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Bessie

6.7

/10

5063 people rated

2015•1 h 55 m•United States

The story of legendary blues performer Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and '30s.

Biography

Drama

Music

Cast (18)

Alan T. Coleman

'81' Theatre Owner

Sharan C. Mansfield

Rehearsal Director

Melissa Youngblood

Charles S. Dutton

Todd Allen Durkin

Nightclub Manager

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User Reviews

Sameep Gulati ❤️⚽️

23/04/2024 16:00

Great performances and cinematography but just disappointing it just did not capture me. That's no criticism of the performances they were great.....it just misses the mark. Firstly make your own mind up but for me knowing a bit about her life story it seems to lack any emotion. There's a coldness to it, kind of this happened then this happened. In one scene where Bessie faces her sister it seems just flashed through. Considering the history between them it should have been a much more powerful moment. The movie does not draw the viewer in. In my opinion it lacks any depth. I guess the script writing is what's wrong but am no expert it just misses the mark. Great performance by QL. Not something I would think about watching again.

💝☘️🍃emilie🎀💞💞🦄

23/04/2024 16:00

This is an HBO film based on the real life of blues singer Bessie Smith ( Queen Latifah). The film basically starts when she is an adult, forcing her way into the travel show of Ma Rainey (Mo'Nique). Going on her own, the film highlights her many ups and downs, including bad relationships and love for alcohol. The costumes, props and performances were excellent. Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity.

Piesie Yaa Addo

23/04/2024 16:00

I'm going to repeat something I saw another user off IMDb say, "LOVED IT!!" I just saw this brand new biopic off HBO GO last night, and it's a winner! "Bessie" is an HBO TV film about legendary American blues singer Bessie Smith (Queen Latifah), and focuses on her transformation as a struggling young singer into "The Empress of the Blues". Bessie Smith (Queen Latifah) became one of the most popular female recording artists of the 1920s and 1930s as a singer of blues and jazz. This biography follows her life from a young singer from Chattanooga, Tennessee to her success- as well as her trials and tribulations revolving around family, show business, and personal demons. There is a great scene in the film- *possible SPOILER* which Bessie sums up the difference between Southern and Northern racism. She says that Southerners don't mind how close you are, as long as you don't get too big- and Northerners don't mind how big you get, as long as you don't get too close. What a sad, but true, commentary on the racial divide, which this singer- and her music- made big strides to over-come, that benefit African-American recording artists to this day I think. And as for Latifah's performance- performer, artist, bi-sexual lover, African-American woman, abused child, addict, etc... let's just say this is the performance of her career no doubt- and watch out at Emmy and Golden Globe-time this coming awards season... Michael K. Williams ("Boardwalk Empire"), Khandi Alexander, Monique and Oliver Platt co- star. And wow!-I saw a writing credit attributed to- Horton Foote!- which I checked out at Wikipedia. Apparently he was involved at a time Columbia Pictures was going to produce this movie way back when in the '80s I think..??- before the Zanucks (2 of the films' executive producers) took this project over in the early '90s.

Womenhairstyles

23/04/2024 16:00

Queen Latifa owns her role and the growth of Bessie Smith from beginning to end. The movie is subtle and the scenes well organized so that her life feels as disjointed and tragic as Bessie herself would have felt. The ending, where she is talking about bravely moving into the future, could have been the day she died. The effect is powerful and heartbreaking. The director does an incredible job of show don't tell. Mo'Nique is a treasure as Ma Rainey. They both deserved Emmy's and I'm glad this has a resurgence and opportunity to be seen again, especially in light of current history. These powerful and complicated women have an excellent representation in this movie. It also does an amazing job of showing how accepted, natural, and prevalent queer expression was, compared to attitudes of decades following, even today. That's important history to understand and acknowledge.

Adwoa Sweetkid

23/04/2024 16:00

Bessie Smith had a great voice. She is one of those that was born with it. This is a good production, and I see why it won so many awards and nominations. It was interesting to see and learn more about Bessie. Queen Latifah was great in this. If she was singing the song's, she did a great job. I had to watch it in parts because it can get heavy. That's just me though. I recommend this show if you like seeing historical shows about musicians.

Black Rainbow 🌈

23/04/2024 16:00

She was no church choir girl, but a foul mouthed licentious drunk. Every song she wrote sounded just like the last one. It was the musicians that made the songs sound better. This movie is filled with hard to like characters including Bessie.

