Ray Pride

At heart, a filmmaker always tells his own story.

In the case of films that go outside the experience of big-budget Hollywood movies, working close to experience not reflected in our cultural stereotypes, telling gay and lesbian stories, or in films about women and African Americans, there's often a polarizing, even paralyzing, political quandary: if you're expected to be representative of thirty-three million people, the results could quickly turn hygienic instead of artistic. With "The Brothers," about average, commitment-fearing upper middle-class African-American men, writer-director Gary Hardwick treads all over a number of expectations. Its fugitive theme is loneliness -- the intense fear each of the protagonists, played by Bill Bellamy, Shemar Moore, Morris Chestnut and the priceless D. L. Hughley, have of being left in their world without the possibility of love.

Hardwick has a diverse background, including being licensed to practice law in Michigan and California, a series of novels set in Detroit, and work on a script called "Cheer Fever," released last year as "Bring It On." From his experiences, he wrote his script six years ago, before movies like "The Wood" and "Waiting to Exhale" made money. "This was my very first screenplay, six years ago," Hardwick says, "I couldn't sell it. Many of the comments were, 'A doctor, a lawyer, a millionaire car dealer, who's gonna -- is that real?' I heard a lot of that. But there have been many movies since then that have been successful, so it was easier to get it out there this time 'round. I never gave up on it."

He offers a simple reason for Screen Gems providing his $5.5 million budget: "I think it was our old friend, imitation. Success. 'Soul Food,' $67 million. 'Best Man,' thirty some-odd million, 'Love and Basketball,' $27 million-on relatively small budgets. Hollywood is a sort of a place where, okay, I'll do it if it's been done before. And so people were looking for this movie having been successful before and it wasn't there. There was a great movie called 'Love Jones,' but it wasn't a breakthrough movie. There are a lot of reasons people might pass on the movie, but those were the consistent comments. People loved the script and I got a lot of work based on the script. I'd get called in, people would say, we're not going to make your movie, but hey, we've got this other thing we want you to do. That to me is the sign of a good [script] that Hollywood wasn't ready to make."

His intentions in allowing all his characters to ventilate their disappointments, often profane and outrageous, are generous. "I saw a movie that was sweet and gentle and wonderfully romantic at its heart and is trying to reach everybody. These are black people because I'm a black person and I'm telling my story. These are people that I know."

There's strong, often comic language throughout, including one particular notorious word. How does a director decide how much of that belongs in a story? "It's a tough one. My perception of it is that there is a certain level of reality that must be present in a movie in order for it to work. I don't try to censor the actors. I let them say what they want to say if it's relevant. And oftentimes, it's already in script, because I wrote it. In particular reference to the 'n-word,' there's been a lot of discussion about that. I remember the [argument about its use in 'Jackie Brown'] with Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson. I'm of a mind that if we take the word and we try to bury it, it only becomes more powerful. It's tough. There could have been more of it in the movie but I consciously tried to make sure that [if this word is used], it's just one of those things where guys are just talking. That's okay, because it isn't hurtful, it's just a particular guy just being a guy in a scene. The bigger issue to me is a global perspective about the movie. One of the things that has really troubled me is, of course, negative images. The thief, the pimp, the bad guy. But there's another image that's just as bad, and that's the guy that's perfect. The guy who is the embodiment of harmless, he never says the 'n-word' and never does anything, that guy's just as harmful. What we are going for is a level of humanity, of reality, that will bring our images and our characters up to where we should be, to what we see in other mainstream movies. Because of that, we have to tread very softly in terms of trying to impose a certain will on black movies. There's a certain amount of freedom a filmmaker's going to have to have and for our images to catch up to where they should be, we have to give some leeway. Nothing good ever comes easy, I tell you that."

(2001-03-22)

Also by Ray Pride

MANNY FROM HEAVEN
In Manny Farber's essential omnibus, "Negative Space," Farber says, "I can't imagine a more perfect art form, a more perfect career than criticism. I can't imagine anything more valuable to do, and I've always felt that way." Yes -- and if one could say it as witheringly, as wisely and wittily as Manny Farber.
(2001-03-08)

RAINSTORMS OF WORDS
There's a lovely gift of language and love on every page of "The Element of Lavishness," a collection of a forty-year correspondence between New Yorker magazine editor and short story writer William Maxwell and British writer Sylvia Townsend Warner.
(2001-03-01)

MEET JOE BLOW
In "The Mexican," Pitt co-stars as Jerry, a hapless criminal and diffident bag man who must repay one last debt before he can accede to demands that he quit from girlfriend Samantha (Julia Roberts), an always-agitated therapy-speak bitch.
(2001-03-01)

KNOWING DICK
While Jessica Villines' keen, sidelong portrait of Cynthia is chockfull of diverse interviews with the likes of artist Ed Paschke and Camille Paglia defending Cynthia's pursuits, her dentist, Dr. Michael Feinberg, shares the keenest insight. Artists have fixated on features of the human form throughout history; Rodin liked hands, Cynthia Plaster Caster admires rocker's cocks.
(2001-02-22)

CROUCHING PRODUCER, HIDDEN EGO
(2001-02-22)

HANNIBAL THE AMICABLE
(2001-02-08)

WATERY, GRAVE
(2001-02-08)

SLIPPERY SLOPES
(2001-02-01)

SLY CONCEPT
(2001-01-25)

GUY STUFF
(2001-01-18)

CINE-MAGIC!
(2001-01-18)

KIDS IN TULSA
(2001-01-11)

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