How many black people saw Kings of the Evening?  How many people ever heard of Kings of the Evening?  With Tyson Beckford, Lynn Whitfield, Glynn Turman, Reginald T. Dorsey and Steven Williams (think Captain Fuller of 21 Jump Street), this movie had one of the best black casts available.  Was the movie bad? Well it won several major film festival awards and was rated very highly by most critics.  Unfortunately, there are several reasons why many black people under 30 may not have seen in it:

There were no dancers in the movie

There was no hip hop soundtrack

There were no drug dealers

There were no gangsters

Tyler Perry didn’t make it

Now this is not to say that this is all we as black people want to see.  This is to say however, that too many movie studios only promote black films that have these elements in them because they believe these are the only black movies that will gross well.  Just as the main audience for hip hop is white teenage boys, black gangster flicks are full of white moviegoers.  Sure the sisters will go in droves (and drag their men) to see the latest Tyler Perry offering about unrealistic black couples with more drama than a little bit, but what about a movie that shows realistic black men in a positive light?  Kings of the Evening total box office take was less than $100,000.  Why Did I Get Married made over $55 million.  I have nothing against Tyler Perry and I am all for any brother making money at his craft, but no reasonable person can say that the Tyler Perry marriage drama is worth 50 times as many black eyeballs as a movie like Kings.  

The funny thing about Kings of the Evening is that a core element of the movie revolves around one of the things that we brothers care about the most – looking fly.  Released in 2008 and set in the 1930’s the movie follows the lives of young and older black people and their struggles to survive and prosper in a pre-civil rights America.  To break up the monotony and drudgery of their conditions, the black male characters in the town participate in a weekly fashion contest called “Kings of the Evening” where brothers dress to the nines to see who is the flyest of them all.  There is no money awarded to the winner, as the contest is more about self esteem and pride than a trophy or cash.

Life is not easy in the movie and one of the best aspects of the film is how the black people handle each situation with dignity, courage and intelligence.  There’s a great scene in the movie where Lucy (the young female lead) is telling Ms. Gracie (the matriarchal character played excellently by Lynn Whitfield) about how this white man has been chasing her all over the country for $200 (a lot of money for the 30s).  Ms. Gracie goes to the cupboard and gets a box and just when you thought she was going to get the money to pay off the man, she pulls a gun out the box instead and says “Mama always told me – runnin’ don’t put no food on the table”.   In the movie as well as in life, standing up for yourself in the face of injustice is always the right thing to do.

This is not a movie review and I won’t give away the story in case you want to see the movie, but suffice it to say this is a quality movie that I would recommend to any black person who wants to know what it truly is to be a proud black man.  The host of the weekly contest (played by Steven Williams) says it best:

“A man can look like a million even if he doesn’t have a dime” and  “When a man can stand up to the mirror he can stand up to life”.

Some “isms” I took away from the movie:

There is nothing wrong with wanting to look good – most of us do

There is nothing wrong with being proud no matter how much money you have – you should be proud

Winning doesn’t mean getting rich – it means being the best at something

Black men and black women are strong – keep your head up brothers and sisters

Note: Please support black films, or quality movies like Kings of the Evening will just disappear.