Writer/director John Ridley’s “Shirley” opens with newly minted Congressmember Shirley Chisholm (Regina King) appearing in early 1969 with her fellow freshman class on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building—the only woman of color in a sea of overwhelmingly White, male colleagues. The first African American woman ever elected to Congress, Chisholm immediately bucks tradition, butting heads with her patriarchal, racially insensitive fellow members of the House.
At first, it seemed like this biopic would detail the iconoclastic Chisholm’s turbulent terms in Congress, fighting to bring representation to the House of Representatives as an outspoken antiwar, pro-equal rights member of Congress. But Shirley quickly cuts to the real subject of this film: Chisholm’s groundbreaking campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in 1972. To the amazement of many, after Florida voters exceed expectations by raising $10,000 to support a possible Chisholm candidacy, the US Representative for Bedford-Stuyvesant—America’s largest Black community—tosses her hat into the ring.
This is the real focus of “Shirley”: the contentious race for the presidency in a crowded field that includes South Dakota Senator George McGovern; Minnesota Senator and perennial candidate Hubert Humphrey; Mayor John Lindsay, the liberal darling of New York; and rightwing demagogue Alabama Governor George Wallace. The presidential hopefuls vie with one another to become the Democratic Party nominee to run against Republican President Richard Nixon in 1972’s general election.
Chisholm was renowned for her stirring social justice oratory, and while Regina King delivers some of that onscreen, “Shirley” zooms in on the nuts and bolts of campaigning. Fundraising, media coverage (or lack thereof), backroom politicking, and Chisholm’s crusade to corral enough delegates in order to influence the Democratic Party platform are front and center in what may well be the most exhaustively detailed fact-based Hollywood feature ever about the race for the White House.
Left-leaning veteran voters and observers are likely to relish this trip down memory lane, with clips of McGovern, Nixon, feminist Betty Friedan, Congressmember Bella Abzug, CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, and other period political figures. Actors portray Wallace (W. Earl Brown), Congressmember Ron Dellums (Dorian Missick), future Congressmember Barbara Lee (Christina Jackson), and more.
Newcomers are treated to a dramatic history lesson and a powerful primer on presidential politics. But “Shirley” takes viewers behind the scenes to reveal backroom deals, campaign offices, and more. Even those who lived through Chisholm’s long march are bound to learn insider information from this fact-based script.
In particular, the candidate’s interactions with other Black leaders are often eyebrow-raising, including with two African American members of Congress. Chisholm makes a deal with wheeler-dealer Walter Fauntroy (André Holland), Washington, D.C.’s delegate to the House of Representatives, who is also running for President as a favorite son, and she appears to have the solid, stalwart support of Oakland’s lefty Congressional Representative Dellums. But when push comes to shove amidst all of the horse trading at the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami, Chisholm appears to be sold out.
When Chisholm goes on the stump in California, 25-year-old Barbara Lee, who has been recruited as a campaign volunteer (despite her initial reluctance because electoral politics are “bourgeois”), engineers a meeting between the erstwhile candidate and the Black Panther Party’s Minister of Defense, Huey Newton (Brad James). Shirley seeks the militant Newton’s endorsement poolside at the posh Los Angeles home of film and television star Diahann Caroll (Amirah Vann), who, Lee quips: “Looks like an angel but fights like the devil for civil rights.”
The movie’s other surprises include Chisholm’s lawsuit against the television networks for excluding her from presidential debates. Shirley’s straying from strict liberal orthodoxy also leaves some supporters scratching their heads: Chisholm is lukewarm on busing as the way to desegregate schools, and after her rival, Wallace, is wounded by a would-be assassin while campaigning, Chisholm—who herself survives an assassination attempt dramatized onscreen—visits the Southern racist at his hospital bed and prays for him. The film also depicts marital tensions caused by Chisholm’s relentless, single-minded candidacy, and the rift with her sister Muriel (portrayed by Regina King’s actual sister, Reina King).
There’s only so much a two-hour biopic can cover, but there are arguably some crucial omissions. Although she was Brooklyn-born, Chisholm spent part of her childhood in Barbados, and the film gives her Caribbean roots short shrift. Chisholm’s bold slogan is hardly alluded to, glimpsed on campaign posters, but her catchword was so catchy that it was the subtitle of Shola Lynch’s 2004 documentary, “Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed.”
While Regina King repeatedly quotes her character’s strong statements in favor of gender and racial equity, Chisholm’s staunch opposition to the war in Vietnam is only mentioned in passing. Some liberal Democrats may criticize the fact that the movie gives the impression that Senator George McGovern was a political hack who made deals in smoke-filled back rooms, instead of the peace candidate who opposed Tricky Dick. In addition, the 1972 Watergate break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters, which eventually changed the course of American history as Nixon and his team deployed dirty tricks to get reelected, is never even referred to.
“Shirley” feels flat and has a low budget look, which may be due to cost cutting by producer Netflix. Although the story is set between 1969 and 1972—when pop music was at its memorable zenith—the movie’s soundtrack is completely forgettable.
John Ridley, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of 2013’s “12 Years a Slave,” deftly directs this ensemble, with Regina King capturing the title character’s resolute spirit, and Terrence Howard (2005’s “Hustle & Flow”), Brian Stokes Mitchell, and the recently deceased Lance Reddick playing Chisholm’s campaign staffers. Lucas Hedges is a standout as White ally Robert Gottlieb, the national youth coordinator for this long shot presidential bid.
As a young Barbara Lee, Christina Jackson brings her talent to a pivotal role. “Shirley” ends on a bittersweet note: In a coda, we see footage of the actual Congressmember Lee, whom the film seems to suggest is Chisholm’s heir apparent. But this past month, Lee was defeated in a hotly contested primary to become California’s new US senator, and she will also lose the Bay Area Congressional seat that she has held since 1998, when she replaced her mentor, Ron Dellums.
Nevertheless, just as 2023’s “Rustin” resurrected the architect of the 1963 March on Washington, “Shirley” is a vivid, welcome reminder of an electoral politics pioneer who fought to make America more inclusive, more diverse, and more just. As today’s topsy-turvy, bizarre presidential race unfolds, Shirley provides a stark contrast by dramatizing a campaign for the Oval Office more than half a century ago, when idealism was on the ballot.
“Shirley” opened in select theaters on March 15 and premiered on Netflix on March 22.
Ed Rampell is a film historian and critic based in Los Angeles. Rampell is the author of “Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States” and he co-authored “The Hawaii Movie and Television Book,” now in its third edition. This first appeared at Progressive.org. See the original review
From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2024
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