It’s complicated.
Those two words spoken by Billie Holiday when she is asked about actions in her life capture the essence of Lee Daniels’ film The United States versus Billie Holiday.
This is not a courtroom drama. The film depicts the obsessive pursuit of Billie Holiday, by the United States government, embodied by FBI agent Anslinger’s pathological hatred of superstar jazz singer Billie Holiday, due to her refusal to withdraw the song Strange Fruit, a poem about the lynching of black Americans, from her performance repertoire.
LYRICS: Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Lewis Allan
Strange Fruit lyrics © Edward B Marks Music Company, Marks Edward B. Music Corp.
Anda Day as Billie Holiday sings Strange Fruit from the movie
The United States versus Billie Holiday | Hulu Original
Strange Fruit incited audiences of all colours and made them aware of the brutal deaths of black Americans, spanning the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
To the US government and Anslinger, Billie Holiday not only represented a type of person—drug user, black, female, strong, outspoken— but they targeted her specifically because she was successful, determined, black and loved by and influential with her fans. It’s complicated.
Billie is unable to maintain a relationship with any man who treats her with love, caring and tenderness. She feels more in control with an abusive man who exploits her even though she surrenders her freedom and independence by her involvement with these men.
When abused, physically, sexually and psychologically, she strikes back with equal force. Her feeling of control comes as a result of abuse and exploitation. She doesn’t know or understand when a man is caring, loving and tender. Tenderness is alien to Holiday.
We may comment on the horrible quality of her life. But again, it’s complicated.
Billie "Lady Day" Holiday & Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong
Strange Fruit and Holiday’s stardom are highlighted by her performances at Café Society, a mixed race club that identified itself as the right club for the wrong people. It also marks the beginning of her association and relationship with Jimmy Fletcher, a seemingly tender man. Jimmy is one of the first black FBI agents assigned to ensure that evidence is fabricated and narcotics planted on Billie Holiday.
He believes he is working to remove the scourge of drug abuse in black communities, especially Harlem, even though he, and other black agents are segregated within the walls of the FBI’s headquarters and treated appallingly. His personal and professional lives are compromised and contradictory.
It’s complicated.
Actress Andra Day plays Lady Day (Holiday’s affectionate nickname), a serendipitous match of names, and she is astonishing. Day sings Holiday's songs. There is not dubbing or lip synching. The music from holiday as channelled by Day is smooth, luscious and beautiful. Except for that one song.
Day isn’t acting as Billie Holiday, she is Billie Holiday. Day is gorgeous in a role that is a human tragedy with occasional touches of human triumph.
At her core, Billie Holiday is a strong, determined woman who is compelled to sing the defining song of her life, Strange Fruit, because it comes from her soul.
Billie Holiday, a star, isn’t allowed to ride elevators in New York City hotels, unless it’s the service elevator for the delivery of goods and supplies.
Fletcher is conflicted in his role as a black American FBI agent while Holiday is uncompromising in her approach to death by lynching of black Americans.
FBI agent Anslinger and his squad arrest Billie Holiday
She can’t stop singing even though it would mean she could enjoy a life unhassled by the FBI. Not singing the song meant she had to surrender her identity as a black woman and camouflage the atrocities committed against black families.
I’ve known Strange Fruit, the song, the lyrics and what it’s talking about but now I will listen to it again and understand more the impact of the lyrics and the horrendous effect on lives it echoes.
It’s complicated.
After watching The United States versus Billie Holiday, I wanted to go home and listen to her music. Billie Holiday’s singing is amazing. She was an astonishing performer, incredible person, suffered an unbelievably horrendous life, yet maintained her drive.
The film does have weaknesses. It feels a bit long when you’re watching it. There is a natural point where The United States versus Billie Holiday could have ended with all its messages communicated loudly and clearly. It’s as if scriptwriter Suzan-Lori Parks and director Lee Daniels had to reinforce the abusive nature of the men in her life, and her friendship with heroin and alcohol.
Holiday’s relationship with Fletcher in real life was uncertain so Suzan-Lori Parks and Lee Daniels embellished the story for dramatic impact. It is, after all, a dramatic film, not a documentary. The film hints at the traumas experienced by Holiday in her childhood that led her to use drugs to, as she says,
“take the edge off.”
