Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Andrea Day, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, Garett Hedlund, Leslie Jordan, Miss Lawrence, Dusan Dukic, Erik LaRay Harvey, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Koumba Ball, Adriane Lexox, Letitia Brookes, Tyler James Williams, Warren ‘Slim’ Williams, Jeff Vorbett, Damian Joseph Quinn, Robert Alan Beuth, Randy Davison, Melvin Gregg, Kevin Hanchard, Furly Mac, Evan Ross.
By standing out and making your voice heard, you will undoubtedly cause others to feel anger and resentment, their wrath at your opinion is exacerbated by the fact they are the ones who are ultimately impotent without the power to shut you up, to keep you locked in the cage they have managed at times to place you in; and in the end it is their downfall that history will show with pleasure as your voice resonates across time as being one on the right side of decency and honour.
It boils down to fear, the panic of losing power over the individual or on society as a whole, that the voice of authority no longer holds sway with the populace as their eyes are opened to the sense of corruption and injustice that is driven from the top down and which at any time can see any person dragged before a court for daring to question the status quo or for having the courage to open their mouths in defiance against tyranny over race, creed, religion or ability.
The world over there have been acts of aggression against the individual who is brave enough to stand on a stage and say what is in their heart, that this action is wrong, they jailed Nelson Mandela, they assassinated Martin Luther King, Trotsky took an ice-pick to the head, they incarcerated the ordinary man and woman for speaking out, and in the case of Billie Holiday, they hounded her for being bold in her conviction to be able to sing one of the great poems turned songs of the 20th Century, Strange Fruit.
Perhaps the greatest differences between The United States Vs Billie Holiday and the 1972 film Lady Sings The Blues is how the representation of the Government’s absolute desire to see Ms. Holliday taken down is less than sensationalised and more brutal in its depiction, in its absolute sheer audaciousness of belief that the popular singer had to be kept in her place, and that falls to the inclusion of Jimmy Fletcher, the F.B.I. agent who was able to set her up initially, and then spent a life time of regret after her untimely death for his part in her troubled later days.
Make no mistake, The United States Vs Billie Holiday is not a comfortable watch, far from it, the shame that anyone watching the film is huge, palpable, the feeling of being involved in silencing the woman’s voice because of her colour, because of her determination to sing the truth of injustice that was engrained into American society at the time, and in many respects, remains bitterly so, and the graphic depiction of a woman being hanged in the cotton fields surrounding her home. This is not a tale of lightness intermingled with music from the great woman, this is the reminder that our history is muddied, defiled, polluted, with the germ and virus of racism and one that must be addressed with greater urgency than we have allowed it to take place so far.
With absolute stunning performances by Andra Day as Ms. Holiday and Travante Rhodes as Jimmy Fletcher, and great support by Leslie Jordan as Reginald Lord Devine and Natasha Lyonne as Tallulah Bankhead, The United States Vs Billie Holiday is a film that not only captures the beauty and sorrow endured by Ms. Holiday in her relatively short life, but the desperate nature of what some will stoop to just to keep control.
Ian D. Hall