Tyler Perry is Not the Devil

by Rod Gailes OBC

Last night my mother called me practically in tears after seeing TP’s latest, “For Colored Girls”.  My stony silence and change of subject surely must have confused and disappointed her. I know she was looking for a like minded soul to celebrate what she called a “profound, really moving film”. There’s a legion of people who feel the same way.  I saw them at the theatre on Friday morning with popcorn. They “amen corner'd” the poetry. They laughed with/at Thandie Newton and gasped at the horror of Beau Willie’s tragic choice. They LOVED it & applauded at the end. It’s how I imagine the reactions of the audiences who first saw a woman tied to railroad tracks in silent movies. They were in awe.

Tyler Perry knows his audience and they feel satisfied, fulfilled, and uplifted when they leave his movies. Being the modern day P.T. Barnum of melodrama, he took the model laid out by Lee Daniel’s “Precious” and Spielberg’s “The Color Purple”, “prettied it up with beautiful women and muscle-y men and dared us not to like it.I feel a strange bit of guilty pleasure that I, too, loved Janet Jackson in this movie. I loved Loretta Devine (who, for the purposes of full disclosure here, is attached to my play, UNSPEAKABLE, about the life of Richard Pryor). And I loved that it wasn’t as horrible as people said and was infinitely more entertaining than “Precious”. I loved it in the same way I loved Diddy not falling off the stage during “A Raisin in the Sun” a few seasons ago on Broadway. Was it a magical performance? NO. But hey, Diddy didn’t fall off the stage, guys! He showed up, remembered his lines, and made a bunch of people some money. That, however, is never enough for the “corner men and women” who sit on a Street called “ART”. They, the “mother/sisters” and neighborhood “Block watchers”, want not only Black movies to be green lit and produced but some other intangible, ether-like quality as well. “It’s gotta feel right.” And for some reason (a lot of reasons), they feel this just doesn’t feel “right”.

“For Colored Girls…” was always controversial even as a play. As a very small child, I remember showing a national tour ad of the show to my Great Grandmother. “That’s a play about bad women,” she said. Clearly the play’s frank discussion of sex, violence, abortion, etc. had reached her even though she would never see the actual show.

Many years later my own (Dare I say it?) dislike of the play would grow as it and monologues from George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum” flooded my ears in countless auditions I held for aspiring actors.
Actors Note: Doing monologues from either of those “Colored” plays in my audition puts you behind the 8 ball. (But I digress.)

My personal feelings about the source material aside, every artist has his own voice. Ntozake has hers and Tyler Perry has his. The problem is that so many others have a voice but no outlet for having it heard. This is the minefield into which TP has stepped.

Whenever you choose to speak for the voiceless or tell mass media stories in their name, you must be prepared that they may not like what you say. In this case, it seems the artist community is not only incensed at WHAT the movie is saying (“Men make life hell for women” Which is Old Tired News) but THAT he continues to say it in film after film in not very interesting or original ways.

There is no universally loved filmmaker whose work ALL people love. Spike Lee deals with the race issue. Scorsese tells crime stories. George Lucas makes re-interpreted Westerns. Lee Daniels dabbles in the “freak show” relationship arena. And Oprah & Tyler are thought to be in the “She-Woman Man Haters” club. It’s their brand. Everyone has a shtick that’s their lane, and some people are just plain allergic to it.

While I cannot claim to be a TP “fan”, the debut of his latest film to CUH-ROWDS starting at 10:00am on opening day is a testament to his ability to package, promote, and create excitement and discussion about a Black movie that doesn’t feature drugs or crime or gangs. (We’ve come a long way since the ‘90’s). As a fellow filmmaker, my colleagues and I, will hopefully be the beneficiaries of this shift in studio tastes. #leaguesforever

That TP did not use his power to open the door for a Black female director (Kasi Lemmons, Gina Prince Bythewood, Caran Hartsfield, Darnell Martin) to tell this story is grating to many in the community, almost akin to a reverse “bullying”. The perception by the Black Hipoisie and culture police that he plucked fruit from the Negro literary tree simply to extend, upgrade, and diversify his brand for award season is also the source of much ire. To them I suggest the following: GOMYOM! Go Out Make Ya Own Movie!

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We must remember that the film industry is just that: an INDUSTRY. At its best we sometimes get sensitive, beautifully crafted popular art. At its worst we get trash. “For Colored Girls” is neither of those. It’s just a popcorn movie, one that probably would be getting less flack if a capable female director had directed it shot for shot the way TP did. But it’s just a movie, a flick, a night at the show. Period. I know it means more than that to certain people, and having “Madea” adapt and direct this work feels like sacrilege to them. Ticket buyers who gave the film a 20 million dollar opening weekend, Tyler Perry, and Lionsgate, the film’s distributor, however, beg to differ. Far from sacrilege, to them it is AMAZING. (Eye of the beholder… Go figure.). Never have so many Black people so consistently supported a Black director’s body of work since the heyday of my hero, Spike Lee. As hard as it is to hear: “Somebody LIKES Tyler Perry movies!” and that’s why they get made with such frequency.

In my humble opinion, the cultural elite are irritated because a successful entrepreneur (not “ARTIST”) has dared to move from his lane of “Grandma-drag-burlesque-common man-philosophizing” into the, what had heretofore been considered, “art” lane. That he used all his power to do it and didn’t completely fall off the proverbial “stage” felt like a further kick in the gut to them. For better or worse, however, that is what the film “Industry” is about, friends: using your power to make as much mullah, dough-re-me as possible. I’d love to change that culture myself, but it takes a village... WE gotta do it together.

For all the Tyler Perry haters, BE ON NOTICE that he is not going away any time soon. In fact a great deal of the American movie going public and the movie industry, itself, doesn’t WANT him to go away.

For all artists of differing taste, we must work together, realize the cult of personality is not king, and make true, commercially viable entertainment and tell our stories OURSELVES. We’ll have no one to blame if we don’t … not even TP.

Tyler Perry is a rich man because a whole lotta “somebodies” with 20-dollar bills enjoy and are moved by his work (including my Mama). Let’s do what we need to do to get in positions to show ‘em how it’s REALLY done. Stay on your grind, “ARTISTS”! Improve your business skills and networking and gamesmanship so you too can be in the position of doing an adaptation of some Negro classic…. Or better yet a well-crafted, original story. Don’t be mad at Tyler Perry for doing his thing or Spike for doing his. The movies you want to see made do not make themselves. Get out there and do your thing.

And by the way, Tyler Perry is not D.W.Griffith and he did not make “The Birth of a Nation”… yet. So relax :-).

Photo: Joel Karie

Rod Gailes OBC is an Award winning writer/director for the stage and screen artist for social change, Rod Gailes OBC creates repeat viewing entertainment from provocative subject matter. “UNSPEAKABLE” his play on Richard Pryor is currently in development for Broadway. Follow him on twitter: TheeOBC.