Night Catches Us

Night Catches Us.  Dir: Tanya Hamilton (also the writer).

So rare and refreshing to see this subject matter portrayed at all, let alone with the honesty its dealt with here.

Set in Philadelphia, 1976.  Marcus is an ex-Panther who returns to his old neighborhood after several years, and is immediately drawn back into the conflicts and relationships of his past.  These include not only former comrades who despise and threaten him because he was a snitch to the cops, but an old flame, Patti, also an ex-Panther, who is now the neighborhood lawyer, activist and den mother.  Patti's 10 yr-old daughter, Iris, knows that her father was a Panther killed by the cops, and wants to find out more.  Patti's nephew Johnny, collects and sells empty soda cans for a meagre living, and romanticizes the Panthers in a way only a naive, frustrated youth can.

In this millieu Marcus struggles to remain free of the paranoia, anger and delusion of the Panther mentality, which his former comrades still harbor, while recognizing the ongoing racial and social injustices around him, and of which he is no less victim.

The plot threatens to be a hackneyed tale of redemption and romance, but veers away in time.  Some plot lines are indeed predictable, like Johnny's trajectory and Iris's discovery, but there is still a lot that is fresh and believable here.  The actors all do an excellent job, particularly Kerry Washington (Patti) and Jamara Griffin (Iris).  The soundtrack is perfectly matched, and old newsreels of the Panthers (shades, black berets, leather jackets, and grim demeanors) are masterfully intertwined with the current action.

I worried also about political correctness - in particular mine, for my reaction to the real newsreels of the Panthers.  Watching them now, years after I first saw them, I understood again the rage but also much easily spotted the immature strutting, the false bravado and machismo, the infatuation with image and slogan.  These were just kids, abused, hopeless, emotionally fractured and enraged.  What they did and what happened to them was tragic.  Arguably, the film is at its best in capturing that.  (What a liberal humanist reaction, my inner self-critic says, not at all in keeping with revolutionary ardor, former comrade).

I did feel that the story could have gone deeper, particularly into the fears and delusions of Patti that keep her bound to the past, and around which ultimately the conflict turns.  I also thought that a shift in pov, from Marcus to either Iris or Patti, would have brought it more to life and added poignancy.  As it stands, some of the film feels oddly flat given the drama of its conflicts.  Nonetheless, huge kudos for taking on a difficult, complex topic, community and history that receives far too little serious attention.


3*
(Nov 2010)