DVD Review | Bojangles
Written by: Kage Alan

Showtime Entertainment is celebrating Black History Month by releasing five
African-American titles from their catalogue that they feel best reflects the
diversity and rich heritage of the culture.  The first title I reviewed was
"It's Black Entertainment!", something you won't want to miss, while the
second was "3 A.M."  Both titles are vastly different and this third title,
"Bojangles", follows in that tradition.  The story of Bill 'Bojangles'
Robinson isn't nearly as happy as the masses probably thought it to be. 
While at the height of his career, he was the highest paid black entertainer
and while audiences were used to seeing the smile on his face while he worked
his tap dancing magic, Bojangles life was anything but happy.

Gregory Hines ("Tap") plays Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson and instead of creating
a glorified image of the man and his work, he shows a very different side of
the entertainer.  While touring some of the smaller venues, Bojangles finds
himself attracted to educated and bold say-it-as-you-see-it Fanny Man
(Kimberly Elise, "John Q").  While she initially finds him less than
charming, they do eventually fall in love amidst his agent, Marty (Peter
Riegert, "Infinity"), trying to book him into larger venues and even films. 
With success comes money and opportunities, only much about the man's life is not what it seems.

Fanny discovers at their wedding that Bojangles has a brother who shares the
same name, or do they?  What about her husband's habit of gambling and
inability to save money?  Why is he so driven to be noticed in the eye of the
public?  It's not much of a stretch that Bojangles enjoys the attention he
gets, but it does start to dawn on him that while he has the fame and (at one
time) fortune, he is still denied by white society to be a man equal with his
peers, no matter what their race.  This creates a duality within in because
while he loves to dance and is legendary at it, it's a gift that won't
transcend the color of his skin.

"Bojangles" boasts some incredible dance routines and a complicated, if not
unique, interpretation of the character by Hines, who served as an Executive
Producer.  The acting is top notch, the settings all very authentic and the
story quite compelling.  If I had any problems with the film, it's that it
doesn't reflect the age of the characters very well from beginning to end. 
They don't appear to age even though they are quite a bit older and the story
does tend to jump around towards the end as well.  Perhaps if they'd made
"Bojangles" a full 2 hours in length, they might have been able to smooth out
the last third or so.

Showtime has released the film in a solid looking Full Screen transfer. 
Again, while I'm not crazy about Full Screen, this was made for TV and the
original screen ratio.  Video and audio quality are fine, so no complaints
there.  As for extras, there is a very short interview with Gregory Hines and
a longer one with actor Savion Glover, a small photo gallery, some
filmographies and a couple of suggestions for future viewing.  Oddly enough,
the interviews seem like snippets of a much longer piece and I wish they
would have included a more polished documentary because the subject of tap
and of Bojangles really is quite fascinating.  I believe they skimped here a
bit.

Considering that this film came from the man responsible for "Jaws: The
Revenge", Director Joseph Sargent has allowed his cast to really shape their
characters into something far deeper than Hollywood tends to be comfortable
with.  Furthermore, because it's not glorified, it allows the opportunity for
African-Americans to look inside their own culture (as well as those of us
who aren't African-American) and examine the difficulties of black
entertainers back then versus similar difficulties today.  It feels like
Hines took a risk playing the character the way he did and I very much
respect him for doing so.  This is a history lesson worth looking at,
especially when you consider that Bojangles died penniless.  For all the joy
he gave others, there was a great deal of tragedy in himself.

Film Rating: B
DVD Special Features: C

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