Write a reaction paper about netflix's movie Self made:The life of Madam C. Walker
Here are the first few paragraphs of an article I wrote for The Undefeated ("Netflix's Self Made Suffers from Self-Inflicted Wounds") For the full article go to The Undefeated (dot) com for 5-12-2020 article:
Finally, after decades of writing about my great-great-grandmother, Madam C.J. Walker, I was about to see her story come alive on Netflix. And what timing! America was ending the first full week of COVID-19 lockdown in March. What could be a better distraction than Self Made, the limited series starring Oscar winner Octavia Spencer? Having LeBron James’ Springhill Entertainment with executive producer credit added cachet. By that Monday, enough people had binge-watched all four episodes that Self Made was Netflix’s No. 1 show.
Friends who’d read my books and heard my speeches about Walker were excited for me. Aspiring entrepreneurs — stuck at home and worried about being laid off — were so pumped that they vowed to reactivate their side hustles. My Instagram account overflowed with messages in Portuguese from Brazilian fans.
They were as mesmerized as I had been when the camera zoomed in on Spencer kneeling over a washtub and scrubbing laundry. “Seems like I was born to struggle,” she sighed. Just as I’d hoped, Spencer captured the spirit of Sarah Breedlove, the poor laundress who was to become Madam Walker, the philanthropic millionaire and founder of an international hair care empire. She’d given flesh and feeling to the paragraphs I’d written 20 years earlier for On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker.
Among other things, I loved the wigs and the visual evolution of Breedlove’s hairstyles from tattered and patchy to healthy and full, especially because I’d seen so many wack Afros and raggedy weaves in other movies. I smiled when the screen filled with prosperous, beautifully dressed African Americans in fancy mansions and at business conventions, because so few people had any idea that wealthy black people even existed during the early 1900s.
During my one day on set in Toronto last September, I’d seen DeMane Davis direct Spencer in two emotionally exacting scenes. Kevin Carroll brought dignity and depth to the role of Freeman B. Ransom, attorney and general manager for the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. I knew many women shared my delight that Blair Underwood played Spencer’s love interest, Charles Joseph Walker. Just as important, I’d appreciated it when he reached out to me by phone a few weeks earlier for extra insight into C.J. Walker.
...Once the series aired, I found myself in a balancing act. Yes, millions of people now knew Walker’s name and, thankfully, many wanted to know more about her. Yes, many understood that “inspired by” — the words in the subtitle under Self Made — meant that this version was more fiction than fact and not truly “based on” my book. But a lot of people took what they saw at face value.
I feared that after decades of excavating the facts and striving to do meticulous, reliable research about Walker’s life, business and friendships, I now would have to spend time and energy addressing a set of newly created myths.