"This'd be an empty world without the blues."
"White folk don't understand about the blues. They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life."
—Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a 2020 American biopic film directed by George C. Wolfe, written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and produced by Denzel Washington. It is based on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the second stage play of August Wilson's "Pittsburgh Cycle". It stars Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, and is the final film in which Boseman played before his passing on August 28, 2020.
Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1927 Chicago as a band of musicians await a trailblazing performer, the legendary "Mother of the Blues", Ma Rainey (Viola Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio's claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Boseman) – who has an eye for Ma's girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry – spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories, truths and lies that will forever change the course of their lives.
The film was released on December 18, 2020 on Netflix. It saw limited US theatrical release on November 25, 2020.
Previews: Trailer
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Ma Rainey's Black Bottom provides examples of:
- Adaptational Expansion: The original play is confined to the recording studio. The film expands to show scenes outside of the studio. Also, an additional scene is shown at the end where a white band, supposedly led by Paul Whiteman, the so-called "King of Jazz", ends up recording Levee's song.
- Advertised Extra: The advertising makes Ma Rainey out to be just as prominent as Levee, if not more so, when in actuality, he's a much larger role and the true leading character of the piece.
- Ambiguously Bi: It was obviously very taboo in 1927, but Ma seems very handsy with Dussie Mae. But Dussie Mae also has a fling with Levee.
- Black Boss Lady: Ma Rainey is the indisputable leader of her band, with a domineering presence, and pushes around everyone, even the white record executives. She fits the part physically as a large, middle-aged Black woman.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Given the film's emphasis on the struggles of African-Americans in the early 20th Century, it's fairly safe to say most if not all of the characters have this to some degree. Cutler references a friend of his who was a devout priest who simply wound up in a far less racially tolerant part of America than he'd meant to be and was abused and harrassed by white men for it. Levee himself definitely has one; which he explains in detail when the others mock him for being afraid of the white man. He lived in Mississippi and his father was a successful farmer, but despite being hardworking and honest, they were black and of course this was unacceptable to white folk. His mother was attacked (and quite likely gang-raped) by a group of racist white men while his father was in town one night, and Levee (only eight years old) tried to save her with his father's knife, which very nearly ended up getting him killed when they attacked him for it (he still has the considerably large scar on his chest) and his father was brutally lynched not long after for attempting to get revenge on the men for what they did to his family (which to be fair, of the eight/nine men responsible, he managed to kill four). No wonder he's so messed up.
- Despair Event Horizon: Levee crosses it when Sturdyvant tells him that he won't be recording with Levee, but he will be buying Levee's songs for $5.00.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Toledo accidentally steps on Levee's new shoes, and apologizes for it. When Levee continues to give him crap, Toledo repeats that he's sorry and there's nothing else he can do or say. Levee then fatally stabs him. Though it's worth noting that the encounter is about more than the initial conflict, as Levee's anger is more about his earlier drama that day, and it's offset by just one more thing to piss him off.
- The Diva: Played With. Ma Rainey intentionally makes herself difficult to work with for both Irvin and Sturdyvant, because she's aware of how little they actually care about her other than how she can make money for them.Ma Rainey: They don't care nothin' about me. All they want is my voice. Well I done learned that, and they gonna treat me the way I wanna be treated no matter how much it hurt them.
- Downer Ending: Levee is fired by Ma Rainey for insubordination and rejected by Sturdyvant, who buys Levee's music but hires a white band to record the song. In rage and frustration, Levee fatally stabs Toledo.
- Eating the Eye Candy: When Dussie Mae dances, Ma Rainey looks at her with clear desire.
- The Flapper: Dussie Mae has the look with her bob, short skirts, and constant dancing, and she's also quite flirty and forward with the men.
- Jerkass: While he's a sympathetic character, Levee is ultimately this. He's self absorbed, rude, cuckolds Ma Rainey, is so intolerant of Cutler's religious beliefs that he chases him around with a knife, and in the end murders Toledo over him stepping on his shoe.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ma Rainey acts intentionally unpleasant throughout the narrative, but that's more to show dominance over her white higher ups so they don't step all over her. When she's just among her band, nephew, and lover, Ma, while still imposing and no stranger to a fight, shows off a more affable side.
- Male Band, Female Singer: All of Ma Rainey's musicians are men.
- Monochrome Casting: With the exception of Sturdyvant, Irvin, the policeman, and the band recording at the end, many of the cast is Black.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Levee instantly regrets killing Toledo and tries to get him help, but it's too late.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Levee has a particularly passionate one.
- Real-Person Epilogue: The closing credits use a real Ma Rainey recording as the end music and show photographs of the real Ma Rainey.
- Red Baron: Ma Rainey's "Mother of the Blues" nickname is pronounced a few times.
- The Roaring '20s: The costumes and blues music clearly set the film in the era.
- Secondary Character Title: Ma Rainey isn't the main character, Levee is.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Levee spends a good portion of the movie trying to open a door in the rehearsal room. When he finally breaks it open, he finds there's nothing on the other side. It foreshadows the results of his attempts to fight his way to success. He was never going to have anything to show for all the work he put in.
- Tag Line: "Everything comes out in the blues".
- Truth in Television: There actually is a voice at the beginning of the "Black Bottom" recording saying, "All right, boys, you've seen the rest, now hear the best. Ma Rainey's gonna show you her black bottom." In the film and the play, that voice is Ma's stuttering nephew, Sylvester, but this was most likely fictionalized.
- Villain Protagonist: Levee is the main focus of the story, and he's going against Ma's orders.
- Wall Bang Her: Levee starts to have sex with Dussie Mae up against the wall, and then they switch to doing it on a piano.
