Like Green Book, The Best of Enemies Is More About White Guilt than Black Experience

Originally published on Indy Week, April 5, 2019. Excerpt below:

Based on Osha Gray Davidson’s 1996 book, The Best of Enemies was directed, written, and produced by Robin Bissell. Dramatizing historical events for a feature film always poses the challenge of maintaining the facts while creating an entertaining experience, filled with the requisite humorous and heart-tugging scenes. And, as is so often the case in Hollywood, Bissell’s lens is clouded by whiteness, so his film centers on Ellis’s growth and oversimplifies Atwater’s struggles. Her role is to catapult Ellis’s change of heart, short-changing Atwater’s story.

The difference between Atwater’s static storyline and Ellis’s dynamic storyline is evident. Henson embodies the fullness of her character’s presence through her merits as an actor, but the filmmaker only makes us privy to Atwater’s public life as a tenacious woman fighting unjust systems. We rarely see her personal life. We know she’s the mother of two daughters—but who are her friends? What did she do in her spare time? Who did she love? What moments of joy did she cherish?

These omissions wouldn’t be as glaring if the portrayal of Ellis focused only on his life as a gas-station owner by day and an exalted Klansman by night. But instead, the filmmaker lifts the hood and invites us into Ellis’s home, portraying him as a man who worked tirelessly to support his wife and children and asking us to wrestle with his humanity. This is jarring, juxtaposed with very few scenes of Ellis committing acts of terror with the Klan.

In recent years, Hollywood producers have shown increased interest in exploring triumphant stories of racial reconciliation; the Oscar-winning Green Book received both accolades for making the audience feel good and criticism for its lack of authenticity. It’s indicative of a Hollywood machine that cranks out buoyant tales of redemption from racism to assuage white guilt, meanwhile perpetuating the erasure of the full humanity—the love, pain, and happiness—of Black people.

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