Betty & Coretta (2013)

Betty & Coretta is a Lifetime Movie, an 85-minute drama-documentary, which was released in 2013. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Yves Simoneau, it follows the lives of two women, who became widows when their husbands were killed because of their political activities: Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, and Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr.

The cast includes the following:

** Malcolm X (1925-1965) played by Lindsay Owen Pierre

** Betty Shabazz (1934-1997) played by Mary J. Blige

[Malcolm X married Betty in 1958. They had six children. As far as I know, they are all still alive.]

** Martin Luther King (1929-1968) played by Malik Yoba

** Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) played by Angela Bassett

[MLK married Coretta in 1953. They had four children. As far as I know, three of them are still alive.]

** Merlie Evers (born 1933) played by Gloria Reuben [only one scene]

** Louis Farrakhan (born 1933) played by Alex C. Askew [only a glimpse]

** Ruby Dee (1922-2014) is the narrator of the film. She appears as herself in the first and the last scenes of the film, and a couple of times in between, in order to move the story forward. Sometimes historical footage in black-and-white is shown while she is speaking. I think this known as voice-over.

The time frame of the film is 1965-2011.

** In February 1965, Coretta Scott King and Malcolm X met for the first and only time, shortly before Malcolm X was assassinated.

** In October 2011, a Washington DC memorial for MLK was dedicated by President Obama.

THE PLOT

In this film, Malcolm X and MLK are secondary characters. They are only seen in the beginning of the film, during the first thirty minutes, because the focus is on their wives and their lives after they became widows.

Malcom X and MLK did not see eye to eye. In order to explain their differences briefly, perhaps I can say that they had more or less the same goal, but in order to reach this goal they recommended different methods and strategies. They met face to face only once, in March 1964. This moment is not shown in the film, because it is outside the time frame.

Betty and Coretta met for the first time during the Black National Political Convention that was held in Gary, Indiana, in March 1972. Both of them attended and addressed the convention as we see in the film, and during this event they formed a friendship that lasted until Betty died in 1997.

Both women had to raise a family with many children on their own. None of them remarried. Both of them tried in some way to carry on the work that their husbands had initiated. Coretta focused on a campaign to establish a national holiday named after her husband, while Betty went back to school and later got a job at a college named after civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who was killed in 1963.

Coretta’s campaign was crowned with success in 1983 when the US Congress passed a bill designating his birthday (15 January) as a national holiday to be celebrated on the third Monday in January. The day has been observed since 1986 by some states and since the year 2000 by all fifty states.

In 1999, Malcolm X was officially recognised by the US authorities when the US Postal Service issued a postage stamp with his name and picture. Betty did not live to see this moment. In the film, we see Coretta going to a post office to pick up a block of these stamps. She is happy to see them.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY

A message placed at the end of the movie says:

“Although based on a true story, certain characters, events, and dialogue have been adapted in the process of dramatization.”

In other words, the producers do not claim that every detail of the film is historically accurate.

Before writing this review, I searched the internet to see what other reviewers have said about it. Many reviewers like the film, but they do not love it. They give it three or four stars, but not five. I understand. I agree. This film is good, but not great.

Barbara Reynolds discusses the film in an article “Debunking the myths” published in the Washington Post on 1 February 2013. She reveals that the families of Betty and Coretta were not consulted while the film was being made and they are not happy with the result. Perhaps they would only give it one or two stars.

If I were the director of this film, I would have consulted the families, if only to be able to say that I had done so. Obviously, I would not promise to follow every suggestion made by them, but I would promise to listen to them and consider their input. Some suggestions might be unreasonable or even contradictory. Perhaps one family would want a certain fact included, while the other family wanted the same fact excluded.

In her article, Barbara Reynolds quotes Ilyasah Shabazz, one of the six daughters of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz:

“My mother was not a weak, timid, insecure woman as portrayed. She was regal, compassionate, strong, loving, beautiful, resilient and well-educated. That is why the Delta Sigma Theta sororities named academies all across this country after her, so others could be inspired [and learn] how to turn tragedy into triumph.”

This general complaint is not fair, because the film does not portray Betty as a weak, timid, insecure woman. Perhaps Ilyasah Shabazz is simply upset that she was not consulted, and so she feels she must find something to complain about.