Queen G

23/04/2024 16:00

What a waste of Hollywood dollars. They needed to get a director that was interested in the depth. So many things were skimmed over or sweetened to avoid being offensive except for the lesbianism. Since the director is a lesbian she certainly drove that down your throat which is fine. Bessie was bisexual but that's not all she was. The director was childlike in her approach. She obviously had not studied Bessie enough. I guess Latifah may have been the best choice but Latifah played Latifah like she does in every movie she's in. That's not bad either but not appropriate for this movie. I deeply studied Bessie and this movie is no where near accurate and people tend to believe what they see in movies. Especially if it is biographical in nature. What a shame that this era of history was so ignorantly presented. Costumes were fair. Scenery was pretty good. But Bessie was a lot more raw and cunning that the director presented. The party where Bessie gets stabbed. In the movie it was all flashbacks and laying in the street. No! In real life Bessie took off after the guy that stabbed her with the knife still sticking out of her until she couldn't run anymore. It was this type of energy that the film did not catch. Ruby Walker was barely touched on and made to look like some goofy little teenager. The Van Vechten party was all wrong. It was Okeh records that she auditioned for and spat - not Black Swan. Things that could have been really funny were lack luster. Monique looked great as Ma Rainey and did a good job but there were definite things about Ma that weren't touched on. Monique was much more believable than Latifah. Latifah doesn't have the vocal qualities that Bessie had but even a long shot. The vocals she did for the movie sounded like the Dana Owens album. They should have used original music and had her lip synch. It was a very poor presentation all the way around. It was all just sensationalism. Bessie life was sensational enough if they would have taken the time to actually study it and present it properly. She didn't have a mansion. She had an apartment in Philadelphia and bought properties for her relatives to stay. The whole story of Snooks was wrong and didn't even use the name Snooks. The rendition of Gimme A Pig Foot at the end was colossal! Hopefully this movie will just die away and be forgotten and they can do another one that's better. The whole aspect of Gertrude and Bessie was omitted. That's what split Bessie and Jack up. Gertrude was NOT part of Bessie's show! There were only one of two of Bessie's songs in the whole movie. It missed out on some of the greatest blues numbers of the period. The references to Ma's songs were spot on as far as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Prove It On Me Blues. Monique's voice didn't fit Ma's either but it was closer than Latifah's. Ma sounded like a man but her voice was not raspy or gravely - just low. But Monique looked a lot like her and definitely portrayed her very well. This was a very very weak movie and flew through stuff to where you really don't get the picture at all. So many famous names were just stuck in there really fast. Bessie was all show business. She loved having a good time. She loved her people. She didn't suffer fools gladly. She spoke her mind. She fought like a man. She loved hard. She drank hard. She was not a homebody. It's such a shame that so many wonderful stories were completely omitted and then the ones that were included were so watered down and told incorrectly.

mayce

23/04/2024 16:00

I knew little about Bessie Smith before this film and really none the wiser after it. Her life story differed little from other Queen of Blues from that era. Queen Latifah stars in this HBO film as Bessie Smith who was one of the most popular female blues singers in the 1920s and 30s. The film takes an episodic look at her life as well as flashbacks to traumatic parts of her childhood. We see Bessie being transformed to a struggling act with her brother to have the stage presence to sing the blues. We see her dalliance with both men and women, her volatile temper and her dealings with crooked businessmen and the casual racism of the time. The film like a lot of biopics these days has almost a cookie cutter approach totally lacking in originality. Just by the synopsis of the film I had a good idea what the story was going to be about. It had no surprises apart from seeing Queen Latifah in the *. The writing seems poor at times. Bessie suddenly adopts a boy and its implied her man (Jack Gee) is the father of this child. She becomes wealthy and suddenly we have the great depression and Bessie has downsized. The plot did not always flow too well and given Bessie died at a relatively young age in an automobile accident this was not covered in the film. However the there is some good production values, set design and cinematography. The cast do their best despite the script.

danyadevs🐬🐬

23/04/2024 16:00

Well, i had very high expectations for this film after watching the trailer... but, it wasn't quite so. It actually was a good movie, but not what i expected. It could have been an epic, like La Mome or Ray, but it just missed that opportunity. The story is somewhat incoherent, maybe it's the script, or just bad editing. There were some scenes that are short and take place in different times, so it becomes hard to follow and understand the story and the importance of those scenes. It's a little bit confusing at times and because of that the film loses flow. That is basically the one major flaw in this movie. Apart from that, the actors did a great job, i've never seen Queen Latifah like this, she was wonderful. The music was great of course. The costumes, the set - beautiful. In conclusion, i wouldn't call this a masterpiece, but it's not bad, i would recommend watching it on a Friday night with your loved one maybe. The plot is interesting, the music is wonderful, it sets that 20's mood and you'll have a great time for sure.

zozo gnoutou

23/04/2024 16:00

I knew nothing about Bessie Smith going into this movie. And after watching it I feel like I still know next to nothing. Bessie is the story of legendary '20s and '30s blues singer Bessie Smith. We meet Smith as she is starting out, playing small time nightclubs. She has a great voice and plenty of ambition, but she's going nowhere fast. That is until she spies Ma Rainey (Mo'Nique, stealing all the scenes) and learns to build her act up. The problem with the film is that it tries to cover too much ground. It covers about 20 years in Bessie's life, from her start working in small clubs, to her success and decline and eventual comeback. The lack of focus makes the film feel abrupt as their are just too many characters and not enough of a through line as people come in and out of Bessie's life. Queen Latifah does a good job as Smith. But ironically she ends up completely upstaged by Mo'nique even though in real life the reverse is true. Mo'nique has a small role and only appears in about the first quarter of a movie, but she simply owns every inch of the screen when she's on it. She has a beautiful voice, you can tell she's a singer just by the way she speaks, and a commanding swagger. Once she leaves she takes a lot of excitement with her. She leaves the impression that she could have handled a film about Ma Rainey. The rest of the cast is solid. Tika Sumpter looks gorgeous in a mostly nothing role, playing Smith's long time companion. Michael K. Williams manages to make a solid impression as a brash bodyguard turned lover as Smith's husband. The real star of the show are the costumes. Note perfect, sumptuous and gorgeous they make every scene appealing and are always photographed to perfection. Even while the rest of the movie disappoints the clothing is always there to give something for the eye to enjoy.