BLACK FILM HISTORY SPOTLIGHT

"In a world divided by black and white, Easy Rawlins is about to cross the line."

How come we don't have any "Hollywood" black movie franchises? Yeah, we had Shaft, Friday, House Party, and Barbershop, but those followed the tired-old tradition of blacks playing comedic roles. Why can't we have a serious, black franchise, one starring a black actor/actress and highlighting the black community in a non-satirical way?

A pretty note-worthy attempt was made in 1995 ,when Tri-Star pictures green-lit Devil In A Blue Dress, a crime-detective neo-noir adapted from a Walter Mosley (a prominent black author) series starring Denzel Washington. Carl Franklin both directed and adapted the screenplay with Mosley. The mission was to turn the crime series lead character, Easy Rawlins, into a franchise for Denzel. 

In the film, Rawlins, a World War 2 veteran, is recently laid off from his job and becomes a private eye to help pay his mortgage.  

What's unique about the Rawlins character is, even though a detective, he is an everyday man attempting to make ends meat. He recruits his gun-happy friend Mouse (Don Cheadle) and is hired to find a missing white women, Daphne (Jennifer Beales), whom is hiding in the black community. The film goes through a long accord of twist and turns until Daphne is found. But as far as kidnapping goes, whodunit is less important that whydunit. The final reveal involves race and shows that even though attitudes have changed, society's perceptions of racial interaction is still a complicated subject. 

The clip above is the last 10 minutes of the film. It shows how down-to-earth the Rawlins character was portrayed as well as why many considered this movie as Don Cheadle's break-out role. "You said don't shoot him, right? Well I didn't. I choked him. If you didn't want him killed then why did you leave him with me?"

The film grossed only 16 million dollars and sadly the franchise was discontinued. With blacks power in Hollywood increasing slowly, hopefully this won't be the last attempt. 

EXTRAS:

• Walter Mosley is a prominent African-American novelist who's published over 29 novels.
• President Bill Clinton stated Mosley was his favorite author. 
• Mosley's Easy Rawlins crime fiction series is his most popular work.