#denzel washington
Chadwick Boseman
This transition touched me differently. Secretly fighting his own personal battle for years while delivering his amazing talents on screen and becoming a beautiful, symbolic black man in power fighting for justice while discovering himself, expanding his culture, and finding his purpose, he became a leader right before our eyes.
Goodness! So much of me wants to believe that he still just fell off the cliff and floated away, but he’s recovering and will return and surprise us all.
A Soldier’s Story (1984)
Director - Norman Jewison, Cinematography - Russell Boyd
“You know the damage one ignorant Negro can do? We were in France in the first war; we’d won decorations. But the white boys had told all them French gals that we had tails. Then they found this ignorant colored soldier, paid him to tie a tail to his ass and run around half-naked, making monkey sounds. Put him on the big round table in the Cafe Napoleon, put a reed in his hand, crown on his head, blanket on his shoulders, and made him eat *bananas* in front of all them Frenchies. Oh, how the white boys danced that night… passed out leaflets with that boy’s picture on it. Called him Moonshine, King of the Monkeys. And when we slit his throat, you know that fool asked us what he had done wrong?”
Penélope Cruz taking a picture of Steven Spielberg, Ariana DeBose, Paul Thomas Anderson, Denzel Washington,and Kenneth Branagh at the 94th Annual Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, March 7, 2022.
photo by Sian Heder director of CODA
1. Stevenn Spielberg takes a picture with Penélope Cruz, Ariana DeBose, Paul Thomas Anderson, Denzel Washington, and Kenneth Branagh at the 94th Annual Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, March 7, 2022.
2. Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson sharing stories at the luncheon.
Why Denzel Should’ve Won; Or, How #Fences Shatters Myths of Black Masculinity
To tell you the truth, I’ve been trying to get this out since forever. Not really a review of the movie, but a recounting of how it moved me. Fences covers so much ground in so little time. It’s astonishing, really, how many layers August Wilson wrote into this tiny play. Wilson’s work deserves dissertations’ worth of analysis I can’t possibly give. Perhaps that’s why my thoughts have resisted…
