Lackawanna Blues
by George C. Wolfe
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jimmy Smits, Macy Gray, Marcus Carl Franklin, S. Epatha Merkerson, Terrence Dashon HowardDirector: George C. Wolfe
Brand: HBO HOME VIDEO
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Unknown
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-23
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: 92749
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Product features:
- Based on the award winning play by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, this poignant and colorful drama tells the inspirational story of a courageous woman, Nanny, whose spirit and strength served as the foundation for a struggling community trying to survive during the segregation era. Starring an exceptional ensemble cast led by Jimmy Smits, Rosie Perez, and Macy Gray, this inspiring drama from HBO Films is
Movie Reviews of Lackawanna Blues
Movie Review: A must-see (Read for more background)
Summary: 5 Stars
Lackawanna Blues is a fine movie that offers a colorful slice of Black Americana in the late `50s and `60s. Like most autobiographical films it portrays history less like the way it was than the way the author would like us to think it was.
I was born in Lackawanna only a few blocks from 32 Wasson Street where most of the movie takes place. My dad worked for the steel plant, as did almost everyone in our family. My large family of uncles, aunts and cousins lived in neighborhoods not far from Rachel Crosby's boarding house. By the time the movie's author was a young boy we had become suburbanites living in the mostly white south-town suburbs.
My young parents took my brothers and me to lower Ridge Road almost weekly to buy pastries from a local shop and before recycling became popular would donate old newspapers to help an already dying and decaying community. In Lackawanna in the 1950's the Black and White communities lived and worked side-by-side and were friends with each other. The mix was about 70% Black and 30% Eastern European blue collar immigrants. I never really met people who saw a difference in people's skin color until I went away to college.
Lackawanna Blues completely ignores that 32 Wasson was walking distance from the Bethlehem Steel Plants, which spewed acrid yellow filth into the air night and day. The movie's pristine neighborhood simply wasn't possible. One of the cars, a yellow and white Buick hardtop, was identical to my dad's car and represented the ideals of white, suburban America. While he drove that car on our weekly doughnut runs, a Buick is not likely a car like that would have been seen near 32 Wasson. In that era most people in Lackawanna took the NFT bus to go to work or shopping. The Black person who had money and wanted to show off would rarely choose anything less than a Cadillac.
Another reality of life in Lackawanna is snow, lots of it. It is hard to imagine a movie that spans 20 years or more without once showing the extreme hardship Buffalo weather added to an already challenging life.
Period clothes in movies of this type give the viewer one of the clearest pictures of what life was like. Although Lackawanna was poor and very run down, Black men and women, like their White counterparts, dressed the best they could whenever they were in public. In Lackawanna, men wore loose-fitting suits and women tended to be a bit more flamboyant. The movie overdresses the characters to the point of removing a lot of character from them. The average person simply did not wear such flashy clothing at home, and the nightclub scenes would have us believe that Black Lackawannans were all wealthy socialites. The average local bar was a far cry from the Hollywood night club-type imagery the movie showed us.
I visited lower Ridge Road in 2006 and agree that the photos used at the end of the movie were accurate, today it looks like Afghanistan after a bombing. As sad as they are, it is hard to imagine through pictures alone the brutal reality of a community that has long since died.
While some of the characterizations of the movie missed on accuracy, that by no means takes away from what this movie is ... a wonderfully acted and richly textured peek at life as movies rarely show us. Highly recommended as a must-see.
Summary of Lackawanna Blues
BASED ON THE ACCLAIMED AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ONE-MAN SHOW BY RUBEN SANTIAGO-HUDSON. THIS IS THE STORY OF RACHEL 'NANNY' CROSBY, AWOMAN WHO BUILT A COMMUNITY & CIRCUMVENTED SEGREGATION IN HER OWN DETERMINED WAY.Similar DVD Movies
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