"[T]his exhaustively researched and detailed analysis is an excellent complement to 'Straight Lick' and should serve also as a compliment to J. Ronald Green's engagement with Micheaux's work. The individual analyses of each film move the critical literature forward and will serve as a fruitful resource indeed for both researchers and teachers. Green's work as a whole not only adds positively to the Micheaux mini-industry but, in its depth and sophistication, plays an important foundational role in establishing Micheaux's credentials as an American auteur to be recognized along with the likes of D. W. Griffith, John Ford, and Orson Welles. 1.1 Winter 2009"—Black Camera "Following up on his outstanding Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (CH, Mar'01), Green focuses on 15 of the more than 40 all-black films the African American novelist-director made between 1919 and 1948. The biographical chapter sharply outlines the US racial context, Micheaux's challenges as a prototypical independent, and autobiographical elements in his films and seven novels. Between his treatment of the silents and the sound films, the author pauses to examine Hollywood's black-cast musicals, whose theme of spiritual uplift Micheaux always subordinated to class advancement. Anticipating the poststructuralists, Micheaux's brand of musical quotation .. directly serves his principal rhetorical concern: the treating of the disease of ethnic caricature. Despite a somewhat formulaic analysis of the films, Green clearly establishes Micheaux's unrelenting critique of white supremacism and black complicity, his strong and original style, and his promotion of moderation, independence, and ethical integrity for class uplift. Green argues that even the antithetical successes of Van Peebles/Burnett and Cosby/Winfrey/Singleton/Lee have not achieved an institutionalized cinema of the middle classes, a cinema worthy of Micheaux's prior accomplishment. Green appends an insightful study of African American spirituals to this learned, passionate, and persuasive study of a fascinating artist. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.October 2004"—M. Yacowar, University of Calgary
[T]his exhaustively researched and detailed analysis is an excellent complement to 'Straight Lick' and should serve also as a compliment to J. Ronald Green's engagement with Micheaux's work. The individual analyses of each film move the critical literature forward and will serve as a fruitful resource indeed for both researchers and teachers. Green's work as a whole not only adds positively to the Micheaux mini-industry but, in its depth and sophistication, plays an important foundational role in establishing Micheaux's credentials as an American auteur to be recognized along with the likes of D. W. Griffith, John Ford, and Orson Welles. 1.1 Winter 2009
Following up on his outstanding Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (CH, Mar'01), Green focuses on 15 of the more than 40 all-black films the African American novelist-director made between 1919 and 1948. The biographical chapter sharply outlines the US racial context, Micheaux's challenges as a prototypical independent, and autobiographical elements in his films and seven novels. Between his treatment of the silents and the sound films, the author pauses to examine Hollywood's black-cast musicals, whose theme of spiritual uplift Micheaux always subordinated to class advancement. Anticipating the poststructuralists, Micheaux's brand of musical quotation .. directly serves his principal rhetorical concern: the treating of the disease of ethnic caricature. Despite a somewhat formulaic analysis of the films, Green clearly establishes Micheaux's unrelenting critique of white supremacism and black complicity, his strong and original style, and his promotion of moderation, independence, and ethical integrity for class uplift. Green argues that even the antithetical successes of Van Peebles/Burnett and Cosby/Winfrey/Singleton/Lee have not achieved an institutionalized cinema of the middle classes, a cinema worthy of Micheaux's prior accomplishment. Green appends an insightful study of African American spirituals to this learned, passionate, and persuasive study of a fascinating artist. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.October 2004
Universityof Calgary - M. Yacowar
"Following up on his outstanding Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (CH, Mar'01), Green focuses on 15 of the more than 40 all-black films the African American novelist-director made between 1919 and 1948. The biographical chapter sharply outlines the US racial context, Micheaux's challenges as a prototypical independent, and autobiographical elements in his films and seven novels. Between his treatment of the silents and the sound films, the author pauses to examine Hollywood's black-cast musicals, whose theme of spiritual uplift Micheaux always subordinated to class advancement. Anticipating the poststructuralists, Micheaux's brand of musical quotation .. directly serves his principal rhetorical concern: the treating of the disease of ethnic caricature. Despite a somewhat formulaic analysis of the films, Green clearly establishes Micheaux's unrelenting critique of white supremacism and black complicity, his strong and original style, and his promotion of moderation, independence, and ethical integrity for class uplift. Green argues that even the antithetical successes of Van Peebles/Burnett and Cosby/Winfrey/Singleton/Lee have not achieved an institutionalized cinema of the middle classes, a cinema worthy of Micheaux's prior accomplishment. Green appends an insightful study of African American spirituals to this learned, passionate, and persuasive study of a fascinating artist. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.October 2004"
University of Calgary - M. Yacowar
"Following up on his outstanding Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (CH, Mar'01), Green focuses on 15 of the more than 40 all-black films the African American novelist-director made between 1919 and 1948. The biographical chapter sharply outlines the US racial context, Micheaux's challenges as a prototypical independent, and autobiographical elements in his films and seven novels. Between his treatment of the silents and the sound films, the author pauses to examine Hollywood's black-cast musicals, whose theme of spiritual uplift Micheaux always subordinated to class advancement. Anticipating the poststructuralists, Micheaux's brand of musical quotation.. directly serves his principal rhetorical concern: the treating of the disease of ethnic caricature. Despite a somewhat formulaic analysis of the films, Green clearly establishes Micheaux's unrelenting critique of white supremacism and black complicity, his strong and original style, and his promotion of moderation, independence, and ethical integrity for class uplift. Green argues that even the antithetical successes of Van Peebles/Burnett and Cosby/Winfrey/Singleton/Lee have not achieved an institutionalized cinema of the middle classes, a cinema worthy of Micheaux's prior accomplishment. Green appends an insightful study of African American spirituals to this learned, passionate, and persuasive study of a fascinating artist. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." —M. Yacowar, University of Calgary, Choice, October 2004
M. Yacowar, University of Calgary
In the early decades of Hollywood, black and white actors rarely interacted on screen, and good roles for blacks were almost nonexistent. However, low-budget, independently produced "race movies" filled the gap, playing to African American audiences. Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) was one of the most persistent and successful of black filmmakers, directing almost 40 films between 1919 and 1948. Because he was ignored by the white media (only one of his films was reviewed by the New York Times), unfortunately only 14 survive. In this companion to his Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux, Green (film studies, Ohio State Univ.) provides a painstakingly detailed examination of Micheaux's surviving films, paying particular attention to the director's concern for "racial uplift"; his critique of stereotyping; his treatment of sensitive issues like lynching, interracial marriage, and anti-Semitic prejudice; and the role of class awareness in the black community. The book draws on themes from Micheaux's parallel career as a novelist and notes the importance of music in his films. Micheaux is compared with other contemporary black thinkers like W.E.B. DuBois, but the author concludes that Micheaux didn't want to demolish capitalism; instead, he wished to ensure a level playing field. Although Micheaux's career was ultimately doomed by racism, Green hails him as an "early, scrappy, successful" figure who helped pave the way for later independent directors like Spike Lee and John Singleton. Academic in tone but generally accessible to motivated readers, this study is recommended for large black history collections.-Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.