Cast: Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman Jr., Mary Alice, Esther Rolle, Loretta Devine, Wesley Snipes, Mpho Koaho, Kulani Hassen
Director: Maya Angelou
Producers: Reuben Cannon, Bob Christiansen, Victor McGauley, Rick Rosenberg, Wesley Snipes
Screenplay: Myron Goble
Cinematography: William Wages
Music: Stanley Clarke
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
Inner city violence is one of America's most pervasive social problems. It permeates all facets of life, from the need to pass through metal detectors to get into a school to the possibility of being gunned down while walking the streets. The statistics are alarming, but the reality is even more frightening. And it doesn't matter what the name of the city is: Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and so on. It's in this environment -- one of urban drug abuse, violence, and crime -- that Down in the Delta is set. A modern fable about salvation and redemption, this movie offers some ideas and observations about big city social decay while telling an uplifting tale.
Maya Angelou is one of the most influential and powerful author/poets of the second half of the 20th century. Her best-known novel, the autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is required reading in many high schools, and her poems can be found taped to refrigerators and pinned to cork boards. Angelou is no stranger to the motion picture industry -- she has worked as both an actor (most recently in 1995's How to Make an American Quilt) and a screenwriter (1972's Georgia, Georgia and the poems in Poetic Justice), but this is her first stint as a director. And, while there's nothing groundbreaking in her approach, she does a highly credible job, and shows particular promise in handling actors.
Down in the Delta opens in Chicago, where one three-generation family is falling apart, despite the best efforts of the matriarch, Rosa Lynn (Mary Alice), to hold it together. She's fighting a losing battle. Her daughter, Loretta (Alfre Woodard), is hooked on drugs and booze. Her grandson, Thomas (Mpho Koaho), makes money on the streets by selling polaroids to tourists for $5, and her granddaughter, Tracy (Kulani Hassan), is autistic. As a mother, Loretta is unfit. Her idea of keeping little Tracy happy is to fill her bottle with cola, and she's more interested in getting her next drink than in caring what her children are doing. Recognizing that her family's current path leads inevitably to disaster, Rosa Lynn calls her brother-in-law, Earl (Al Freeman Jr.), and arranges for Loretta and her children to spend a summer at his place on the Mississippi Delta, where they can recover from the urban shock of Chicago. Loretta agrees to go, albeit reluctantly, and, with Thomas and Tracy in tow, she heads south. And, while the initial transition is difficult, she eventually finds herself, and, more importantly, connects with her family.
Admittedly, Down in the Delta suffers from some narrative hiccups. The most obvious of these is the quickness of Loretta's transformation from down-and-out loser to responsible mother and entrepreneur. The resolution is also a little too facile to be entirely believable. Fortunately, however, while Myron Goble's script may not be airtight, Angelou's cast is consistently reliable. Alfre Woodard (recently seen hunting Borg in Star Trek: First Contact) becomes Loretta -- there's not a moment when we doubt this performance. As the stubborn-but-wise uncle we all wish we had, Al Freeman Jr. is a commanding presence. Solid support is provided by Wesley Snipes (in a small part as Loretta's cousin), Ether Rolle (in her final role, as Earl's Alzheimer's-stricken wife), and Loretta Devine (as one of Loretta's co-workers at the "Just Chicken" restaurant).
Down in the Delta doesn't just deal with healing through a change in locale, but regeneration through coming to grips with the past. This is the same theme attacked by Beloved, but Down in the Delta uses a less cryptic, more hopeful approach that, while different, is no less effective. As Loretta learns the history of "Nathan" (the name of a family heirloom -- a candlestick holder passed down through the family from the time of slavery), she begins to understand that, by wasting her life, she is demeaning the sacrifices of those who came before her.
Down in the Delta does not purport to offer an answer to the problem of inner city social decay. Certainly, not every troubled family can re-locate to a rural community, and, even for those that do, there's no guarantee of recovery. But, while the specifics of the film's solution are confined to this story, Angelou makes it clear that all healing must begin with self-respect, close-knit family connections, and an appreciation of personal history. Those are the life lessons Loretta must learn before she can move on, and, through her growth and development, Angelou teaches us without ever seeming preachy or didactic. With its rich characters and flawless performances, Down in the Delta is a fully-satisfying emotional experience that offers all we might expect from an individual of Angelou's accomplishments.
© 1998 James Berardinelli