Stormy Weather

Originally published on social media on February 2nd, 2022

This is a film that I thought I had never heard of before until coming across it in my school’s library. However, the further I got into the film, the more familiar it became to me. Anyone who has studied film, musical, or dance history in any capacity will become equally familiar with this film as it is FULL of iconic moments regularly discussed in books and classrooms.

While this film does have a nice simple storyline, I would actually call it a display of African American talent during WW2 as the film is mostly made up of performances. Each performance is exciting and engaging with no performance the same as the other.

This film is incredible for another reason: it is comprised of an entirely African American cast, which was really rare for that time period. Granted, there were other entirely African American films made before this, but “Stormy Weather” seems much more iconic. The cast members of this film are incredibly talented dancers and singers with names that include (but are not limited to) Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, The Nicholas Brothers, and Katherine Dunham and her dancers.

There is only one thing about the film that bothered me: the fact that African Americans painted black face on themselves. I know there was a movement in entertainment history (minstrel shows) where black face was popular, but popularity doesn’t make it right or less offensive. It also in generally made me mad to see African Americans paint themselves in this way because it almost felt like a surrender to an offensive joke about their history/ancestors. Luckily, they only paint it once and hint it at it on their hats one other time.

That’s the only “flaw”, the rest of the film was very enjoyable and left me in a happy mood.