After false starts with both Killer of Sheep (1977) and My Brother's Wedding (1983), Charles Burnett once again was making a feature film and third time was the charm. No blocking the full distribution of the film because of music rights like in 1977. No botched editing of the film by the studio like in 1983. In 1990 Burnett's reputation as an auteur was enough to get him producers for another feature, at a major studio, with the backing of Danny Glover (who would play the film's larger-than-life antagonist). This would be Burnett's first feature to be released and distributed without incident. I suspect that the breakthrough success of Spike Lee in the years between My Brother's Wedding and To Sleep With Anger (1990) made Hollywood temporarily more willing to work with more black film-makers.
This film is the story of a family that is having some struggles with each other when the patriarch looses his good-luck charm and a mysterious old-friend named Harry appears. Harry's presence starts leading to strange occurrences and disasters that get the family to start putting two and two together.
This a classic folk tale of the protagonists versus the trickster character and Harry is an especially crafty and almost-demonic one. Harry represents a warped sense of African-American culture and tradition that opposes the family that he terrorizes. As those around him are weak in their knowledge of self or in-conflict, he comes in and takes over almost pushing the family to the brink. We see the conjure tradition that has it's roots in traditional African practices come up against African-American Christianity. There is Harry's sinister greed and self-centeredness versus the selflessness of the family matriarch and then there are kids who refuse to clean-up after themselves. The fish fry gathering was a vintage Burnett show-piece and the performance of See See Rider is a nice call back to the opening of My Brother's Wedding. It is interesting to see Burnett working with professional actors for the first time as oppose to his neorealist preference for amateurs and non-actors. It is interesting to hear Harry say that he doesn't have enemies because he doesn't hold on to the past despite him being a twisted embodiment of the past itself. Though the family nearly falls apart, they mange to realize Harry's hold on them and mange to break it not through rational means...but with Chekhov's marbles.
This movie is a great parable of the crossroads of culture and history. Harry forces the family to reconcile the conflicts they had before his arrival in order to overcome him with a trial by fire. When the family survives him they come out stronger than before. This story fits into the tradition of Charles W. Chesnutt, but brings it to 1990 South Central Los Angeles. And the boy did learn how to play the trumpet after all.
