Chad and Mary decided to have a conversation about the HBO original film Bessie to post to their respective media blogs. So, here goes…
Mary: Did you know that when I was an undergraduate student at Wake Forest I worked as an announcer at WFDD and had a weekly jazz show on Friday nights? I closed my set each week with Bessie Smith’s classic song “Empty Bed Blues.” I don’t know a lot about jazz actually — knew more back then than now — but I’ve always had a penchant for the blues, and, after all, Bessie Smith is The Empress of the Blues.
Chad: No, you never told me that story! The Empress of the Blues–she certainly had a lot of emotion to pull from when she performed, and that intensity certainly came out in her life and her struggles. I found myself saying to myself that the film shows a story that is not at all atypical in biopics of not only musicians, but of people from all professions/walks of life. But the reason it is so “typical” is because these types of life struggles are so common. That is not to say that this film is not unique or that the performances were not spectacular because they were. But as for the story itself, what stood out to you the most?
Mary: I was excited that the film was finally made (there’s been a lot of talk about a Bessie Smith biopic over the years), and I thought Queen Latifah was wonderful (I could probably watch her read the phone book, as the saying goes), but I was not enamored with the film overall. I read the Chris Albertson biography about Bessie some years ago, and was taken with the story. While some events recounted fit what I remembered, the ending was a real disappointment. Her untimely death was as dramatic as her life.