THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610180054
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 66 lines
SPIKE LEE'S ``Get on the Bus'' is so filled with good intentions and passionate pride that one can excuse its tendency to run its bus on more talk than any other fuel.
Released on the anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., it concerns a group of black men who ride from South Central Los Angeles to Washington. Aside from any divisive and negative reports that surrounded the fact that Louis Farrakhan called the march, it is clear that the men have passionate hopes and goodwill.
The heart of the film is supplied by the two anchoring characters - the legendary Ossie Davis, playing an elderly man at the back of the bus, and Charles S. Dutton, who drives the vehicle. Davis plays a man who didn't go to the 1963 march because he was afraid he would lose his job and has been compromising ever since. Now, he is determined to get there.
The dialogue, written by Reggie Rock Bythewood rather than Lee, is often clever and always heartfelt but it is too often a group of speeches rather than a conversation. Each character has a story and they tell their stories rather than show them to us. Too often, they are ``types'' rather than characters.
We have the ``Can do'' speech. We have the ``It's a plot'' speech. We have a speech about violence and a speech about homophobia.
Representing the street violence story is a Los Angeles cop whose father was killed by gangs. There are two gay men who face bigotry and homophobia from outside and doubts about their identity from within. There is the father who was away too much and now has a troubled teen son handcuffed to him for 72 hours due to a court order. There is the gang leader who is told ``you can rationalize it all you want but living in the 'hood is no excuse for taking another human life.''
Lee is excessive in his use of blue and yellow-tinted filters for no apparent purpose other than to call attention to the direction. (There haven't been this many filtered scenes since ``South Pacific.'') As has become too ordinary with his films, he again has trouble finding an end. Here, he resorts to melodrama.
But in spite of these flaws, ``Get on the Bus'' rises above its ``types'' and its ``speeches'' to actually say something. In fact, it says a great deal about a group of men who feel they have a chance to find themselves and to find pride.
When Dutton stands up and calls for the group ``to take back the control of the communities'' and ``to be the men our wives and mothers need back home,'' we are pulling for them all the way.
``Get on the Bus,'' filmed in just three weeks on a shoestring budget, says a great deal and all of it, ultimately, gives us hope. ILLUSTRATION: COLUMBIA PICTURES
``Get on the Bus'' tells the story of a group of men who board a bus
in South Central Los Angeles headed for the Million Man March in
Washington, D.C., as strangers but who emerge three days later as
brothers.
MOVIE REVIEW
``Get on the Bus''
Cast: Ossie Davis, Charles S. Sutton, Richard Belzer, DeAundere
Bonds
Director: Spike Lee
Screenplay: Reggie Rock Bythewood
MPAA rating: R (some language)
Mal's rating: *** by CNB