Some history gets printed in the newspapers as it happens and other history gets put into textbooks after the fact, but once in a while, history gets made into a movie. Such is the case for an enterprising Black man from the Bay Area of California named Charlie Walker.
"I'm Charlie Walker" is a smaller movie releasing the same week as a film about dinosaurs eating people in a franchise dating to 1993. It isn't hard to figure out which movie will sell more tickets.
But regardless of how many tickets "I'm Charlie Walker" sells, it's important to note that it tells a real story with some fictionalized elements that always seem to find their way into movies adapting historical narratives.
As potential viewers might guess, the film centers on a man named Charlie Walker (Mike Colter), a truck driver in San Francisco who owned his own company and vehicle but struggled to get jobs due to his skin color. The film is set in 1971 right after two oil tankers collided and filled the bay with lots of crude. Beaches all around San Francisco were suddenly in need of cleaning as an environmental disaster unfolded.
Walker was persistent and charming. He got himself a contract cleaning up a small beach and navigated a challenging road of obstacles between oil executives and hippies. "I'm Charlie Walker" shows all of this, with the biggest obstacle of all, unsurprisingly, being Walker's skin color and how people treated him because of it.
Colter is a charismatic man. He made a great Luke Cage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now he gets a chance to shine and lead a movie about a man who takes on challenge after challenge and finds a creative solution for all of them with some out-of-the-box thinking.
Some of the performances in "I'm Charlie Walker" get a little corny, particularly where Mr. Bennett (Dylan Baker) is concerned. He plays the chief antagonist and president of the oil company in this film. And maybe it was the lines he was given or some misdirection, but Baker just comes off uneven in the role.
What does feel real through the entire film is the constant racism Walker faces as he tries to clean up the beach. He's questioned, sassed, called awful names, mocked, and through it all, he managed to stay a few steps ahead of the people who wanted to take him off the job and seize credit for themselves.
"I'm Charlie Walker" does a great job at portraying a world where all the white people -- including truck drivers, job bosses, the president of an oil company -- see Walker's skin color first, before his name or title. The movie shows this in small ways like when a white man is surprised to learn Charlie is Black in person because on the phone "he didn't sound so..." and Charlie responds, "Tall? I know." And the film shows it in much more direct ways with white truck drivers trying to bully the man out of his equipment, his job, and his authority, looking past him and addressing his white second-in-command even when Charlie is present.
Colter does a great job waking up each morning and reminding folks he's very aware that he's Black, no matter how many times white people try to remind him of that throughout the movie to belittle him or take what he has earned.
Safiya Fredericks plays Ann Walker, Charlie's wife. And she serves as a narrator for most of the film, a welcome addition to set scene after scene. Fredericks has a wonderful voice and a strong presence in "I'm Charlie Walker."
The movie clocks in at 90 minutes and never feels slow or awkward in its pacing. Because Colter is so delightful in this role, outwitting folks and maneuvering everyone from journalists to hippies to his advantage, "I'm Charlie Walker" feels like a movie that accomplishes its role. Show a history lesson with some style and let the credits roll when that lesson is done.
It's great to see the movie sandwiched between actual footage from the oil spill at the beginning and a piece of a recorded interview with the real Charlie Walker at the very end. They help frame the narrative and remind us we just saw a creative take on something that actually happened.
Further complimenting the movie is some sharp cinematography of the Bay Area and its beaches. "I'm Charlie Walker" offers some great views. The film also boasts a powerful soundtrack with well-selected songs to match its tone and style. This all blends together nicely to provide an entertaining peek at history.
Once audiences are done watching dinosaurs eat people, they should seek this film out and learn a thing or two.
"I'm Charlie Walker" opens in theaters today.
Bay area bar girls Jasmine (Nadia Gillespie), Mae (Mariel Neto) and Black (Bianca Siavoshy) play a small but important role in the inspiring “I’m Charlie Walker,” based on the true story of a San Francisco entrepreneur.
