The United States Vs Billie Holiday proves unable to rescue its heroin from its own confusion dailycardinal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailycardinal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“The United States vs Billie Holiday” (MA)
ELEANORA Fagan, aka Billie Holiday, born on April 7, 1915, shares my birth date (but not years!). She died in 1959. It was not a happy life.
Written by teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem and published in 1937, “Strange Fruit” protested American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans.
Director Lee Daniels delivers a 130-minute (including closing credits) abridgment of the last 12 years of the blues singer who defied FBI chief J Edgar Hoover by singing it.
Written by Suzan-Lori Parks, adapting Johann Hari’s book “Chasing the Scream”, the film has more bad guys than good ones. Chief among them was Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund). The film’s closing credits show TV footage of JFK giving him an award for a lifetime of service. It’s fair to say that he killed Holiday who died handcuffed by the ankle to the foot of her hospital bed.
New Billie Holiday biopic shows a hard life that bore Strange Fruit
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130 minutes, in cinemas April 22
Lady Sings the Blues, Hollywoodâs previous tilt at a Billie Holiday biopic in 1972, was produced by Berry Gordy and his company Motown who ensured that reality was thoroughly upstaged by the glamour of the filmâs star, an unbelievably slim and glossy Diana Ross.
Andra Day in The United States vs Billie Holiday.
Credit:Paramount Pictures
More recently a television movie concentrated on a performance Holiday gave four months before her death in 1959, but Lee Danielsâ new movie is the first clear-eyed look at her life that weâve seen on screen. And this time, thereâs plenty of grit with the glamour.
The United States vs Billie Holiday: Oscar nominee Andra Day shines in story of jazz legend persecuted by FBI msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.