REVIEW BY JOHN ESTHER
Antwone Fisher
Written by Antwone Fisher
Directed by Denzel Washington
With Derek Luke, Denzel Washington, Joy Bryant and Salli Richardson
It is a Hollywood fairytale come true. Antwone Fisher was a security guard at Sony Pictures Entertainment. He told his tragic childhood story to the right people, who allowed him to write it for the big screen. When Denzel Washington got a hold of the script, Fisher's tale bloomed. Washington not only wanted to be in the film, he also wanted to make his directorial debut with it.
Fisher was born in the Ohio corrections facility where his mother was incarcerated. His father was killed before he was born. He was placed with a foster family, the Tates, imbued with the "slave mentality".
Seven-year-old Antwone (played by Malcolm David Kelley) and his foster brothers were subjected to the fire-and-brimstone sermons of Reverend Tate (Ellis E. Williams) several times a week. They also endured the abuse of Mrs Tate (Novella Nelson). "You could tell which one of us boys she was talking to by the way she said, 'niggah'", said Fisher.
After years of maltreatment, when 14-year-old Antwone (Cory Hodges) confronted Mrs Tate, he was thrown out onto the street. He went from reform school to homelessness, where he eventually found momentary refuge with his long-time chum Jesse (De'Angelo K Wilson).
Forced to flee into the US Navy after unwittingly being involved in a murder, Fisher maintained admirable courage and a will to improve himself — a reaction against his youthful years of being admonished that he "ain't never gonna be nothing".
As an adult, Fisher — played by his friend Derek Luke, who worked at the Sony Pictures gift shop before his dream also came true — has a capricious temper. After another assault, Fisher is sent to navy shrink Jerome Davenport (Denzel Washington) for a psychiatric evaluation. Stubborn at first, Fisher eventually confesses to Davenport about his woeful formative years.
Fisher was clearly an interesting subject for a film and it is not quite the stuff of cheery holiday cinema. Antwone Fisher is the kind of story that should be told more often. But hopefully, next time, it will be told more honestly.
After rewrite after rewrite — perhaps to make it more palatable for holiday season audiences or for award contention — the screen version of Antwone Fisher, with its saccharine score, is less tragic than the real life one. It has become a "love letter to the Navy", said Antwone Fisher production designer Nelson Coates.
In real life, after 11 years of service in the US Navy and a three-year stint as a federal corrections officer, Fisher took his job at Sony. As this was a more "laid back work environment", according to Fisher, he decided to find his biological family.
In the film, it is Davenport who encourages Fisher to find his family. On leave with his beautiful fellow navy officer Cheryl (Joy Bryant), Fisher confronts the Tates. After a few hours of phone calls, finds his family, who, within another few hours, have gathered by the dozens to provide a sumptuous feast similar to one that Fisher had dreamed of in the beginning of the picture.
In real life, Fisher found relatives on his father's side when he was already at Sony and they gave him a plane ticket so he could spend Thanksgiving in Cleveland. In the film, 25-year old Antwone purchases two open-ended tickets, rents a car, stays in a hotel and tracks the family down — all courtesy of the generous US Navy pay.
When Fisher returns to the sunny naval base of San Diego, which is in sharp contrast to the lower-class neighbourhoods of gloomy Cleveland, he thanks Davenport. In response, Davenport shares his own troubles — "just between you and me" — with Fisher.
The two walk into the base, their problems solved — all thanks to the US Navy.
[John Esthter is a "leftie" film critic who lives in Los Angeles.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 19, 2003.
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