ONCE UPON A TIME ... WHEN WE WERE COLORED
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
ONCE UPON A TIME ... WHEN WE WERE COLORED is based on the best selling memoirs of Clifton Taulbert. It tells of a time and a people in the south that is rarely dealt with on film. It starts in Colored Town which is the name of the black community on the wrong side of the railroad tracks in Glen Allan, Mississippi. The film starts in the year is 1946 when segregation is in full force.
Wait a minute, you are probably saying. I have seen a lot of movies about racial discrimination in the south. As you start to tick off the movies (MISSISSIPPI BURNING, etc.), ask yourself how many of these focus on the black community itself. If you examine most of the films, you will see that they are more about whites and what bad things the whites do to the blacks. You see a lot of blacks as victims, but rarely do you see the blacks coming together for community, for support, and for fun as you do in ONCE UPON A TIME ... WHEN WE WERE COLORED.
Here the whites appear periodically and serve to remind the audience of why the blacks suffered. Even the whites are more realistically drawn than normal. You see how uncomfortable some of them are with the system they feel trapped in, but go along with anyway. Other whites rebel and try to help. All of this notwithstanding, the whites play a minor role in the picture, which I found totally refreshing and much more involving. Other than "Roots," which was set in a different era, I do not remember a film that taught so much of what it is to be part of the black community. Massive discrimination is shown certainly, but the great script adaptation (Paul W. Cooper) keeps the focus on the blacks themselves.
Like the marvelous film TO LIVE from a couple of years ago, the show is told in small segments. It starts when Cliff is born and then skips to age 5 (Charles Earl Taylor Jr.), 12 (Willis Norwood Jr.), and finally 16 (Damon Hines). This means the films spans the turbulent era of 1946-1962. Since I was born in 1946 and grew up in the south, the discrimination presented here from the separate water fountains to the rest rooms labeled "whites" and "colored," I can remember all too well. Repugnant as it was, it did happen; I remember. I was there.
In one of the most poignant, but simple scenes from the show, Cliff's grandfather "Pappa" (Al Freeman Jr.) asks 5 year old Cliff several times before they leave to make the big trip to an adjoining town if he needs to go to the bathroom again, and Cliff says no. When Pappa stops for gas, the child announces he has to go, but Pappa shakes his head pointing out that the service station is small so it just has a white's restroom. The child, in pain, must wait until he can go in the woods later.
Much of the show is devoted to the milieu of the blacks' lives: their fishing along the river, their one room school house for all eight grades, their large picnics, and their worship of God ("If you call Jesus, his line is never busy"). You relive their smaller tragedies too as when Joe Louis, "The Brown Bomber", loses the heavy weight championship after holding the crown for 12 years.
The blacks are shown as a hopeful lot, and as the narrator (Paul W. Cooper) says, "Everyone clung to the idea that if you worked hard, you get a piece of the American dream." They are also defiant against injustice, as when one of the women cotton pickers says of the field boss, "He ain't nothing but a redneck trying to be a white man."
The only white person that comes off well in the film is Miss Maybry (Polly Bergen) who gets Cliff books, but warns him, "Books are like eggs. You got to crack 'em open to get anything out of them."
Eventually the seeds of revolution are set. Even Pappa moves from passive aggression to active defiance. As he sums up his anger, "we got peace with the white man as long as we do what he says."
The acting is good all round, but the star of the show has to be Al Freeman Jr. He shows great inner strength, bravery, and intelligence. You may remember him from his forceful performance as Elijah Muhammad in MALCOLM X. I liked the other actors and actresses, but none stood out for me the way his performance did.
The cinematography by John Simmons has the perfect nostalgic sepia look to it. The direction by Tim Reid has good pacing except in the middle where the show loses energy. Some of the incidents chosen for illustration work much better than others so, although I really liked the film, I found it uneven.
ONCE UPON A TIME ... WHEN WE WERE COLORED runs 1:55. It is correctly rated PG. There is no sex, no nudity, mild violence and only a few bad words. It would be fine for any kid old enough to be interested in the subject. I liked the show a lot, although I wish it were more even and had a stronger middle. I recommend this excellent show to you and award it ***.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: May 20, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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