I want to thank Big Sean and Tyler Perry for bringing me something new. I had a professor who told me, “If you know a little about a lot of things, it will make you a more well-rounded journalist.” I think we will all be better people for knowing this story of these women who, on the surface, just delivered mail to soldiers. They were so much more during the war. They delivered hope.
I’m going to skip to the end to tell you what I learned and then go back to talk about the movie. I live in Virginia and have several friends in the military, both current and former. I know Fort Gregg- Adams. It was so refreshing to know that that fort was named after Captain Charity Adams. That was something that I’ve been around for years but never knew who it was named for. Now that I know, I’m so much prouder.
Back to the movie. I’ve seen a couple reviews (haven’t read them completely. Just the highlights) and spoke to a friend of mine and we all agree. The beginning of this film is clunky. We start in the middle of the war. Makes sense. This is a war film so I was like, “Sure. We’ll start in the trenches.” We see a soldier retrieve a letter from inside the pocket of the soldier who was shot down. After this scene, I thought we would meet Captain Adams and her unit. No, we ended up back with civilians. Ok, maybe this is fine. I’ll go with it. We meet this interracial couple. I figured we’d be following Mrs. Lena Derriecott but the added bonus was her man was the one called to war. So then I thought, well maybe I’m wrong. Maybe she will be the person back at home, like the mom from WV, who we follow with her struggle to receive the mail. Later, we see that Lena did go to war. Even further in the film, we find out that the man we saw at the beginning of the film and that bloodstained letter was from Abram, Lena’s love. For me, this whole scenario PLUS the soldier she met when she got overseas just felt like all the pieces didn’t fit right. You know how you think a puzzle piece goes somewhere because it looks right but it isn’t. This is what this film did to me. It tried to make me think that things should go in the order I see them. I don’t agree.
Another thing that bothered me about this film was that, for as long as it is, I don’t feel like I got enough. I felt like I got glimpses and pieces of a story and it felt heavy handed with the racism. We get it. It’s the 40’s. Being Black AND female is a detriment, and we did see the women work together to figure out the mail. But why that point in the film, we were about an hour and a half into a two hour and seven minute movie. We spent WAY too long with set up. We get it. People wanted them to fail.
On a side note, White people at that time always gave Black people the menial work. Why wouldn’t you want to find some Blacks in the military to deal with what you didn’t? That part did not make sense to me AT ALL.
I’m going to tell you some things that warmed my heart. I saw on IG that Debbie Allen did the choreography for the film and she’s MY FAVORITE PERSON. She has also worked with Kerry on many occasions, so family reunion there. No one told me Oprah was in this movie, so when she came on screen I went, “Oprah is in this film?” Thank you, Tyler Perry, for tricking her to be in the film. If you know me, you know I LOVE “The Wiz.” Years ago, I watched “The Wiz: Live” and was introduced to the ball of light that is Shanice Williams. She was a joy to watch in that production and she’s a joy here. She gives the women here some spunk. Honestly, most of these women are boring. I’m sorry. Going back to the pieces, we kept getting pieces of them but never a whole. If you watched “Scandal” every Thursday like the rest of America, you HAD to smile when you saw Dean Norris and Kerry Washington again. For those who may not remember, Norris played Fenton Glackland in the show who, for a short time, was with Cyrus Beane. Watch the show to figure out what happened there. If you watched “Claws,” he was Big Daddy on that show. Anywho, he played his role so well that he got on my nerves. And that was a good thing. In that final scene where he comes to do the inspection and tells the Captain Adams that he will be bringing in a White captain to do her job, this is where we get the best performance from Washington. She has such a small frame but there is so much power in her voice and posture in this film. Washington and Williams were standouts to me. I know Mrs. Derriecott is a real person and her story was heartwarming but the character lacked a real depth for me. I don’t know why. She kind of felt like a big sob story to me.
I learned a lot and I loved what I saw. I just don’t feel like I got all of what I came for and it took too long to get what you wanted me to know. What did you all think?
I will leave you all with a line that spoke to me. It’s reminiscent of the clip from “Scandal” where Papa Pope is reminding Olivia of who she has to be in this world.
“You don’t have the luxury to be as good as a white soldier, You have the burden to be better.”
