# For the love of Black History Month: What's your favorite film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 9, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932 "2008-02-09T16:38:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/21 "2008-02-09T18:57:04Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl] Standing in the Shadows of Motown [/QUOTE] Oh man, what a movie. And truly heartbreaking in parts. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/22 "2008-02-09T19:03:20Z")
\*\*The Commitments \*\* “The Irish are the blacks of Europe. Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. The Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. Say it once and say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud.” 🙂 **Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner** I love Sydney Poitier… **Antwone Fisher** ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/23 "2008-02-09T19:25:19Z")
White Men Can’t Jump ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/24 "2008-02-09T20:21:54Z")
Boyz n the Hood Mahogany Lady Sings the Blues The Women of Brewster Place (if you haven’t read the book, do so - it was phenomenal) Strange Days (because Angela Bassett was the female lead and I’d turn lesbian for her) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/25 "2008-02-09T20:41:25Z")
I have to second **Eve’s Bayou**. I like **Glory** and **Soul Food** as well. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/26 "2008-02-09T21:25:25Z")
Bingo Long’s Travelling All-Stars & Motor Kings. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/27 "2008-02-09T22:21:56Z")
**Glory** and HBO Pictures’ [The Tuskeege Airmen](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114745/). ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/28 "2008-02-09T22:28:54Z")
I have quite a few. Hoop Dreams Finding Forrester The Color Purple Tsotsi Hotel Rwanda Antwone Fisher Men of Honor Remember the Titans Coming to America Jungle Fever - Halle Berry as a crackhead: amazing acting. 48 Hours ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/29 "2008-02-09T23:57:10Z")
**Malcolm X** ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/30 "2008-02-10T00:02:12Z")
The best black \*history \* film? [The Old Negro Space Program](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6xJzAYYrX8). 😃 😃 😃 😃 ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/31 "2008-02-10T00:09:35Z")
When I’m feeling blue, few things uplift me quicker than **Purple Rain.** In addition to others that have been mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/32 "2008-02-10T00:16:40Z")
[Killer of Sheep](http://imdb.com/title/tt0076263/) FTW. Anyone who has ever lived in the US needs to see this movie. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/33 "2008-02-10T00:18:26Z")
I liked **To Sir, With Love**. **Intruder in the Dust** is another I enjoyed, partly for the storyline but partly because it was filmed in my hometown. Several locals were in the film, including the twins Ed and Eph Lowe, who played the Gowrie twins. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/34 "2008-02-10T00:32:23Z")
**Cabin in the Sky** should be more fondly remembered than it is. Most of the great black entertainers of the Forties, in a film the studios didn’t think would sell to white audiences. Yes, the script has some shuffling/Yassuh aspects to it, but it’s a lot of fun and actually has some surprising bits - and it’s the only kind of script and roles a black cast was going to get then anyway. Dayum, Lena Horne was hot … and so was Ethel Waters. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/35 "2008-02-10T00:35:15Z")
**Glory** Maybe not accurate in its details, but still a thoughtful look at race and the Civil War. Many great performances. **Friday** This movie has me rolling in the floor every time I watch it. **Barbershop** Ditto. **Something the Lord Made** Caught this one on cable. Hadn’t heard anything about it beforehand, but it drew me right in. **Hustle & Flow** Mainly for the great performance by Terrence Howard. **Fallen** This list needs a horror movie. Here you go. One of my favorites from Denzel. **48 Hrs.** This, to me, is Eddie Murphy at his best. And sort of a special mention for **Lone Star** which, while it does not have a black lead, has several black characters in an ensemble cast and which features some of the most insightful observations on small-town race relations to be found anywhere in cinema. ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/36 "2008-02-10T00:39:14Z")
Besides about a dozen and a half movies that have already been tossed out that are among my all time favorites, I’d like to see some love for these two. **Mo’ Better Blues** because IMHO Spike and Denzel should work together more. **In the Heat of the Night** , a top 250 on IMDB; Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, you could feel the tension radiating off of those two. A great early black man takes on white establishment movie, and to me, still powerful. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/37 "2008-02-10T00:44:31Z")
What? No mention of _Dreamgirls_? Great, great musical, even if the social issues are a little diluted from the stage version. Eddie Murphy really is fantastic in this, too. If you jump in the wayback machine, to a time when America was just a little blip on the radar, there’s Laurence Fishburne in [Othello](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114057/). ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/38 "2008-02-10T00:51:24Z")
**Cornbread, Earl and Me** (I"ll never forget the kid trying to run faster than the raindrops…) **Glory** **New Jack City** ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/39 "2008-02-10T01:12:01Z")
In alphabetical order: _Baby Face Boyz n the Hood The Emperor Jones Eve’s Bayou Hallelujah Intruder in the Dust Killer of Sheep Nightjohn Say Amen Somebody To Sleep with Anger_ There have been some great films mentioned above that are about \*African \*Africans. But I think the point of Black History Month is the African \*American \*experience, so I’ve limited my own titles to those. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932/40 "2008-02-10T03:12:22Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] **Malcolm X** [/QUOTE] :smack: How could I forget this one? I’m watching it right now on TV One. If there was a way to award Academy awards to past films, that one would be at the top of the list. How did Denzel not get an award? There’s no way his performance in **Training Day** was better than his Malcolm. No way. The man was robbed! > [@Southern Yankee](#): > > Cornbread, Earl and Me Starring a young Lawrence Fishburn! The movie is corny as hell, but seeing little Larry is worth it. I haven’t seen a lot of the films that have been mentioned. I’m going to have to check them out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-love-of-black-history-month-whats-your-favorite-film/436932.md?page=3)