Get on the Bus
Directed by Spike Lee
Written by Reggie Rock Bythewood
With Charles Dutton, Ossie Davis, Andre Braugher, DeAundre Bonds, Thomas Byrd, Gabriel Casseus, Albert Hall, Harry Lennix, Hill Harper, Bernie Mac, Wendell Pierce, Roger Guenveur Smith, Isaiah Washington, Steve White and Richard Belzer
Opens nationally on May 1.
Review by Norm Dixon
Anybody who has caught the bus from Sydney to Perth will tell you that there isn't much to do for the 72 hours or so but to talk and sleep. And that's about all the 15 characters do in this movie, as they travel from Los Angeles to Washington, DC.
They talk, they explain, they argue, they boast, they have bloody great rows, they sing, they joke and in between they sleep. And not a single car chase or gun fight!
A pretty dreary film? Not at all. Get on the Bus centres on a group of black men travelling to the Million Man March in October 1995. The cramped confines of a long bus trip provide the perfect excuse for an entertaining and thought-provoking examination of some debates in the African-American community.
The Million Man March was probably the largest demonstration of African-Americans in US history. The march was controversial because it was called by Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam (NOI), which has backward attitudes towards women and gays, refuses to make direct political demands on the US government and propagates bizarre beliefs on astrology and numerology.
Farrakhan supported the expulsion of Malcolm X from the NOI in the early 1960s, and the NOI is widely suspected of involvement in Malcolm's assassination. Farrakhan utters anti-Semitic statements from time to time.
The march's emphasis on the need for black men to take responsibility was seen by many African-American feminists, most notably Angela Davis, as sexist, and by leftists as letting the racist system off the hook.
But as Green Left Weekly's US correspondent Malik Miah observed at the time: "The majority of people who participated went beyond Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. They went to stand up, not just for black men, but against racism in the US. And they made their own anti-racism demands on the government ... Farrakhan is not the leader of the black community. It is just that he fills a real leadership vacuum in the black movement at the moment and that's why people marched at his call."
Director Spike Lee and writer Reggie Rock Bythewood's passengers are a microcosm of the 1.6 million march participants, their motives and their political and social consciousness. The characters who board the bus in LA challenge the standard Hollywood "4-R" stereotypes of African-American men: rapists, rappers, robbers and rioters.
There's George the driver (Charles Dutton), whose common sense and commitment make him the group's natural leader, mediator and commentator; Flip (Andre Braugher) the extroverted, homophobic out-of-work actor who believes he's the next Denzel Washington; Kyle and Desert Storm veteran Randall (Isaiah Washington and Harry Lennix), a gay couple in the process of breaking up; Evan and Evan Jnr (Thomas Byrd and DeAundre Bonds), a neglectful father and his petty law-breaker son, chained together by order of a judge; Jamal (Gabriel Casseus), a devout Muslim (non-NOI) and reformed gang-banger turned social worker; Gary (Roger Guenveur Smith), the smooth, sensitive bi-racial LA cop with a chip on his shoulder; and Jeremiah (Ossie Davis), the group's conscience, who provides the link with the 1960s civil rights movement, a knowledge of African heritage and African-American history, and who must make amends for his failure in the earlier struggle.
Being stuck in a bus, cheek by jowl, for three days brings the myriad differences and complexities within the black community into the open. Republicans versus Democrats, religion/s, sexual morality (gay and straight), homophobia, colour prejudice within the black community, parental responsibility, individual solutions versus fighting the system are all vigorously debated. While few arguments are resolved, progressive views generally prevail, and the need for tolerance and unity is accepted.
These debates are chillingly put into perspective when the bus is stopped by racist Tennessee state troopers. At that moment, it is clear that what unites the people on the bus regardless of their differences is the racist system personified by the cracker cops. Gary's LAPD badge and light-coloured skin mean diddly squat: a nigger is a nigger in racist USA.
Get on the Bus has weaknesses. Sexism and the role of black women in the movement are given only lip service. Whereas black male stereotypes are studiously avoided, the few fleeting female characters conform.
The one viewpoint to miss the bus was that of the left. A left-wing or even militant trade union perspective on many of the issues debated is glaringly absent, especially given the overwhelmingly working-class composition of the African-American population and of the participants of the Million Man March. Bus driver George seems the obvious candidate to have played such a role.
Reflecting the standpoint of the 15 or so black celebrities and business people who bankrolled this low-budget production to the tune of $2.5 million, the freedom riders are predominantly middle-class professionals (but to their credit, they unceremoniously eject an opportunist Republican capitalist who joins the bus in Memphis).
The lack of a left perspective allows Jeremiah's downfall — after years of service, he tells his fellow riders he was "downsized" out of a job — to be attributed simply to racism rather than an economic system in which all workers suffer. A leftie passenger could have made the point that racism can be undermined when workers struggle for common interests against such an economic system.
The one significant white character, the Jewish relief driver (Richard Belzer), expresses sympathy for the civil rights movement despite misgivings about Farrakhan's anti-Semitism. His support is rejected because of his race. A left voice arguing in favour of winning the support of white workers at this point would have been appropriate.
Finally, the reactionary politics of Farrakhan and the NOI are never examined. Throughout the debates, even on the few occasions when Farrakhan's views are directly mentioned, a member of the NOI present on the bus says not a word in his leader's defence or to explain his group's views. Mysteriously, he does not utter a single word throughout the film.
Despite a few potholes and wrong turns, this is a bus trip worth taking.