Many people know Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech that he delivered on August 28, 1963. But how many of them know the story of Bayard Rustin, the man who made that fateful day happen? Rustin gives the civil rights leader the biopic treatment and dramatizes his indefatigable effort to ensure the largest peaceful demonstration ever for civil rights. Colman Domingo gives a virtuoso performance as Rustin and digs deep within his soul to convey the passion that fuelled the man behind a movement.
Rustin treads biopic convention, but one can hardly mind that nothing gets in the way of Domingo’s performance. Rustin is a straightforward actor’s showpiece with Domingo relishing a lead role that’s long overdue. Domingo plays Bayard Rustin with a well-mixed cocktail of charisma and sass to bring the gay civil rights leader to life. If this is the only time that Bayard’s Rustin should get such a dramatic treatment, Domingo gives a performance that confidently seems poised to honour the man throughout the ages.
An Intersectional Approach
Rustin continually needs to prove his salt with key players in the organization, especially when his political and sexual inclinations make it easier for the brass to fire him than work with him. The screenplay by Harlem’s Julian Breece and Milk Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black looks at how one man must show his worth to peers fighting for equality. More than once, Rustin must remind his peers that he was born both Black and homosexual on the same day. The dialogue might be a little expository throughout, but the message is clear: how can top leaders in the fight for equality be blind to the freedom of others?
In the lead-up to the March, Rustin butts heads with the tired figureheads at the NAACP, namely Roy Wilkins (Chris Rock, salty fun in a rare dramatic turn). The ornery Wilkins seems determined to break the bond between Rustin and Dr. King. Director George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) leans into his background in theatre and finds song strong drama around boardroom tables and meeting rooms.
This biopic doesn’t present the civil rights movement as a unified, well-greased machine. Quite the opposite. Through bickering, backstabbing, and petty differences, though, the film observes how the effort to out and oust Rustin did the movement a disservice. Domingo leads a strong ensemble cast that includes memorable turns from Glynn Turman, CCH Pounder, Audra McDonald, Michael Potts, Aml Ameen, Jeffrey Wright, and others, as conversations underscore how intersectional approaches fuel united fronts, something of a contemporary reading on the historical tale, but a welcome one.
Love the Skin You’re In
The biopic is at its best when it simply lets the fight for equality hang in the air between these players pushing for change. They’re worried that an open homosexual leaves their marches and sit-ins vulnerable to criticism and prejudice. Yet not one person raises the issue that homosexuality remains a crime in 1963.
The film explores what it meant to be a gay Black man in Rustin’s era as the character navigates relationships both personal and political. Rustin has a casual relationship with his assistant Tom (Gus Halper) a liberal white guy who devotes himself to the leader and his cause. But when Elias (Johnny Ramey), a new helping hand in the office, makes a pass at Rustin in the bathroom, Bayard finds immediate comfort with another man who truly understands the skin he lives in.
Rustin and Elias, who is a fictional character, frequent the local gay bay that Bayard favours. They knock back Manhattans and enjoy each other’s company as men in a dark little nightclub where, for a brief window, people can enjoy their secret lives. Rustin observes how its protagonist’s love life often has to lurk in the shadows while others love openly and freely. Rustin can organize sit-ins in diners, but the threat of arrest at a gay bar is twofold.
As Rustin feels the weight of progress for some and not for others, though, it fuels his dedication to mobilize the march. One step towards equality nevertheless brings everyone forward. He rallies the troops as Domingo delivers the obligatory motivational speeches with gravitas and fire, fully immersing himself in the man, his fight, and his passion. The rest is history and we’re all the better for it.
