Honeydripper
Honeydripper directed by John Sayles, set in 1950 is
the story of a few days in and around the eponymous and fictional blues joint
in Harmony, Alabama. The proprietor, veteran bluesman turned club owner Tyrone
“Pine Top” Purvis played by Danny Glover is in a whole mess of money trouble.
He has Saturday night to make good his litany of debts or lose his club.
Fortunately, the cotton harvest is at its height, and the just paid pickers are
gonna be thirsty and in need of cutting loose this Saturday night and the
soldiers from the local army base will be on leave too.
Tyrone's hopes are pinned on renowned and pioneering
electric guitar player Guitar Sam whom Pine Top has booked for Saturday night
only and provided he turns up, may just be able to bring in enough money to
keep Pine Top in business which is also being lost to the Juke Joint across the
way. Aided by his wife Delilah (Lisa Gay Hamilton) who makes the best fried
chicken in town; plain or spicy, his trusty lieutenant, Maceo (Charles S.
Dutton) and delightful and very credible newcomer Yaya Dacosta as China Doll,
his daughter, he might just make it. Throw in guitar toting drifter Sonny (Gary
Clark Jr.) and there’s a hope of glory.
Although his film has great merits: sumptuous
cinematography and great visual composition, some fine acting talent including
the formidable Stacy Keach as the bigoted and morally corrupt sheriff, there
are some problems from which the film cannot extricate itself, namely its
inability to make up its mind what it is. At times it addresses most eloquently
the grinding cruelty of institutional racism, making its case implicitly and so
much more potently than if it had tried to lock horns narratively with such a
juggernaut of social evil. At other times there was dialogue so stilted and
unnatural that it truly detracted from the experience. There were though, some
great one-liners: on the Korean war ”black folks killing yellow folks to keep
white folks happy.” and of his wife’s cooking one character says it would “gag
a maggot.”. Nice touches to be sure.
Some very fine character acting in the generous and
comely shape of Devenia McFadden as the not to be scorned Nadine and Dr. Mable
John as the dignified local grand dame of song Bertha Mae lends much to a film
that struggles at times to seem truthful or real perhaps. There is an
established blues mythos which devotees of the music recognise and use to
navigate songs and in times of need, life itself. But there are times when the
characters in Honeydripper are just cyphers in an internal folklore peculiar to
the movie which can make it seem impenetrable and needlessly confusing most
notably with the character of Possum (Keb' Mo') the blind guitar player. Also
nagging at me is that in trying to conform to such a mythology Sayles gets caught
up in some clichéd characterisation, for instance Stacy Keach's sheriff whose
character is rarely permitted to be anything more than a hackneyed and
one-dimensional ogre.
However the film has some great great music. Check out
Delta Guitar Sam: Bo Diddly meets Chuck Berry and Bertha Mae, a kind of
fictionalised Bessie Smith. This seductive melodrama is as potent as any kids'
sport movie so allow yourself to be transported back the birth of Rhythm and
Blues. Crossroads for grown-ups. Great fun.
BL
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