There was singing-and-dancing and shucking-and-jiving which made for a very bittersweet movie.
On the one hand: a movie made in 1929 had an all-Black cast which is wonderful. Additionally, it was good to see Black folks enjoying themselves and generally in a pleasant mood which is a welcome break from the trauma movies that have defined period-piece Black movies for years (which I'm not denouncing).
On the other hand: it's a movie about Black sharecroppers who seem to have unlimited time to sing and dance. One thing Black people couldn't afford to do was sing and dance when work had to be done--and more than once they all collectively stopped working to sing an upbeat ballad. What also didn't happen was sharecroppers earning significant money from the cotton they picked. More often than not sharecroppers broke even after all of their debts to the landowners or even ended the cotton season owing the land owners still. In "Hallelujah" the main character, Zekiel aka Zeke (Daniel L. Haynes), earned $100 or more for his cotton that he took directly to the gin (also generally not allowed).
Puting all that to the side for a minute, "Hallelujah" was about a happy-go-lucky sharecropper who was ever-tempted. He lost his money to a hustler when he succumbed to the feminine wiles of Chick (Nina Mae Mckinney). He wound up shooting his own brother while indiscriminately shooting at the man (William Fountaine) who swindled him. After shooting his brother he found the Lord and became a preacher, but Chick would continue to tempt him even after being saved.
As pleased as I was to see this movie I found myself conflicted. There was entirely too much singing, sermonizing, and emoting. The singing wasn't in the form of a musical, the singing was as though that's all Black people did was sing. As though they couldn't express themselves one way or the other without singing, preaching, or wailing. It was a bit humiliating.
I don't want to come down on the movie too hard because there were only so many types of movies starring African Americans that we were going to get, if any at all. So, given the time and what one could reasonably expect, this was a decent movie.
$2.99 on YouTube.
On the one hand: a movie made in 1929 had an all-Black cast which is wonderful. Additionally, it was good to see Black folks enjoying themselves and generally in a pleasant mood which is a welcome break from the trauma movies that have defined period-piece Black movies for years (which I'm not denouncing).
On the other hand: it's a movie about Black sharecroppers who seem to have unlimited time to sing and dance. One thing Black people couldn't afford to do was sing and dance when work had to be done--and more than once they all collectively stopped working to sing an upbeat ballad. What also didn't happen was sharecroppers earning significant money from the cotton they picked. More often than not sharecroppers broke even after all of their debts to the landowners or even ended the cotton season owing the land owners still. In "Hallelujah" the main character, Zekiel aka Zeke (Daniel L. Haynes), earned $100 or more for his cotton that he took directly to the gin (also generally not allowed).
Puting all that to the side for a minute, "Hallelujah" was about a happy-go-lucky sharecropper who was ever-tempted. He lost his money to a hustler when he succumbed to the feminine wiles of Chick (Nina Mae Mckinney). He wound up shooting his own brother while indiscriminately shooting at the man (William Fountaine) who swindled him. After shooting his brother he found the Lord and became a preacher, but Chick would continue to tempt him even after being saved.
As pleased as I was to see this movie I found myself conflicted. There was entirely too much singing, sermonizing, and emoting. The singing wasn't in the form of a musical, the singing was as though that's all Black people did was sing. As though they couldn't express themselves one way or the other without singing, preaching, or wailing. It was a bit humiliating.
I don't want to come down on the movie too hard because there were only so many types of movies starring African Americans that we were going to get, if any at all. So, given the time and what one could reasonably expect, this was a decent movie.
$2.99 on YouTube.