All these messages are communicated in an unrestricted way throughout the film and the additional scenes underscoring the points
are unnecessary.
There are a number of oddly intrusive segues between historical black and white footage of actual events during Holiday’s trials and the colour film of the rest of the film.
Odd choice but it is their film.
Even with those limitations, The United States versus Billie Holiday is an astounding film covering racial, social, and cultural boundaries, civil rights, and human tragedy interspersed with human triumph.
I can’t remember the last time I wanted the film to pause during its screening so I could process all the emotions and ideas washing over me. And the hard-hitting images take time to process. Following the movie, I’ve also been reading about Billie Holiday’s life, her music and the background to the song that spurned it all, Strange Fruit.
The United States versus Billie Holiday is difficult, confronting, political, racial, contradictory, informative, emotional, powerful and insightful.
All together it comes down to two words, “It’s complicated”.
Please Note
The United States versus Billie Holiday contains blatant, graphic images of drug use, physical and psychological abuse of women and coarse language, including racist epithets, that are integral to the incidents represented in Billie Holiday’s life. You may find these qualities disturbing.
VIEW: Billie Holiday’s life and career (infographic timeline)
READ: Why the United States government pursued Billie holiday
READ: Review of Billie, a documentary about Billie Holiday
READ: Interview with The United States versus Billie Holiday director Lee Daniels
READ: The Tragic Story Behind Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit”
The way Holiday performed the song on stage was designed to have the greatest impact on the audience. Her live performance of the song is explained in this article.
READ: The Strange Story of The Man who Wrote the poem, Strange Fruit
You might be surprised to discover his political leanings and who his parents were.
FILM EXTRAS
Do the Right Thing (1989)
A Spike Lee Film Joint (that’s what he calls his films). The name of his production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, is a reference to the phrase used to refer to the early Reconstruction period following the American Civil War 1865 in which emancipated black families on the Georgia coast were given lots of land no larger than 40 acres and, in some cases, surplus army mules. The order was later revoked and the land was taken away from the freed slaves and returned to previous owners.
Sal is the Italian owner of a Brooklyn pizzeria in a black neighbourhood that features a Wall of Fame exhibiting Italian actors. Buggin' Out, a neighbourhood resident, believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors; Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism to Buggin' Out. Tensions flare and emotions get out of control. A outstanding film by a superb filmmaker.
Do the Right Thing features a searing soundtrack propelled by US hip hop group Public Enemy’s anthemic song, Fight the Power.
Spike Lee reflects:
“I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody.” Spike Lee
“I think black people have to be in control of their own image because film is a powerful medium. We can't just sit back and let other people define our existence.” Spike Lee
Mississippi Burning (1988)
Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s are met with hostility by the town's residents, local police, and the Ku Klux Klan. The agents seek to break through the barriers of segregation and the lack of co-operation in the small Southern town where the murders happened in order to solve the murders.
“Our film cannot be the definitive film of the black civil rights struggle, our heroes were still white and, in truth, the film would probably have never been made if they weren’t. This is, perhaps, as much a sad reflection on present day society as it is on the film industry. But with all its possible flaws and shortcomings, I hope that our film can provoke thought and kindle the debate allowing other films to be made, because the struggle against racism continues”.
Excerpt from director David Parker’s account of making Mississippi Burning
READ: Director Alan Parker’s full account of making the film
Malcolm X (1992)
Spike Lee’s tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X pursued racial justice. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcom X shifted from a view that all white people were blue-eyed devils and that freedom, equality and justice could be achieved by any means necessary to speaking about unity among all people who worked for justice and peace.
READ: The Autobiography of Malcolm X. It is engrossing reading.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley co-authored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination.
“(Malcolm X’s) remarkable autobiography, completed just before his murder in 1965, ranges from Omaha and Michigan to Harlem and Mecca, and tells of a young, disenfranchised man whose descent into drug addition, robbery and prison was only reversed by his belief in the rights struggle for black America, and his conversion to the Nation of Islam.
Not only is this an enormously important record of the Civil Rights Movement in America, but also the scintillating story of a man who refused to allow anyone to tell him who or what he was”.
Description from Booktopia.com.au