Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) - written by Iris Neuberg

Directed by George C. Wolf

IMDb: 7.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

“The blues is a very visceral form of defiance. The linguistic power of saying ‘Hell No, I will not be passive in my existence. I will be defiant in my existence. I will be joyful in that defiance and I will dare you to try to stop me in my defiance.‘”

These words by Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Director George C. Wolf already pose the fitting summary to the movie, but let’s elaborate on that. 

The story of Gertrude „Ma“ Rainey, also known as the Mother of Blues, is the everlasting story of the underappreciated female black artist.

A skilled eye will easily notice that this movie is based on a musical. With the musical premiere in 1982 and the Netflix release in 2020 it becomes clear that certain stories simply do not age. This movie is not solely about music, neither was the musical. They could not have been, because Blues itself has never only been about music. These 90 minutes are loaded with the history of cultural oppression of black people in America and we cannot help but see the connections to many of today’s struggles. 

As the audience, we accompany Ma Rainey and her band through the recording of her songs, one of them being Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. After a while, we encounter the first keyword in this movie: compromise. 

Ma Rainey is not someone who compromises. She may seem stubborn and sassy, but we cannot ignore what compromise meant for black female artists. When your talent is the only thing that gives you validation in the white man’s world, you have to have take what is rightfully yours as long as you can. 

She insists on a fair pay for every member in her band. She insists that her stuttering nephew does the intro to the song. She insists on recording the version that she likes best, even though the audience might prefer it differently. And she insist on her goddam Coca Cola before singing a single note, because she knows exactly what happens at the end of the day.

“All they want is my voice. […] And they gon’ treat me the way I want to be treated no matter how much it hurt ‘em. They back there right now calling me all kind of names. Calling me anything but a child of God. But they can’t do nothing else, ‘cause they ain’t got what they wanted yet. Soon as they get my voice down on one them recording machines then it’s just like I’d be some whore and they roll over and put their pants on. They ain’t got no use for me then.” – Ma Rainey (min. 42:58)

This monologue clarifies another keyword: erasure. 

She knows that as a person, she holds no value to anyone of the executives. Therefore, after recording, after signing off all rights to her music, Ma Rainey as a person will lose all importance in their eyes. She will be erased.

Then there is Levee, our second protagonist. You need to watch the movie twice in order comprehend the amount of messages the character, played by Chadwick Boseman is sending. 

This role leaves a heavy mark on your heart after watching. Not only because it was Boseman’s last role before dying at the age of 43. Levee is a summary of the illusion that black people believe in while living in a society that is governed by a delicate form of racism. The oppression is bestial but leaves just enough freedom for the oppressed to look up through the glass ceiling and into the bitter lie, that anyone can make it if only they work hard enough. Because that’s, what he does. He works hard. He has the ambition, talent, optimism and the charisma to become more than a band trumpeter, but a big star himself. This reliance is what keeps the character aiming for glory. The loss of this reliance makes him brutally crash to the ground in the end. 

Levee symbolizes the last keyword: illusion. Ma Rainey seems bitter because she lost all illusion. As she keeps repeating: “Well, I done learn that.” Even though Levee has been through hell and back, he had not done learning that. 

The best part to visualize the loss of his illusion is his attempt to open a locked door in the studio. He does not know where it leads but he is sure that, it will take him to a better spot. In a rush of anger, he forcefully opens the door and falls onto a wall. The portal that was supposed to show him a more beautiful side of the nasty room they were practicing in, took him literally nowhere. George C. Walsh values that scene as a symbolization of racism in America. “Very frequently when you break through that door, there is a wall on the other side”.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom does not tell a new story, not even a special one. The racism, the sexism, the exploitation of young artists – we heard those stories. The main achievement of this movie is to retell those stories and make them hurt as they did the first time. 

Author: Iris Neuberg @providence.merci