Why “Ma Rainey” on Netflix changed the ending of the song

The next story contains spoilers from the movie “Ma Rainey’s Black Ass”, now streaming on Netflix.

The last frames of Netflix “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, adapted from the 1982 song by Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson in August, shows a dozen white men singing in a recording studio. Instrumentalists seem boring and insensitive; the singer’s delivery is dry. The trumpet solo, meant to be the remarkable riff of the song, feels particularly empty, devoid of charisma. But, above them, the producer nods, satisfied with what he hears.

The scene, which is only one minute long, is not in the original play. But witnessing this gentle rendition of the vibrant song that Levee, Chadwick Boseman’s talented trumpeter, was practically constrained to offer points to the bloody saga of Black artists exploited by white guards.

“We know this is happening – ‘Hound Dog’ is considered an Elvis Presley song, not a song by Big Mama Thornton – so this is a chance to actually see the violation unfold, after investing so much in the journey of an incredibly talented artist who mastered so much sound “, explains the film’s director, the main American theater George C. Wolfe. “It’s a very slippery slope: when does sharing become a cultural property theft?”

The value and ownership of black art are part of the abundance of ideas discussed in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the play that essentially launched Wilson’s career. It caught the attention of Lloyd Richards, the director who became the author’s mentor; opened the doors of Broadway, where he fled for 10 months; and started the cycle of the American century, Wilson’s collection of 10 pieces about the African-American experience, each set in a different decade of the twentieth century.

All 10 are adapted for the screen – an effort sought by the Wilson estate and the playwright’s widow, Constanza Romero, and entrusted to Denzel Washington, who kept the 2016 film “Fences” and produced “Ma Rainey”. “August was one of the greatest writers in American history and we are lucky – and, if I may be so bold – the audience is lucky that we can bring his work to those who could never experience all the wisdom of his live show.” says Washington.

From the cycle, “Ma Rainey” is the only set outside of Wilson’s hometown, Pittsburgh. In the 1920s, Chicago set the story against the backdrop of the Great Migration and socioeconomic opportunities that northern cities, beyond the realm of Jim Crow laws, promised black Americans in the rural south.

The narrative finds Levee, born in Mississippi, hired as a session musician for the latest album by blues singer Ma Rainey, although he wants to sing his own songs with his own band. And Boseman, in his latest performance on screen, offers a performance so heroic, so magnetic, that the viewer never doubts for a second that Levee can achieve his dream.

Levee’s hope for his future and for Sturdyvant, the white producer who promises to help him there, is not a blind belief: in a six-minute speech at one point in the film, he interrupts a series of light blows and becomes serious. , recounting the story of his mother’s rape at the hands of a group of white men when Levee was just 8 years old and the subsequent search for his father’s revenge.

Levee “starts the story from a place of defiance and then moves to a place of extraordinary intimacy and incredible fragility, compared to the laughter and buoyancy that were right in that room,” says Wolfe. “It’s a monster of a monologue. My main task was to create a space that would be so safe as to allow Chad to walk in the most vulnerable and unguarded place he could, so that there was nothing between him and the depth of his own abilities. emotional. “

“August Wilson is a muscular writer who writes beautiful and beautiful areas for actors,” says actor and playwright Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who adapted Wilson’s screenplay. “And also, when black men are just talking and talking, it’s an art form, no matter how smart and fast we are. August’s plays provide an arena for that, with the energy and poetry of that joke. “

After many attempts to record Ma Rainey’s song (and then to be paid appropriately for it), Levee follows Sturdyvant with the songs the producer ordered for him – and faces a familiar set of excuses: “I don’t think so. people will buy them ”. “They’re not the kind of songs we’re looking for.” “I don’t think it would sell like Ma’s records.” Sturdyvant says this too calmly for comfort, as if he has done this back and forth with other composers several times and then insults Levee with a lowball offer.

It is this insane encounter that provokes Levee’s violent anger – for a seemingly trivial incident – right into the next scene. Toledo (Glynn Turman), a pianist who at one point in the story reflects on the nature of African-American collective memory, accidentally steps on the expensive pair of shoes Levee bought that morning, still convinced that Sturdyvant was ready to help him hit is big. Levee threw himself, drew a knife, and stabbed Toledo, killing him.

It is up to the viewer to the central questions of value and property, this time with fatal consequences. “Ma Rainey” doesn’t mean “That’s how you took us,” Wilson told The Times in 1987, but, “That’s so valuable what you took from us” and discovering that value. ”

“The tragedy falls on the character who is most connected to our African culture,” says Tim Bond, Silicon Valley’s artistic director of TheaterWorks, who directed two of “Ma Rainey.”

As Wilson himself said, “In a world dominated by white culture, Black must be strong enough not only to survive, but to restore his own identity and legacy that flows uninterruptedly from an African source.” In other words, Bond says, “We need to talk about the value of a black man in this country. And we cannot assimilate to the point where our work, our livelihood, our art and our culture are co-opted by white people. “

The conclusion of the film, with that lifeless version of Levee’s exuberant song, acquired and exploited by a completely white band in Levee’s absence, makes this co-op palpable. “You have people who play a captivating song, but they don’t own the language or the world they come from,” says Wolfe, who has had to repeatedly remind musicians to stop singing completely or return for get the right scene tone.

“That song is an expression of Levee’s ego and manner and his young musical joy,” says Wolfe. “She would have had so much personality if she had sung it. But it’s not just their song and they shouldn’t record it. “