ONCE UPON A TIME ... WHEN WE COLORED
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw
(BET Pictures) Starring: Al Freeman Jr., Phylicia Rashad, Leon, Richard Roundtree. Screenplay: Paul W. Cooper. Director: Tim Reid. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
It is one of the more cumbersome pieces of baggage which goes along with being a film critic that, every once in a while, a film comes along which you are _supposed_ to like on general principle. Critics are sometimes placed in the uncomfortable position of being expected to champion small, ennobling films simply because, like cinematic castor oil, they are good for us. ONCE UPON A TIME...WHEN WE WERE COLORED is a film which wears its earnestness proudly on its sleeve; it means well, and it tries hard. But a film has to have something more going for it than principle, and ONCE UPON A TIME... is a well-acted but extremely fragmented story which can't quite get its tone down straight.
Based on the autobiographical writings of Clifton Taulbert, ONCE UPON A TIME...WHEN WE WERE COLORED opens in Glen Allan, Mississippi in 1946, with the birth of Cliff to an unmarried farm girl named Mary (Karen Malina White). When his mother eventually becomes a teacher in a nearby town, Cliff is raised primarily by his great-grandfather Poppa (Al Freeman Jr.) and great-grandmother Mama Pearl (Paula Kelly). Under Poppa's care Cliff gradually begins to understand the facts of life in the segregated South. Mama Pearl's growing infirmity forces Cliff to live with yet another caregiver, his aunt known as Ma Ponk (Phylicia Rashad). Cliff observes as prejudice affects several friends including an iceman named Cleve (Richard Roundtree), and how the allure of the more integrated North draws away many members of his family.
ONCE UPON A TIME...WHEN WE WERE COLORED is not particularly interested in detailing the day-to-day ugliness of life in the segregated South; it is a film about a kind of community which no longer exists, and as such it is occasionally quite touching. It is difficult not to watch scenes of 4th of July barbecues for which the whole town turns out, or to notice how the people of Glen Allan look out for each other, without feeling a sense of sadness that that unity had to disappear with the passing years. This is more of a love letter to a time when Southern blacks realized that all they had was each other, and treated their community with reverence and respect, than it is a remembrance of cruelties past.
The main problem with ONCE UPON A TIME is that it makes frequent side trips to episodic stories which don't resonate, despite insistent voice-over narration (provided by screenwriter Paul W. Cooper) that tries to convince us that they should. There is a sub-plot involving the return of Ma Ponk's son Melvin (Leon) to visit from his new home in Detroit, and his attempt to convince an old girlfriend to come with him. The story allows for a scene in a backwater juke joint which adds a bit of atmosphere, but the relationship doesn't really matter, because there's a history there we haven't had a chance to see. The same is true of an episode involving a traveling chorus girl (Iona Morris) who stays with Cliff and Ma Ponk, and the result of Ma Ponk's visit to see the show, or Cliff's relationship with a kindly white woman (Polly Bergen) who gets library books for him to read. There is an incompleteness to many of the individual episodes, and a lack of emotion to scenes which seem designed to provoke an emotional response.
When ONCE UPON A TIME...WHEN WE WERE COLORED spends time with Cliff and his family, there is a lot to recommend it. Al Freeman Jr. gives a subtle but commanding performance as the proud Poppa, who has the unpleasant task of teaching his great-grandson why there are certain restrooms he cannot use; a scene in which he reacts to Cliff proudly using the correct, "colored" drinking fountain is a fine piece of non-verbal acting. Too often, however, the film drifts away from Cliff's point-of-view, or injects an obligatory bit of racial violence almost because it seems to be expected. First-time feature director Tim Reid maintains a steady pace and evokes the atmosphere of his setting skillfully, but he doesn't find a narrative in the many stories he is trying to put on the screen. If its story and its characters had been as consistent as its good intentions, it might have been a great film.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 secondary colors: 5.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw
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