Talk to me

In the summer between my Junior and Senior year in high school, I got very much into Martin Luther King Jr. I was fascinated by his words , his messages and his speech. So I was reading a biography about him and how his death affected the country and there was a section about Washington D.C and the riots that erupted in the moments after his death was announced on air. It mentioned the free concert James Brown gave to the city but it mostly talked about a radio DJ by the name of Petey Green and how this one DJ seemed to have the entire ear of the inner city and many believed it was he who single handedly stopped the riots with his voice, his words, his message and his speech. When I found out a movie was being made about this DJ and that he was being played by the phenomenal Don Cheadle, well I could not wait for it.


This is a biopic, but instead of following 1 person it really follows 2 people- Petey Green (Don Cheadle) and Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor)- beginning in the 1960's and ending in the 1980's. Petey is a radio DJ in prison and when Hughes goes to that jail to visit his brother Green confronts him about getting a job. Not thinking much of it Hughes tells Green to look him up when he gets out of jail. Finding a way to get out jail early, Green does just that. At first Hughes refuses to give him a job but Green's protests outside of the radio station has gained quite the following so Hughes gives in and gives him chance. In his first show Green calls Berry Gordy (the guy who ran mo-town)a pimp and the guy running the station E.G Sonderling (A Brilliant Martin Sheen) kicks him off the air. That night Hughes is in a bar and hears all of the people talking about that exact radio show and knows what he has to do. Through some trickery, Green gets on the air the next day and sets the D.C area on fire with his quick tongued truth telling. Sonderling cannot fire him after that and so something big is born. The rest of the movie follows his rise and fall, like every other biopic. He gets his own TV show and a giant stand up act eventually landing Johnny Carson, which is where his decline gets big. He is an alcoholic but it doesn't seem to really be a hindrance on his job.


The way Hughes needed Green to say what he was afraid to say and the way Green needed Hughes to do the things he was afraid to do, Cheadle and Ejiofor need each other in this movie. The first half of this thing is quickly paced, hilarious and genuinely moving as we watch these two men spark a friendship that would span decades. The two actors are tender in the right moments and funny int he right moments. Ejiofor is the prefect reactionary character for Cheadle's live wire act. As for Cheadle, well he has never been more alive on screen. He is a very serious actor, but here he shows that he can be hilarious in the same movie as he is serious. If he is not nominated for an Oscar it will be a crime because he carries this movie above your standard biopic fare. The way Jamie Foxx became Ray Charles and Jim Carrey became Andy Kaufman, Don Cheadle is Petey Green. And Petey was a shock jock before Howard Stern, but he was also a prophet for the people. He was the voice for the streets when the streets did not have a voice and this movie captures all of it.


The defining moment in this movie is the scene I mentioned at the beginning, the death of Martin Luther King Jr. It is a turning point in the movie, in Petey Green and the entire nation as it mourned the loss of one of the true heroes, one of the true good ones. Petey gets on the air and lets the city know what has happened and as he tries to spit out the words, he fights back tears and is just a beaten down black man as he says "I am just so tired ya'll, tired of them doing this to our leaders." Then they go outside and see Washington D.C set ablaze in one of the more stirring riot scenes I have seen on screen. Petey knows this is not the way and says to Hughes that he has to get back on the air. He does and what happens is a brilliant scene that is all Don Cheadle and all Petey Green. I can't quote it and I won't be able to do any of it justice, but as I sit hear typing this I am moved to tears again just thinking about the whole thing. And to see the reaction from Martin Sheen at the end of the scene, just wow, this is acting at its finest, really.


The movie itself starts to lose its way after this moment as it feels like it has to cram everything in there, but the performances are so good, I was never that bored. As it always goes with biopics, the rise is more fun to watch than the fall. However, as we see Green fall we see Hughes Rise, which is a very odd contrast. Hughes ends up a big radio DJ, buys the station and gets giant wealth as Green gets less and less, gets sick and sees his stand up comedy not reach the same amount of people. Petey Green never thought much of himself and that seemed to be why he worked. In a time when black people were being killed for senseless reasons and civil rights still in the future, Green served as a voice, a voice larger than one man, a voice larger than one city, but a voice of a race and a generation and in that Don Cheadle and everyone involved in this film have done Petey Green a great service.


It seems fitting to let Petey Green's sign off end this review :Put your fist in the air and know I'll tell it to the hot, I'll tell it to the cold. I'll tell it to the young, I'll tell it to the old. I don't want no laughin', I don't want no cryin', and most of all, no signifyin'. This is Petey Greene's Washington.