BIG CIGAR CUBAN STYLE

CALIFORNIA POLICE RUN BLACK PANTHER WAY, WAY OUT OF TOWN

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The Black Panther Party represented the more radicle voice of change steeped in armed revolution in California with Huey P Newton teaching his followers to use the prevailing gun laws to defend themselves against white street aggression.

Andre Holland plays Newton as soft spoken, genuinely caring, but also ever so determined to succeed.

Alessandro Nivola plays Hollywood movie producer Bert Schneider. Schneider and his business partner, Steve Blauner, had just found surprising success with the release of Easy Rider (1969). The biker film, starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, became an instant cult classic among the rising 60s generation.

Schneider is flush with cash and personal confidence after Easy Rider’s commercial and cultural success, as well as from receiving the admiration of film industry colleagues.

Newton takes on the producers as kind of reluctant partners after the Federal Bureau of Investigations trumps up charges against him for the murder of a young woman.

Byrne plays Steve Blauner as even more reluctant to get involved, especially with his live-in romantic partner not wanting anything to do with black revolutionaries hiding out in her home.

A bit of satire sweeps through the series, but the story continues to discuss culturally significant subject matters – while the way things happen, like one mistake leading everyone in a slightly different direction, is treated sardonically.

Byrne plays funny to Nivola’s straight man serious. And comedian Richard Prior makes an appearance as a character of interest, offering to play Newton in any biopic the producers might be interested in.

Initially, Schneider just wants to give Newton some of the money he needs to run the Black Panther street programs. A bit of tug of war ensues with the two characters eventually becoming almost chained together when they hatch a plan to escape to Cuba.

Tiffany Boone as Gwen Fontaine has been empowered by the black liberation movement, although part her motivation is as a love interest to the charismatic leader of the Black Panthers.

Director Don Cheadle puts in a lot of details about the 60s culture, like the cars and the costumes and the lines of free cocaine available at high end cocktail parties.

The players talk revolution while getting all lit up.

The script discusses the long term consequences of systemic racism, such as Newton’s father having to work three jobs but still not getting too far in the white dominated society.

The Black Panthers don’t exactly give up on armed revolution, but they do set up street programs that make the long wait a bit easier.

A score drives scene transitions while the popular music of the time sets the atmosphere of the era and adds a bit of momentum to the narrative, maybe pushing three or four scenes at once until the next hit song or big scene.

Holland plays Newton as determined to change the world of black people – convinced that non-violent change is too slow and too ineffective. But Newton is far from being a maniacal sociopath or urban terrorist.

The series takes the edge off armed revolt and plays the movement as grounded in street justice and changing individual lives, with obvious incidences of discrimination underscoring the need for change.

The LAPD police harassment escalates to total fabrication by the Federal Bureau of Investigations – and then, with Newton sensing the end, everyone decides that he must flee to Cuba to keep the revolution going.

The narrative flips back once in a while, and then rejoins the main narrative that continues on, at times skipping forward quickly in escape mode, like from the conversation in the car with Richard Prior to the hideout house and the Hollywood producer having second thoughts about his involvement.

From time to time, Newton has been outwardly too bent on revolution or death for mainstream Hollywood executives.

The light brush of satire during the first episode makes the characters more intriguing – like telling the audience that the series isn’t going to be all that serious and that the audience will have some fun and be entertained in the next five of six episodes as Cheadle tells the story of the Black Panther Party.

Cheadle previously directed and starred in a biopic about jazz musician Miles Davis, Miles Ahead (2015), which has the same brush of satire and sardonic humor.