Rustin
Rustin is streaming on Netflix at the time of writing. Rated PG-13. Common Sense says 13.
STORY: B
The moments of conflict don’t last long.
Whenever conflict arises in the film, Rustin responds with a fiery speech and a re-energized effort to the March. And poof … it’s gone. Conflict over.
Not spending time exploring the toll these conflicts take on him makes the story feel thin. Skipping over the way he deals with all many horrid insults and crushing setbacks that he faces keeps us from seeing the full picture of Bayard Rustin.
Maybe there’ssome symbolism in the story’s structure. I am not a marginalized person, so I can only use my imagination when I say this. The way Rustin counters his setbacks with positivity seems like the very mindset that the people who pulled off this world-changing event needed to have.
PEOPLE: A-
Colman Domingo delivers an award-worthy performance.
When a film decides to bump Martin Luther King to secondary-character status, then the person playing the main character better be magnetic, dynamic, and have the ability to lift up everyone on the screen and in the audience. Colman checks these boxes and more.
He owns every scene he’s in, which is nearly all of them. The film falls flat on its face without his passionate performance.
FILM NERD STUFF: C-
The historical footage curbs the final scene’s impact.
Once we get to the march, the filmmakers sprinkle in colorized versions of the actual March on Washington. One would think that this move would make the finale even more emotional. Unfortunately, it has the opposite effect.
The historic footage looks different than the rest of the film. Too different. The cutting back and forth between the old footage and the new is jarring. It sadly breaks the film’s spell at the moment when it should be the most magical.
THE CONTENT OF HIS CHARACTER (Elective Class): A
The film is an insightful examination of intersectionality.
As a White dude, I have never been treated as less of a human being because of who I am. White men founded this country, and they put themselves in its center. Not every White man has had an easy life, but his centrality steers him away from the many roadblocks and obstacles faced by those not lucky enough to be born in the center.
Dr. King dreamed that his kids would one day be “judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” He wasn’t dreaming of a world where Black people joined White people in the center. He was dreaming of a world where there was no center. A world where no one is unfairly shoved to the edges.
Rustin was Black. He was also gay. Either one of these things would have made it difficult for a man to live his life to its fullest in the mid-20th century United States. Being both made it nearly impossible.
Yet Rustin found a way to accomplish incredible things despite being forced to the tenuous edges of society. Imagine all the amazing things he - and the millions of others past, present, and future - could accomplish if they weren’t.
FINAL COMMENTS:
Maya Angelou once said that people won’t remember the things you say to them or the things you do for them. They will remember the way you make them feel.
A year from now, I may not remember the particulars I learned about Rustin’s life. But I will remember the way he - via Colman Domingo’s electric performance - made me feel. Inspired. Grateful. Fired up, and ready to go.