Porgy And Bess [1959]

So here comes a sad confession: since I started this blog, I have started avoiding movies from before 1965 because every time I watch one I feel overwhelmed with pressure to write about it. Getting all those pictures and then uploading them and writing captions is so exhausting and it's also a world of spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen the movie. Sure, it does help me come to a full understanding of how I feel about a film but I feel like I could do the same thing by doing what I do: writing. I felt less stressed about all the picture acquiring when I did the post on Bye Bye Birdie because I was mostly telling jokes but for the regular posts, I feel like I'm putting in a lot of effort for nothing.

So I'm going to try some straight reviewing instead starting with this film, Porgy and Bess. Now, I stumbled upon this film pretty much because I am a theater nerd. I was sitting around thinking about the 2012 Tony Awards and how Porgy and Bess won Best Revival and Audra McDonald won Best Actress in a musical for her role as Bess. I never got to see the show when it was in New York in spite of seeing a lot of shows that year and my friends reviews of it were not helpful. My friend Alex didn't like it but it didn't strike me as his kind of show and my friend Courtney did but she generally has something good to say about everything she sees. Therefore, I figured I should really find out for myself since I wasn't even completely sure what it was about.

My prior knowledge of the show is probably the same knowledge that most of the public has of this show: the song "Summertime." I, and many people, love the Sam Cooke version of this song and if you haven't hear it do yourself a favor and click here before you continue reading. But maybe that's not the version you know? Maybe you know the version by Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, the Zombies, or Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (I have all of these in my music library apparently)? Or maybe you just know the sample from the song "Doin' Time" by Sublime? The point I'm making is that although this musical seems to be one that is not particularly common, one little piece of it is all over society.

But the strange thing is, none of these versions actually sound like the version in the musical. Porgy and Bess is actually an opera and is performed as such. Here's Audra McDonald singing "Summertime".

Now, I version I had of the film had absolutely horrid quality both in the audio and video so 1.) be thankful for a lack of pictures that I personally captured because you wouldn't be able to see anything and 2.) being someone who sometimes has a problem understanding the words in operatic singing, I had to pay close attention.

The thing that made me realize I had to watch this movie was the cast. Sidney Poitier plays Porgy, Dorothy Dandridge plays Bess, and Sammy Davis Jr. plays Sportin' Life, the drug dealer. I had seen Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun so I knew he would be great and although I had not seen Dandridge in anything, I knew who she was and I've had Carmen Jones on my movie list forever. And guess what? Neither of them wanted to be in this movie because they, and many people, think the opera perpetuates stereotypes of the African-American community. Davis was one of the only people in the movie who wanted to be there and got the role after Cab Calloway turned it down (and Frank Sinatra bullied the casting people). In spite of this, they all did great but I have one, perhaps obvious, complaint: Sammy Davis Jr. did not dance nearly enough. It's weird to cast him and have in just run around a bit for one song but otherwise not do very much.

In fact, this breaks down to my biggest problem throughout the film: a lack of movement. Although a lot of the parts that would be sung in a stage production were turned into spoken dialogue, effecting turning it from an opera to a musical, each time a song came around the energy stayed the same. There was a lot of characters just standing around and singing which is fine every once in a while and even more fine in a stage musical but in a movie it just feels strange. I wanted more actions from the actors or more camera movement or something. You have so many freedoms with a movie that you don't have with a stage show and in this aspect, the film didn't take advantage.

The songs themselves were a solid mix of funny catchy tunes and more serious, plot driving ones and clearly the idea of turning sung dialogue into spoken dialogue was the best move for the movie. Generally, this is something that happens a lot with film musicals (2005's Rent for instance) and it really does help to show that difference between the mediums.

As far as the plot goes, I'm truthfully not sure how I feel about it. From what I have read, it seems to be a dead on interpretation of the plot of the stage show but I'm personally not sure if I really enjoyed it. The plot revolves around a fictional black community and a woman named Bess who is seen as crude by the others for drinking and doing drugs with her sketchy boyfriend, Crown. When Crown accidentally kills a man and runs away, Bess starts living with Porgy, a handicapped beggar man, who essentially gets her on the straight and narrow and they fall in love. Then shit hits the fan. My biggest problem with the plot really is that none of the characters learn anything and nothing seems to be said from them not learning anything. Bess thinks Porgy is going to jail forever and runs away with her drug dealer and then the movie ends with Porgy finding her gone and going after her. Essentially, the town was right and Bess is a skank and Porgy is too nice. Porgy, once so happy to have nothing, now has to chase down the only thing he ever was happy to have and Bess is still totally unable to get by without a man to follow and protect her. This film has a very bleak view of the world indeed.

Overall, I think the main reason to see this movie is for the amazing acting and singing especially during  "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" and "It Ain't Necessarily So". There's also a lot of fun to be had with the 1930s era costumes, particularly during the picnic scene. Just make sure that if you see it, you find a better quality copy than I did.