The Sunday Mail
Film Review Tinashe Kusema
FOR many he was the quintessential black man.
He earned the moniker through his work as T’Challa, the king and guardian of the fictional African country of Wakanda.
For some, he is the embodiment of perseverance; as we now know of his four-year battle with colon cancer.
He would make several movies during the fight and grant the wishes of many kids suffering from cancer, who longed to meet the Black Panther.
Few, it could be argued, saw him as an activist.
This stems from the collection of powerful black men of history that he has portrayed with the notables being as James Brown (Get on Up), Jackie Robison (42), American lawyer and Civil Rights activist Thurgood Marshall (Marshall).
But for me, Chadwick Boseman was a good actor and an awesome human being.
We believe that the true character of a man is not defined by what he does in front of a crowd, but instead what he does when no one is around.
And boy did Boseman do his fair share in his 43 years on earth.
I have done some light reading on the man and partook a Boseman movie marathon since the sad news of his death filtered through.
It really broke my heart how for many “Black Panther” is the movie he was most identified with for he had many good ones.
However, “Black Panther” has since 2018 proved to be the “it” movie of black empowerment.
A mate of mine — someone I have known for many years — talked endlessly for three straight days how “Black Panther” made him feel empowered.
It did not only bring the first black superhero onto mainstream media, but it grossed over US$1 billion on the box office, won an Oscar and broke all sorts of records. Nevertheless, very few know the role and many fights Boseman went through not only to make the film, but to give it “authenticity”.
The Washington Post had a very telling article last week in which they chronicled Boseman’s many fights to ensure that the true African accent was not washed down in favour of the more British tones.
Accents, they believed, would be connected to colonialism, and give the movie a little realism.
“In an emotional tribute to actor Chadwick Boseman, who passed away on August 28 at the age of 43, director Ryan Coogler revealed the moment that he knew he wanted to make ‘Black Panther’,” opened the article.
“It was while watching Boseman act in an unfinished cut of ‘Captain America: Civil War’ — speaking his lines in Xhosa with South African actor John Kani.
“Chad and John began conversing in a language I had never heard before,” Coogler is quoted saying.
“It sounded familiar, full of the same clicks and smacks that young black children would make in the States. The same clicks that we would often be chided for being disrespectful or improper. But, it had a musicality to it that felt ancient, powerful, and African,” reads the article.
Boseman’s commitment to speaking Xhosa on camera was one of the reasons Coogler signed on to direct the film, and it was one of the things he (Boseman) went to bat for with his Marvel bosses on many occasions.
In retrospect, I do feel bad now for bashing the inconsistent accents when I initially reviewed the movie.