However, one specific complaint seems to be valid:

 

“My mother did not tie a scarf to her face as she was shown wearing in the film.”

This is a reference to a scene with the funeral of Malcolm X. In the beginning of this scene Betty is wearing a veil over her head, but she removes it later.

Another complaint, which may be valid, concerns a meeting of the two families, two mothers and ten children, which is shown in the film. According to the children, this never happened.

If the producers had consulted the families while the film was still in production, such historical inaccuracies might easily have been avoided.

DIFFICULT ISSUES

The film does not shy away from problems. The producers deserve credit for having the courage to cover some difficult issues.

Regarding Coretta, we hear about the FBI tapes recorded while MLK was still alive. She claims they are illegal and should be destroyed. Critics might say that she is afraid what the tapes may reveal about her husband.

Regarding Betty, we hear about the problems with her daughter Qubilah, who was born in 1960. Qubilah is admitted to Princeton University. The mother is happy for her, but the daughter says she does not fit in, so she moves to Paris where she attends the Sorbonne. Soon she is back in the US with a son (born 1984), but no father. Her life is not exactly a success story.

The horrible end of Betty’s life in 1997 is also covered, even though it seems that historical accuracy was sacrificed in order to produce a dramatic and emotional scene. In the film, Betty is covered in gauze but still able to talk to Coretta who visits her in the hospital. According to the family, Betty was so injured from third-degree burns that she was unable to speak.

CONCLUSION

I like this film. It is refreshing to see the civil rights movement covered from a female perspective. This is the strong side of the film. However, there are also some flaws.

We do not get close to Betty and Coretta. In the time that is available, less than 90 minutes, the film has to cover more than thirty years in the lives of two persons. As a consequence, the film feels like a series of separate anecdotes about these two women. Several issues are mentioned but never explored even though they deserve it. Here are two examples:

# 1. Coretta’s campaign for the national holiday to remember MLK. She wants it, and she gets it. Apparently, she was the driving force behind the campaign, but how did she do it? There is nothing about the actual campaign in the film.

# 2. Betty’s radio show. In one scene we see her in the studio just before she goes on the air. She is on the phone with Coretta but has to hang up because the show is about to start. The show begins and the scene ends. This is all we get. There is nothing about the radio show in the film.

This is why I say: this film is good, but not great, and this means four stars.

PS # 1. On IMDb Betty & Coretta has a rating of 62 per cent. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a rating of 68 per cent.

PS # 2. Angela Bassett (born 1958) has appeared in several films about iconic characters in the African-American world. She played the title role in The Rosa Parks Story from 2002. She played Betty Shabazz two times: in Malcolm X from 1992 and in Panther from 1995. When she played Coretta in this film from 2013, she must have felt she was playing opposite herself!

PS # 3. The Washington Memorial to MLK is mentioned in the very first scene of the film. There is an excerpt from President Obama’s dedication speech in October 2011, and Ruby Dee says:

“I never thought I’d live to see this day; a monument to Martin Luther King, dedicated by our first African-American president, on the National Mall.”

What she does not say, and what the film never explains, is that the estate of MLK played a less than glorious role in the creation of this monument. The estate demanded (and got) a huge fee, more than 1 million dollars, because the monument uses his likeness and some of his words.

Cambridge University historian David Garrow, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of King - Bearing the Cross - said of the family’s behavior:

 

“One would think any family would be so thrilled to have their forefather celebrated and memorialized in D.C. that it would never dawn on them to ask for a penny.”

 

He added that MLK would have been “absolutely scandalized by the profiteering behavior of his children.”

The King estate’s demand for money is also the reason why the speeches given by MLK in the 2015 film Selma are not original. They had to be rewritten, because the King estate would not allow the producers of the film to use his original words for free.

For more details about this aspect, see the following articles, which are available online:

** “I have a copyright: The problem with Martin Luther King’s speech,” Mother Jones, 23 August 2013

** “Martin Luther King’s family have milked his legacy,” Daily Mirror, 6 February 2014

** “King had a dream. His children have an army of lawyers,” Boston Globe, 19 January 2015

***

Betty & Coretta,

A Lifetime Movie,

85 minutes, 2013

 ***