Girl
6
Picture: C+
Sound: C Extras: D Film: C
What do you do with "Girl 6?"
Spike Lee's 1996 film about a wannabe actress (played by
Theresa Randle) who turns to working as a sex chat operator -- appropriately
with the handle, Girl 6 -- is at once interesting and frustratingly
boring. The film is interesting in that
the premise itself is perfect, classic Spike.
A strong black woman, at the mercy of a weak white male world, turning
to all but prostituting herself to make a living while struggling to retain
what makes her both strong and black is a microcosm of any of the
"important" Spike Lee films: Do the Right Thing, She's
Gotta Have It, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, and even School
Daze among them.
Randle's character, who begins as Judy, all but has her
original, proud self eviscerated by her Girl 6, which itself is an amalgam of
any number of other personas she creates to satisfy the lusts and fantasies of
dirty-minded fellas (one of which is played by Richard Belzer -- make your own
assumptions). Amidst this
transformation, Judy/Girl 6 imagines herself as a Cleopatra Jones-esque
Blaxploitation hero and a Dorothy Dandridge stand-in in fantasy sequences that
blur the line between her reality, which is firmly rooted in fantasy, and the
fantastical, which Judy/Girl 6 wants desperately to be reality.
Judy's evisceration into Girl 6 comes when she becomes
addicted to her job as a chatline operator and the fantasies she helps create
for the men that call and request her.
She get so hooked that she sets up a meeting with one client, a white
man who calls and talks about his dying mother but who, as the film progresses,
is revealed to be nothing more than emotional abuser, using Girl 6 and her
chatline as a way of getting his rocks off, with the ultimate culmination of
this coming when Girl 6 goes to Coney Island to meet him and he doesn't
show. The emotional toll on Girl 6 is
total devastation, and she fills the void with taking a job as an in-home chat
operator for a company run by a character billed in the credits as Boss #3
(played by Madonna -- again, draw your own conclusions). This job results in Girl 6 being
phone-stalked by a freaky caller (played by Michael Imperioli), a total
alienation of everyone close to her, including her next door neighbor, Jimmy
(played by Spike Lee), her ex-husband (played by Isaiah Washington), and her
casual acquaintances at the more respectable phone sex office.
This transformation would be all but unheard of for the
Judy we meet at the beginning of the film, who is at a casting call for the new
Quentin Tarantino movie. At the call,
QT, as he's called in the film (and who is played, by Tarantino, as an
unquestionable asshole -- assume away), requests none too bluntly for Judy to
take her top off. There's going to be
skin in the film, QT says, a film that will be the be-all, end-all film of the
black experience (directed by a white guy from suburbia), and QT wants to be
sure Judy has the goods. She eventually
acquiesces to the demand, disrobes, then immediately covers back up and runs
out of the call, ashamed.
By the end of the film, though, Girl 6 is in Los Angeles
at another call for what seems to be a porn, directed by Director 2 (played by
Ron Silver -- you decide if this is spot-on casting), and she is again asked to
take her top off -- after first doing some making out with a scrawny white
dude. She has no problems with the
make-out, but she again refuses to take her top off.
This scene is ultimately indicative of what Girl 6 has
become in her transformation from Judy.
She might still have her pride, but she's willing to compromise it a
little bit. Girl 6 is a damaged
statistic where there was once Judy, a Proud Black Woman. That this scene begins with a fantasy of
Girl 6 playing Dorothy Dandridge entering a director's house a conquering black
star only heightens the seedy reality she finds herself in -- and just how far
Judy/Girl 6 has fallen from the start of the film.
But this set-up is so frustrating in the execution. Spike Lee directs the film in a muddy, murky
way that lends itself to a film of interesting vignettes rather than a cohesive
whole. Judy/Girl 6 is an interesting
character, and we're with her most of the time. Unfortunately, we aren't given more than token insight into the
depths of the character. Everything
that makes this film interesting occurs at the surface, and anyone with at
least one eye on the screen is going to get what Spike's throwin' down. So things get boring fast and often. And that's unfortunate. This is intimate Spike Lee. There isn't the sweeping, epic feel that
marks films like Do the Right Thing, The 25th Hour, or Malcolm
X. Instead, we get Spike at his
most Woody Allen, being idea driven, but emphasizing the intimacy of the
subject matter by making this close and tight while relying about as heavily as
he can on dialogue.
Girl 6 should be gold.
All the pieces were in place: acting, writing, subject, even a
soundtrack of nothing but Prince songs.
But in the execution things go awry, a rare and uncharacteristic misstep
for Spike Lee but that does provide a very nice segue into discussing this
film's DVD release.
Nearly every aspect of this disc is a disappointment. When watching the film, you'll notice these
odd scenes pop up with real crappy resolution, as if some deleted scene, taken
from an old VHS release, have been inexplicably inserted back into the
film. The most notable instance of this
is when Judy takes her top off for QT early on in the film. It's possible that this was supposed to
represent the video taping of this part of the audition, but that's highly
unlikely given the shot set-up and other scenes of similar shoddy video
fidelity. The overall transfer isn't
bad, but it's not stunning either. But
these moments of jarring quality shifts gives the film the short shrift
because, after watching the film, those shots linger more in the mind rather
than the film itself (and it's not because of Randle's chest-baring).
On the audio-side, all we get is a Dolby Digital 2.0
soundtrack. Sure, this film is dialogue
driven, but that's no excuse for not including a 5.1 mix on the disc. The film sounds fine if you're watching it
on a two-speaker television set, is weak is the mix. The Pro Logic surrounds are weak and the film sounded much better
on the long out of print 12” LaserDisc, while it was actually a 5.1 film in
theaters. Not only was it a Dolby
Digital theatrical release, it was the 12th-ever DTS release from 20th
Century Fox and the first time their Fox Searchlight division ever used
DTS. It was also the last time for a
very long time Prince called himself Prince in his battle to break his contract
with Warner Bros. Records. Why the
usually savvy Anchor Bay did not issue this in Dolby & DTS 5.1 is a shame. If you wanted that something more, you're in
for a rude awakening.
This is doubly true when you consider what little content
is here in the way of extras. There are
only four features included on this disc: a theatrical trailer and television
commercial for the film and the featurettes "The Making of 'Girl 6'"
and "Behind the Scenes of 'Girl 6.'" The trailers are typical ad material, while
the making-of featurette is little more than a glad-handed promo spot and the
behind-the-scenes material is simply a culling together of b-roll from on the
set of the film. In other words, this
is an amazingly boring disc, as well as being a poorly executed one.
As Spike Lee films go, Girl 6 is far from
special. But that doesn't mean it's not
worthy of better treatment. Sure Spike
might have phoned the film in, but that's no excuse for Anchor Bay to have done
the same.
The word of the day when it comes to Girl 6 is
"dropped the ball," kids.
Actually, that's three words, but I don't mind giving this film and DVD
a little more thought -- someone had to, after all.
- Dante A.
Ciampaglia
