Movies That Matter | Part 1

As we begin the celebration of Black History Month, five African-American and African actors were nominated for the industry’s highest honor, the Academy Awards. Over the month of February, I'll spotlight 20 films that were groundbreaking and historically significant to African Americans. These are the first of this four-part series.

Carmen Jones (1954)
Stars: Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte
Plot: The film was a sizzling screen version of Bizet's Carmen updated with an all-Black cast, including an especially sexy Dorothy Dandridge. Soldier Harry Belafonte falls for Dandridge, a seductive factory worker. The lovers flee after the soldier kills his sergeant, but Carmen's taunting faithlessness drives her lover to a crime of passion. If you're curious about all the fuss over Dandridge, catch this.
Social Significance: Dandridge’s alluring performance received the first Best Actress nomination for an African-American. Carmen Jones was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1992.
Why It’s On the List: Dandridge’s tragic story sparked a bidding war in Hollywood several years ago with several prominent actresses, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and ultimately Halle Berry to bring her story to the big screen. Her career was short but her impact is forever-lasting.
Little Known Fact: Actress, Diahann Carroll made her film debut in Carmen Jones.


Blue Collar (1978)
Stars: Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto
Plot: Three workers – Zeke (Pryor), Jerry (Keitel) and Smokey (Kotto) – are working at a car plant and drinking beer together when they hatch an idea to rob the local union's safe. First they think the heist was a flop, because they get only $600 out of it, but when Zeke realizes that they also have gotten some “hot” material, the trio decides to blackmail their union. All three are provoked by the fact that the union claims to have lost $10,000 in the robbery.
Social Significance: This late ’70s film was released at a time when the U.S. labor market was transitioning from being the big dog to having to compete with foreign companies, notably Japanese car companies. Because of this, higher-paying union jobs that sustained a generation of African Americans were starting to disappear, setting the scene for decades of increased unemployment, principally among Black men, and decay in the Black community. The film was an accurate snapshot on where we were and the traps that lay ahead if we couldn’t learn to work together.
Why It’s On the List: Pryor, who earlier in the decade was amazing in Lady Sings The Blues, gives arguably his finest performance in this film.
Little Known Fact: It was a very tense shoot because the three lead actors, Pryor, Kotto and Keitel argued constantly. According to director Paul Schrader, Pryor punched Keitel and hit Kotto with a chair during filming.


Brother John (1970)
Stars: Sidney Poitier and Will Geer
Plot: A mysterious, well-traveled man (Poitier) with extraordinary knowledge of the past, present and future returns to his hometown of Alabama just before his sister's death. With a watchful eye, he observes the behavior of all he comes in contact with. Shocked by the racism, prejudice and social injustice he witnesses, the man becomes disillusioned with the future of mankind. Before long, it's clear he's of another time and place and that his findings may have an impact on the entire human race.
Social Significance: Poitier became one of the biggest box-office stars of the 1960s. The next decade saw him connect more with the African-American audience and this film was his first successful attempt.
Why It’s On the List: This bold and intelligent film showed a quiet, reflective Poitier. In addition, this film would foreshadow Michael Clarke Duncan’s John Coffy in The Green Mile.
Little Known Fact: The film features a list of African American who would later become film and television stars (Beverly Todd, Paul Winfield, Zara Culley and Lynn Hamilton). Considering the era in which it was made, it is also unique for not being Blaxploitation, yet featuring a mainly Black cast.


Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Stars: Eddie Anderson, Ethel Waters and Lena Horne
Plot: In this musical, Little Joe, a gambler, promises his wife, Petunia, he'll reform and confess his sins at church. Instead, he slips out the side door to play craps at the Paradise Club and is shot and brought home with a mortal wound. Petunia offers powerful prayers, and Joe gets a six-month reprieve. Heaven's forces, led by the General, and those from hell, led by Lucifer Jr., try to pull Joe their way. Lucifer Jr., has a not-so-secret weapon, the sultry Georgia Brown, and his idea men cook up a great scheme to win Joe's soul. The General has Joe's good intentions and Petunia's inventiveness. Will she and Joe reach their cabin in the sky?
Social Significance: At a time when the few Blacks on film were portrayed as mammies, maids and miscreants, this film was the 1940s Dreamgirls. The big-budget musical laid the foundation for later music-driven films such as Carmen Jones, The Wiz and Car Wash.
Why It’s On the List: Featuring an 1940s all-star cast, which included Butterfly McQueen, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Mantan Moreland, Willie Best, Ruby Dandridge (mother of Dorothy) and Oscar Polk.
Little Known Fact: A scene showing Lena Horne singing, Ain't It the Truth while taking a bath was cut, but later appeared in Studio Visit (1946).


Buck and the Preacher (1972)
Stars: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee
Plot: Poitier directs and stars in this all-Black western about an ex-Union Army cavalry soldier leading a group of recently freed slaves to the western frontier in post-Civil War America. Tagging along with Buck are his wife Ruth (Dee) and a con man disguised as a preacher (Belafonte). The Black homesteaders' progress is seriously impeded by a sadistic racist (Cameron Mitchell) and his band of murderous thugs, who resent the slaves' newfound freedom and wish to send them back to a life of servitude and sharecropping in Louisiana. With equal parts drama and comedy – as well as biblical allusions to the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt – Buck and his followers must summon all their courage to contend with the racists on their journey to freedom.
Social Significance: Once again, Poitier sought to expand the portrayals of African-Americans in the Old West. This important story was one of the first major studio westerns to show an African-American overcoming obstacles to emerge victorious.
Why It’s On the List: The film which told the story of a heroic scout helping former black slaves to settle out west was the forerunner for Mario Van Peebles’ film, Posse.
Little Known Fact: First time director Poitier' took over the job from Joseph Sargent when he became dissatisfied with the film's point of view. The film also marked Belafonte’s first onscreen pairing with Poitier.


This feature also appeared on BET.com