The Josephine Baker Story

Josephine Baker (Lynn Whitfield) grew up in poverty and, at a very young age, displayed her talents on Vaudeville. Unhappy with the treatment of African Americans in the 1920's in her homeland, she travels to France and makes it big as an exotic dancer and singer. Loved by the Europeans, Josephine's manager/boyfriend (Rubin Blades) decides to have her return to Broadway. She fails miserably. Yet, Josephine remains a strong, outspoken person who soon takes her show on the road and turns heads. She also finds time to try to elevate the treatment of African Americans and to do acts of charitable worth. But, will Josephine ever be truly happy?

This is a brief look at a complex woman. Her indomitable spirit is brought to life in Whitfield's strong performance. Josephine is remembered for her scandalous costumes and risque dancing yet, as this movie proves, she had much more to contribute to humanity. The performance by Blades is also top-notch. As for the costumes, they are revealing yet always stunning. In summary, this movie deserves an audience and one wider than the African-American community. On the next trip to the video store or library, give it a try. Viewers will be entertained as well as enlightened by Baker's admirable life story.

This is not a great movie, it's barely a good movie, just scraping across the average line. However, mainly in part to a fantastic leading performance from Lynn Whitfield makes this an enthralling, if very abbreviated, encapsulation of Josephine Baker's life. Baker is not a performer I have much knowledge of so this was massively educational as well as entertaining. It certainly makes me want to find out more about Josephine and delve into her back catalogue of music and film. The story telling is disjointed and some of the characters seem unrealistic even though they are on actual persons. Thankfully, the performances of the stunning Lynn Whitfield and Louis Gossett Jr make this a great watch and one I will return to again in the future.

Rags to riches, in which Lynn Whitfield's exhibitionism rivals that of the woman she portrays. Whitfield fills her character with purpose and determination, and her feud with Walter Winchell is well done. However the routine showbiz bio formula is hard to enliven. I love the stuff about her adopted children (what a great way to spend a fortune!) but it was more touching as described in the documentary "Chasing a Rainbow."

Some outstanding performances here by Whitfield, Blades, Gossett, and others in this overly long biography of an important, outspoken, and controversial African American woman, who was years ahead of her time. It was quite a revelation to see how African Americans were treated in St. Louis and in New York in the decades before the civil rights advances of the 50's and 60's. We all know about the history of the South, but in many places up North, things were nearly as difficult for minorities in the 1930's and 40's.

The story of Josephine Baker had to be told since so many of us are not familiar with her achievements. And HBO and the cast did an outstanding job doing so. The movie was entertaining and sexual, eye-opening and thought provoking. It covered American society as well as French and even gave us some insights into Josephine's heroics and patriotism during WWII and her push for equality of the races in the U.S. military. I would have preferred to see the movie end while Josephine was at the top and still young, rather than drag on with her numerous adoptions and comeback attempts. That's why it was not a major motion picture.....too long and drawn out for theater audiences.

A good movie to watch at home while putting away the laundry or brushing the dog.

This is certainly a well-intentioned movie, and the star, Lynn Whitfield, certainly gives a very moving performance. Much of the movie focuses on Baker's career after the War, where she becomes involved in the civil rights movement. It's very well-meaning, certainly, but not the part of her life and career that interests me, so I found that that part of the movie dragged. Her years in Paris as a performer in the 1920s and 30s get short shrift, and that's a shame, because it's what made a star of her.

The movie takes its particular stance on how Baker saw her early Paris performances. While it's an interesting interpretation - very sincere - I don't know how accurate it is. The one aspect of Baker's performances that doesn't get developed in this movie is her role as a comedian. In certain ways, she was something of a Black Fanny Brice. Something of that comes through her early newsreels, but it's missing from the way Ms. Whitfield was directed to portray Baker.

In the end, for me, this amounted to a very fine performance by Whitfield. But how accurate a depiction of Baker it provided, at least for her early years as a successful performer, I don't know.