Denzel

It’s the last few days of 2024, so if I can steer clear of talking about politics, so be it. Thus, this is my last commentary for what has been a tortuous year.

Quiet as it’s kept, I’m not a political animal. I really don’t live and breath by the tic-toc of either Washington, D.C. or Jones Street in Raleigh. That’s not a bad thing, per se, just not who I really am when I’m allowed to have my dithers.

What I am is a lifelong fan of popular American culture, and I have been since I was a little brown kid growing up in Brooklyn, NY. As the only child of a single mother, I was exposed to books, television/movies and music. Back then, the key to freedom for a Black child was education, and expressly so. The television/movies and music parts were the extras allowed for me to indulge in so I wouldn’t grow up to be square librarian or something (not that there’s anything wrong with being a librarian, just wasn’t me).

So I fondly remember those years of my youth, and how when it came to visual culture - film and TV, all of my heroes then were…white. Had no choice, that’s who dominated American television and movies then. I’m not complaining, I just did what most Black kids did at the time, choose the coolest white heroes who came cross the screen.

And then when I reached my teens, some of those heroes at the movies turned into Black men like Shaft, or Chinese Kung fu artists like Bruce Lee. Still had a few white ones (James Bond hung around for a while, and I loved westerns) but my motion picture and television palette decidedly began to change color.

Then as I reached young adulthood, this one young Black movie star began to catch my eye on both TV and in the movies. His name was Denzel Washington, and they always had him costarring with major white stars in some goofy racial farce, until later on they made him a doctor on the hit NBC drama, “St. Elsewhere.”

From that point, as I grew, I watched this interesting young actor grow in his roles and his influence, no more in television, but in important films like “Crimson Tide” with Gene Hackman; “A Soldier’s Story “ directed by the great Norman Jewison; and the extraordinary “Malcolm X” costarring Angela Bassett and directed by Spike Lee.

That range of films taught me that this young Black actor was bold and consequential. He would take markers laid down by earlier Black actors like Sidney Poitier and run for daylight without limit. Soon Washington would go beyond proving my point with a gripping Academy Award-winning performance in the 1989 Civil War epic “Glory,” where he allowed a single, yet powerful tear to roll down his face while being lashed as a runaway slave caught returning to his Yankee regiment after leaving unauthorized to seek shoes for his bare feet.

Until that time, no one in the history of American cinema had given such an exceptional, thought-provoking performance.

With each succeeding role, Denzel Washington made his performances something you just couldn’t take your eyes off of, and as he grew older, films like “Remember the Titans,” and his Academy Award-winning “Training Day” became modern classics.

When you paid money, or took the time to watch one of his old films on television, Denzel Washington, even through his worst films, always gave you your money’s worth. And his appeal was universal. Yet, Denzel trademarked each of his roles with his standard, defiant Black man’s gait, as a way of telling his audience he always knew who he was deep down, and nothing would change that.

We have watched Denzel Washington grow into an extraordinary actor, one that no less than the New York Times has crowned as the best of the 20th century. He has given us a plethora of extraordinary performances, sprinkled with some Shakespeare here and there, not to mention some theater on Broadway, where he insists that’s where you really learn acting.

        Now there's word Denzel may be up for yet another Oscar, this one for his scene stealing role in the hit current film, "Gladiator II."

Not only has Denzel (and for the record, few people know that his actual name is pronounced “Dinzil” NOT “Den-zel”) starred in many great motion pictures over the decades, but was trained at Fordham University and the American Conservatory Theater before going back to New York to work in The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park ensemble.

And by now many people know that during his childhood years growing up in Mount Vernon, NY, Washington attended the Boys and Girls Club as a way to stay off the streets and stay out of trouble. So when a young journalist recently asked Denzel whether he was a fan of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (“A Clockwork Orange,” “The Shining” and “2001: A Space Odyssey”) Denzel replied that he wasn’t, and had spent most of his youth doing other things besides watching films.

The question and response made news, primarily because one had to wonder why the young man even asked the question, and what was he trying to get at by doing so. Denzel’s answer raised eyebrows because people weren’t sure whether he was being serious or not, and just gave the interviewer a backhanded reply as a way of moving on to the next subject.

        And get this. Now it's being reported that Denzel has joined the ministry of a black church. if you've ever seen him preach to a college audience, you know the man has much spiritual wisdom to share with everyone, especially young people.

All I know is Denzel Washington turns 70 on December 28th (I turn 69 on January 3rd). He’s accomplished a lot during his life, and doesn’t owe anybody any explanations for how he’s lived his life (a happily married man with four adult children), and says he has a few more films in him before he hangs them up for good.

On this, the last full week of the year, and on Denzel Washington’s birthday, I salute a true artist for doing things his way, and contributing to our culture in memorable ways that many of us will never forget.

Thank you, Denzel.

As I said earlier, this is my last commentary for 2024. I always take the last week off because of the holidays and my birthday all running together.

So I wish all of you and your families nothing but the best for the holidays, and hope to see you fresh and ready to go in 2025.

GOD Bless!