The Josephine Baker Story
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Craig T. Nelson, David Dukes, Louis Gossett Jr., Lynn Whitfield, Rubén BladesBrand: WHITFIELD,LYNN
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-05
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Josephine Baker Story
Movie Review: Black Entertainer that wanted the audience to not see color
Summary: 5 Stars
1991 R-rated HBO movie with a run time of 131 minutes. Caution: movie contains nudity.
DVD Features: The DVD contains the movie, a cast/crew section, and can be heard in English or Spanish, and/or read in English, French, Spanish or none.
Credits: Stars Lynn Whitfield (Josephine Baker (won an Emmy for her performance in this film); "Stepmom"), Ruben Blades (Count Abatino - husband; "Empire"), David Dukes (Jo Boullion - husband, bandleader; "Gods and Monsters"), Louis Gossett, Jr (Sidney Williams - army officer; "An Officer and a Gentleman") and Craig T. Nelson (newscaster Walter Winchell; "Coach"). The film is directed by Brian Gibson ("The Juror"), and written by Ron Hutchinson ("The Island of Dr. Moreau").
Plot: The movie follows the true story of an early black entertainer (singer and dancer; who wanted people to see beyond color). The movie follows Josephine from a poor childhood in the US to some success on the Vaudeville then on to international success and fortune in France (as the flavor of the moment "the new sensation"), somewhat success and failure in the US, then working with the resistance during WWII (and receiving awards for her work), then working for the USO (trying to help the black and white soldiers mix), and then through old age and then death (though it starts in 1969 with a bankrupt Josephine remembering her life then moves past that date). Josephine had many loves and several husbands, and ended up with many adopted children (she couldn't have any herself).
Review: Great music (Ralph Burns & Georges Delerue). Great acting (and good aging make-up). Long movie. Interesting decision to have the credits run across the screen with Baker dancing her semi-nude "Banana dance" considering that Baker was a lot more than that image might suggest.
Considering the extreme length of the movie, it is interesting that Josephine's poor childhood, including a riot in 1917 East St. Louis, work on stage at the age of 14, and then work in black-face on Broadway as a young adult go by in a flash. The movie, somewhat, slows down in 1925 Paris, where Josephine has gone off to seek fame, fortune and freedom to be black, without her first husband Willie Baker (and the lack of her husband does not cause her to be "cold at night").
The film does a good job showing how the initially reluctant Josephine ended up dancing in just a grass skirt (it would later become a banana skirt). Apparently, after one dance in the grass skirt, Josephine became an international star. Josephine wanted to be more than just the black woman that danced in grass (or banana) skirts, and went into extensive dance and singing training. Eventually, she was able to be an entertainer that got to keep her clothes on, at least on stage, at least part of the time (though, not before more performances in the banana skirt during a European tour). Success in Europe leads her back home to the US and Broadway, but the audience and the newsmen dislike her. She takes this badly and fires a man that didn't use her and then dump her, but instead helped "create her" (she thinks its all his fault, he thinks that the audience can't stand a black woman they can't laugh at).
The film did a good job recreating the era, and the world looks real and doesn't look like fake stages. The acting talent is from top to bottom quite good. The music and atmosphere is good and effective. Overall, I would rate the movie 4.45 stars (somewhat lower grade due to length of movie and how it sometimes dragged along).
Summary of The Josephine Baker Story
Before Madonna, before Marilyn, there was Josephine. Outrageous, shocking, sensational, she travelled the world to become one of the most loved, truly international stars. ' 'Sizzling hot.' ' (USA Today) ' 'A knockout!' ' (Washington Post)You know how it goes. You hear about what a sensation someone like Josephine Baker was in her prime (in her case, the 1920s and '30s), how she pushed boundaries in such delicate areas as race and sex, how she both thrilled and scandalized Paris with her exotic dancing and personal behavior. You have all these loose strands of legend and random fact, your curiosity is running high, and then you hear that a feature film is being made about the very subject. You watch, and then wonder: what was the big deal about Josephine Baker? The problem with this 1991 TV movie is the same as with a number of HBO films from the 1980s and early '90s: it isn't particularly well written, the production looks rushed, and the entire point is obscured in a whirl of biographical material that doesn't sufficiently develop into insightful, organic unity. What The Josephine Baker Story does do, however, is provide a reference point from which to begin an appreciation of Baker's life. A poor, African American girl from St. Louis, Baker found fame and wealth in Europe as a dancer whose partially nude, unbridled performances invoked wit, sexual liberation, and passion--without, somehow, seeming vulgar or obscene. As Baker, Lynn Whitfield gets into the uninhibited spirit of things, free with her body and enthusiastic about re-creating many of her character's performances (yes, the famed Banana Dance is a highlight). The film superficially suggests that Baker was celebrated as an expressive artist, a healthy force of nature rather than a lewd exhibitionist, but it doesn't go far enough down that road to tell us why she matters. Somewhat better is the script's contrasting emphasis on Baker's celebrity overseas and her second-class status as a black woman in America. In the end, the film's real accomplishment is underscoring how racism truly determines the course of an individual's life, and the way Baker understood that both from the vantage point of a refugee and a victim. --Tom Keogh
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