Film

Waist Deep  

By Junius  

Waist Deep is what we used to call a good B picture in the days when a double-feature program had a feature film preceded by one that did not have a studio roster of stars. We don’t have B pictures now, only failed A pictures. It’s a shame to lose that supporting category. Waist Deep would rank as a very good B picture.

The plot, where a father has to rescue his young son from a vicious gang syndicate leader, with whom he has had some dealings before, this is something we’ve seen more than once. But this time it isn’t Edward G Robinson or Humphrey Bogart or the long forgotten B picture heroes; it’s an all black cast.

Since the film is set in south Los Angeles, this is realistic enough. The only white face is a gas station attendant, who plays against type: you expect him to be a snitch. He’s watching television in his booth and recognizes them, and then, surprise, asks for the autograph of this black “Bonnie and Clyde.” We’ve had Spike Lee, but that’s premium stuff. An all black B picture seems to be something of a coming of age: a production that says quietly, without emphasis: We’re doing it now.

Maybe I’m missing out obvious milestones on the way to this black B picture. But anyhow here it is. If you want to try being immersed in today’s black LA world, this is the film to see. The couple have to take an evasive detour and find themselves in alien territory; the heroine says, “I’ve never been on Sunset Boulevard before.” Such is the separate black and white of the world as presented here.

I’ve used the word “black” but perhaps one should call this a “nigger” film, since that’s the word that’s mainly used. Is “black” about to become as obsolete as “coloured gentlemen”? Maybe not, but if we are invited in—we pay our admission at the invitation of the moviemakers—then we come away with what we are given. We are given that word.

But then again, maybe it’s not yet permitted. There was about six months in the early sixties when there was an attempt at “Negro” integration, before “Black” Power took over and gave us that word, which had not been permitted for a long time. Now, if Waist Deep is any indication, in an entirely separate world where full dramas can entirely fulfill themselves internally, not needing the racial clash, the word “Nigger” seems to have become old-new coinage, a self-recognition of a plantation status. But heard strongly and strangely: like the film, no whites need apply.