Youtube, that succubus that has ingested countless hours of my life, features a public affairs clip from the early 80's with an African-American man in a leisure suit. He holds a butcher knife and carves watermelon chunks, while discussing the cultural variations in its consumption. Lecturing as he luxuriates in a high-backed rattan chair, his thick gold chain draping between his open white dress shirt, he appears to be a long-forgotten SNL parody. But the clip is of Ralph Waldo "Petey" Green, a legendary radio and TV broadcaster from Washington, D.C. Partially due to shoveling food and to his thick mix of Southern dialect and Black English, more than one Youtube visitor has commented, "What language is that? What is he saying?"

To say that Green was an atypical TV broadcaster is an understatement. Such an unlikely figure is the topic of the film Talk to Me, which shows Green's improbable rise to fame without previous broadcast experience or a college education.  

Question: why is it that virtually every major film with a black star is based on a true story? Think about it: Roots, The Great White Hope, Glory, Hurricane, Ray, What's Love Got to Do with It, Amistad, The Dorothy Dandridge Story, The Pursuit of Happyness and now Talk to Me. In 2008, the Oprah Winfrey-produced, Denzel Washington vehicle, The Great Debaters will visit this territory. Oh yes, there are exceptions like Halle Berry in Monster's Ball and Terrence Howard in Hustle and Flow. Still, the trend in recent years is to limit black star power in dramas to such "true stories".  

The problem with such tales is that the black community becomes reliant on the vehicle of the Hollywood machinery to enshrine and historicize our experience. The world at large already regards the Hollywood version of the black experience as gospel. Hollywood easily commidifies the truth of the human experience for black Americans to serve the necessities of script format and standardized characterization. Further, the use of so many stories reliant upon biographical information rather than theatrical or literary-inspired source work deprives the black audience of the diverse material readily seen within the mainstream American box office as well as European and Asian films. Where is our Chicago, Sixth Sense, My Big Fat Greek Wedding or Lord of the Rings trilogy?  

Which brings me to the Don Cheadle vehicle, Talk to Me, chronicling the rise to fame of DC broadcasting legend Ralph Waldo "Petey" Green. It is a stirring success story of an individual's rise from poverty and prison to invitations to the Carter White House and Carson's Tonight Show. The cast is impressive: producer and star Don Cheadle, Oscar-nominated for Hotel Rwanda, British-Nigerian cutie Chiwetel Ejiofor (memorable for his drag queen in Kinky Boots--a great rental), The West Wing's president, Martin Sheen, comedian Cedric the Entertainer, and Hustle and Flow's Taraji P. Henson. She is a lethal scene stealer as the quintessential trash-talking, finger-popping, d***-sucking Soul Mama. Director Kasi Lemons, as she did in Eve's Bayou, capably unfolds an undocumented tale of black American culture. The film's first half is a great comedy of manners as street culture clashes with business mores, however, screenwriters Michael Genet and Rick Famuyiwa lose their way in the final act attempting to explicate Petey's success.  

The film, while flawed, is remarkable in its post-modern investigation of black authenticity. Who is the real black male success story: Petey, the overnight sensation, who survived the streets, addiction and prison, or Dewey, his station manager, who climbed out of poverty to pay for his own education and beat the white boys in the board room. Though Petey is the focal point, it is not clear if it is his story. We, the viewers, share Dewey's trepidation after he hires and reluctantly befriends Petey. We, like him, can't help but ask, am I my brother's keeper?  

However, though Ejiofor is an incredibly capable and attractive screen presence, the character and life of Petey is the one that captivates. In Cheadle's competent hands, we see how Green was the catalyst for Dewey's evolution as he wise-cracked, incensed the conventional, straight-laced blacks with his ribald remarks, and spoke the truth in unapologetic Ebonic aphorisms.  

Talk to Me, charming and engaging through the first two-thirds, fails both Cheadle and Ejiofor's work in its last act, never quite elucidating Petey's drive or his demons, nor clarifying its apparent search for the authentic black voice.  

For the filmmakers and the audience, Dewey is the more sympathetic and comprehensible figure. We understand his love of mainstream American culture, even when it threatens to deny him his manhood. We know his desire to be respected by his peers even as he distances himself from his community. We feel his angry disappointment for the family member who let him down by getting caught in the penal system.  

Is Talk to Me worth your dollars at the box office? Definitely. It's important to affirm the work of actors like Cheadle, Ejiofor and Henson--despite the third act's relentless parade of montages, forced resolutions and bad, unhistorical hair accessories--lest Hollywood deem their efforts unworthy of repetition.  

Once you have left the theater, follow my lead: go on-line and learn more about the actual man, Ralph Waldo "Petey" Green. Read the biographical sketch on Wikipedia and learn that he was the first black man in D.C. to win an Emmy and that he was survived by four children. But before you turn off your computer, stop by Youtube and get your lesson on "How to Eat a Watermelon".   

Sources:

http://imdb.com

Wikipedia, Ralph Greene, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Greene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w7YPlGRX5w  

Christopher H. Adams © 2007 All Rights Reserved.  

Writer’s bio:  

Writer and educator Christopher Adams has had short fiction and personal essays published in Essence Magazine, Shooting Star Review, and Art and Understanding. Most recently, his story, Come Mourning, was included in the critically acclaimed Other Countries III: Voices Rising. Currently, in addition to cultural criticism, he is turning his gaze to young adult fiction, inspired by the students he's taught in Los Angeles and New York City.