butlers. Popular network shows in 1969 were JULIA starring Diahann Carroll...
… THE MOD SQUAD on ABC....
… and ROOM 222 from James L. Brooks right before to left to help create a new sitcom called THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW. ROOM 222 was a smart series about a high school in L.A.
In the music department, we were listening to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Diana Ross and The Supremes, The Fifth Dimension, Isaac Hayes, Lou Rawls and many more.
With all that diversity happening in 1969, here's my question: Why don't I see African American actors in the trailer for Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD? When Quentin re-imagined 1969 Hollywood, did he remove the smog and the Black people? I realize this is just the trailer. If you have seen ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, let me know if there are any Black actors in principal or supporting roles. Click onto this link to see the trailer:
For one year in New York City, I served on the Screen Actors Guild Diversity Board. Our goal was to check for and push for more racial inclusion. One new TV show we discussed fervently was a new ABC series in 2011 called PAN AM. It was about 4 young, lovely stewardesses in New York City in 1963. All four were white. We kind of expected that. However, in the street scenes set in Greenwich Village or midtown Manhattan, you didn't even see Black background actors as pedestrians. That was just wrong. This lack of Black folks was evident in the first three episodes. What really irked us was a scene in the busy New York airport terminal. We counted four Black background characters. One was carrying luggage, one was shining shoes and the other two were a couple in African garb.
One of the stewardesses on the cancelled series was played by Margot Robbie, now seen as the late Sharon Tate in ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Here's a featurette about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment