There got to be enough movies that are reviewed here, in a historical context, that I began to forget which ones I had done, so I added a new page on Movies In History. In doing that, I saw a few movies that should be added here that I've failed to include.
One of these movies is the excellent 1995 movie Devil in Blue Dress. Based on a novel by Walter Mosley, the film stars Denzel Washington as Ezekiel "Easy" Porterhouse Rawlins. a recently discharged black Army veteran from World War Two. Out of work and living in Los Angeles, Rawlins takes work as a detective trying to locate a mysterious woman who is connected with two rival politicians.
Excellently done, the story presents a really nice look at the world of African Americans in the late 1940s, a time at which they were following up on a World War Two migration out of the south and into various cities. Rawlins is shown living in a black middle class neighborhood in Los Angeles that is obviously new to him, having relocated after the war to Los Angeles from his native Houston Texas. Most of the residents of his neighborhood are blacks who are similarly from Texas.
The material and cultural details of this film are superbly done. Everything is period correct, including the attitudes towards blacks in this less racist, but racist still, region of the country, compared to where the residents of the neighborhood are from.
Explaining the movie in greater details would entail plot spoilers, so I'll leave it at that. Suffice it to say, this film is excellently done. For that matter, the story is a very good one and it's a shame that this character hasn't returned to film.
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