Microcosm of Racial Tensions
Cultures clash and writers come to blows in
'The Tenants'
Volume 5, Number 5
| February 2 - 8,
2006FILMThe
TenantsDirected by Danny
GreenMillennium
FilmsOpens Feb. 3
AMC Empire
25Millennium
FilmsHarry
Lesser (Dylan McDermott) and Willie Spearmint (Snoop Dog), two writers whose
worlds collide, in the film adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s “The
Tenants.”BY SETH
J. BOOKEYThere’s nothing
quite like the unmistakable sound of the typewriter. So when Harry Lesser (Dylan
McDermott), a Jewish writer and sole remaining tenant in an apartment building,
hears another typewriter clacking away somewhere in the building, he starts to
think maybe he’s losing his mind.
Upon further investigation, he
discovers Willie Spearmint (Snoop Dog), a black writer who is squatting in one
of the building’s many deserted, filthy flats. Both are writing novels,
and know it can be a solitary, miserable business, so to some degree, both men
are glad to have some
company.The film is set in the
racially charged world of New York City in the early 1970s. While both men might
have writing in common, they are from two different worlds, and race is the
great divide. Lesser has been lucky––he’s had two novels
published. While money is starting to run out, he is happily cocooned in a nice
apartment while he writes about finding love, even though he doesn’t have
a love interest. The landlord is anxious to get rid of him, but has some respect
for his talent, and Lesser keeps putting him off with “when I finish the
book.”Willie, however,
is destitute and unpublished. Luckily, he has a girlfriend who helps keep him
fed and sheltered. He uses the empty apartment as a writer’s studio.
Eventually, he seeks out Lesser and asks him to look after his typewriter. Then,
he asks Lesser to read his work. This begins a slippery slope for both men.
Lesser seems to give him an honest evaluation without being nasty, and
Willie’s typical answer is to get angry, often ending a diatribe by
calling Lesser a “Jew
motherfucker.”The uneasy
association is offset, though, when Willie brings some of his friends over to
Lesser’s for a party. He also brings his girlfriend, Irene (Rose Byrne),
and another woman, Mary (Niki Crawford). Mary immediately comes on to Lesser,
and later, when Lesser is brought to a mostly black party at Mary’s house,
he winds up sleeping with her. But Mary already has a boyfriend, and the already
testosterone-fueled territoriality gets some gasoline thrown on it because
Lesser is white and Mary and her boyfriend are
black.Not having learned
anything from this lesson, it turns out that even though he has only met her a
few times, Lesser is in love with Irene, and they embark on a clandestine affair
at her apartment. When Willie finds out, anger and violence
ensue.Director Danny Green
underscores the racial tensions in “The Tenants” with bleak
interiors and haunting sound. The camera roams the deserted building accompanied
by mournful cellos punctuated by the typing. While Lesser’s apartment is
fully functional, it is underlit and features drab earth-toned furnishings. Even
so, it’s a contrast to the filthy, empty hallways, full of debris and
graffiti. Even the outdoor scenes in New York are gray and dull. Green creates
what seems like an endless winter for these two writers. Only Irene’s
apartment seems to have any vivid colors to
it.As Lesser, the usually
polished and buff McDermott—best know as the lawyer Bobby Donnell from
“The Practice”—is almost unrecognizable here. Big glasses and
an unflattering haircut disguise him as the drab Lesser, who seems to only have
one set of clothes. Snoop Dog as Willie wears an angry countenance through the
film, even during times he’s supposedly having a good
time.“The Tenants”
is based on a Bernard Malamud novel from 1971, and this is its first adaptation.
Bringing it to the big screen has been discussed over the years, and seeing the
final result, you can see why it’s been difficult to realize this effort.
It’s hard to make a crowd-pleasing story of two writers fighting in an
abandoned building.What
complicates the film’s appeal further is the racial tension. While Lesser
spends most of the movie trying to avoid the taunts of the race-baiting Willie,
who is quick to call him any epithet he can think of, it becomes clear that his
attitude toward Willie is condescending. He is also rather ignorant of race
relations. When Lesser suggests to Irene, who feels a responsibility toward the
penniless Willie, that Willie should get a job “like I did,” Irene
has to point out that any job Willie would find would probably pay four times
less than anything Lesser would
find.When they first meet,
Willie tells Lesser that he wants to “get down to the cold shit truth of
it” while Lesser seems to avoid reality. Even when Irene offers him a way
out, Lesser uses the “when I finish the book” excuse. To some
degree, the race baiting is a device that amplifies the sheltered world Lesser
has created.It’s easy
also to see how the issue of race kept this film from being made for three
decades. Everything involving Willie involves race. When Irene introduces
herself, she says, “I’m Willie’s white chick.” This sort
of provocative dialogue is unfamiliar in today’s world of ultra-PC
sensibilities, but it certainly realistic in the world of 1971 New York. Just
tune into any a re-run of “All in the Family” to discover, or
re-discover, just how much race relations were at the forefront of the American
consciousness. “The
Tenant” serves as an evocative, uneasy reminder of what was, and probably
still is, dividing people who may otherwise have a lot in
common.------------------------------------------------------------------------Gay
City News is published
byCommunity Media
LLC.Gay
City News | 487 Greenwich St., Suite 6A | New
York, NY 10013Written permission of the
publisher must be obtained before any of the contents of this newspaper, in
whole or in part, can be reproduced or redistributed.
Posted: Fri - February 3, 2006 at 12:39 AM
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Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:04 PM
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