HBO’s “Bessie” (also starring Khandi Alexander, Mo’Nique, Oliver Platt and Charles S. Dutton) was in development for more than 20 years, with Latifah always pegged to play a person she knew little of back then.
At the start of HBO’s Bessie, the woman who would become the Empress of Blues is just another singer enduring heckles on an Atlanta stage. But by a mere 20 minutes later in the film’s runtime, she has met the iconic Ma Rainey (Mo’Nique), inserted herself into Rainey’s traveling show, outshone her, and ditched her. It’s a dizzyingly fast telling of what surely was a more complicated rise to fame for the real-life Bessie Smith, and at first, it’s easy to suspect the film of sloppy pacing decisions and big omissions. But by the end of the movie, a different explanation emerges for why the narrative moves so speedily. To capture Bessie Smith could not have been an easy task as there was no Google when this movie came to Queen Latifah.
It was listening to Bessie’s music which really gave Queen Latifah insight in truly becoming Bessie from interviews with AP.
Bessie had some very great moments during her career that the biopic touched on. She recorded some of the first major-label “race records”at Columbia Records; she was bisexual; she married and broke up with her manager. At one point, a man stabbed her in the street, but she still performed the next day. Another time, she chased away the KKK members who’d shown up to a tent concert of hers.
What is quite interestingly portrayed in the movie from the very beginning is how the writer-director Dee Rees, portrays Bessie’s triumphs the situations. In the first minutes of Bessie, she nonchalantly slices a would-be rapist with a bottle and then walks on stage to perform.
The biopic does her justice as it highlights her bisexuality, with scenes with Lucille (Tika Sumpter) , her love interest and dancer. In the biopic it’s not scandalized, it’s like she loves who she loves. It so matter-of-fact, just like her lyrics that refer to homosexuality.
Ma Rainey, as played by Monique, is also given her credit as the movie begins and ends with Bessie seeking advice from her.
At nearly two hours, Bessie feels a lot like any other TV biopic, with unspectacular production values and a mostly chronological story structure. It’s hard not to be moved by Queen Latifah portrayal of what Bessie endures. Bessie earned our respect through her music and her bravery in the face of obstacles that would have overwhelmed a less courageous woman
I am proud to say in 2015 we did Bessie justice, thanks to Queen Latifah and HBO.
You’ve got to hustle to keep up with Bessie Smith on HBO and HBO on demand.
