Ma Rainey's Disputed Fundament

To be a well-informed citizen, you need to gather information from a variety of sources. And you need to know whether each source of information you rely on is left-leaning, right-leaning, or objective. More basic even than that — you need to consider whether the matter at hand can be thought of as “true” or ‘factual” at all.

That seems simple enough. But you’ll discover that many sources of information are inconsistent and have no reliable stance. They may be objective some of the time and opinionated at others. They may deal with provable facts at sometimes and with conjecture and opinion at others. They may seem liberal about some issues, but right-wing about others.

The National Review is a conservative publication with a long history dating back to the 1950s. It was founded by genuine conservatives Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley. The Review can be counted on for a traditional, establishment perspective. During the Trump presidency, the National Review remained conservative and did not drift into Trump’s peculiar orbit as many other right-leaning news sources did.

But The National Review is not consistent about everything. It presented an odd and contradictory pairing of perspectives on New Years Day, 2021. It informed its readers on that day that a new movie was “one of the Top Ten Best Movies of 2020” and also that the same movie was “a fiasco.”

First a paragraph from the positive review, written by arts critic Kyle Smith: 

An astonishing Viola Davis plays the title role, one of the most accomplished blues singers of the 1920s, in a sharply executed adaptation of the August Wilson stage play that made the name of this great American artist. Directed by Broadway veteran George C. Wolfe, the film is a showcase for the late Chadwick Boseman, here in his final role as a lean, sardonic, hot-headed horn player. The character is an archetype for every great black artist who was forced to compromise with, or exploited by, white-run businesses.

 And now, a bit of the very harsh criticism from National Review contributor Armand White:  

Viola Davis looks frightening in the film version of August Wilson’s 1984 play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Her monstrous eye shadow, shark-jawed false teeth (recalling Richard Kiel chomping at James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me), baggy bodysuit, and obviously dubbed singing prove that no one involved with this film feels any emotional connection with its historical subject.

Davis’s caricature of Ma Rainey is mortifying. She stomps around, scowling and emitting distrust and spittle. There’s no joy or emotional fulfillment in Rainey’s creativity. Just look at Davis’s repugnant visage. Her anger is modern, like those nose-ringed #BLM activists. First seen singing in a club, debasing herself with the lyric “I’m on my way / Crazy as I can be,” she confirms the media’s grotesque vision of George Floyd–Trayvon Martin–Eric Garner–Sandra Bland–Breonna Taylor victimhood.

Ma Rainey

 White says the movie depiction of Ma Rainey is “frightening” and ‘mortifying.” He does not say it is unrealistic or unlike the real Ma Rainey.  And, indeed, the real Ma Rainey, show here, was distinct and unapologetic. Viola Davis actually looks more presentable than the real Ma Rainey.

What’s going on here?

The answer is first, that artistic performances are subjective and open to personal opinion and interpretation. Usually there is no right answer to questions about artistic performance. It could be that that the movie just appealed to Kyle smith and not the Armond White.

But there is usually more than that going on.

When people disagree about any matter, it’s important to ask what they’re focusing on. And also, which of them knows more about the topic. It could be that they just have differing opinions, but you should never dismiss the possibility that one of them is right and the other is wrong. It could be that one of them is wiser and more sophisticated and better able to judge.

Here, there’s no evidence that the writer of the first comment watched the movie. Everything he says about it could be gotten from the imdb page or from the Netflix preview. The second review, on the other hand, was written by somebody who watched the show. The nasty details about “stomping around” and “emitting spittle” are the kind of things you find by watching.

Also, Armond White is a black man, with a black man’s sensitivities. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a depiction of very stereotypical black characters — greedy, sassy, materialistic people who can talk jivey nonsense for hours on end and then suddenly turn violent over a slight discourtesy. Those are characteristics that the worst bigots would be pleased to see in a black movie character. So white is understandably displeased that this movie, written and produced and starring black artists, depicts black people so badly.

Chadwick Boseman is one of the performers in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. A few years ago, he starred in Black Panther and the lad character, T’Challa. But hie died after filming Ma Rainey so his career ends with the role of a wastged life of a talented but foolish young black man bound for prison. It is understandable that White could feel like the last thing America needs in 2021 is another evocation of those old types.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But never think that one opinion is as good as another. The opinion of a person who has studied a topic and learned how to evaluate it is worth more than the opinion of someone who hasn’t.