Released one year to the day after the Million Man March of 1995, Spike Lee's film Get on the Bus (1996) commemorates the historical moment when, following the call of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakahn, African-American men all across the U.S. traveled to Washington, D.C., for what Farrakahn called a day of "atonement." It was a chance to speak out against racism, to promote unity among the black community and to correct the image of African-American men as, in Farrakahn's words, "a bestial, maniacal and savage group of persons." The goal of the march was widely hailed, even while its chief organizer continued to foment controversy and criticism of what many saw as his own brand of racism, separatism, and sexism. The controversy swirling around the Nation of Islam leader is frequently argued over in Get on the Bus, and the ultimate goal of the march forms the basis for most of the film's lively discussions. But rather than focus on the event at the highest organizing levels (though frequently alluded to, Farrakahn is seen only briefly, during TV coverage), Lee chose to center the film around a group of ordinary men on a single bus on its way to the capital. To get a broad cross section of the community's issues, challenges and concerns, the script appropriates a convention used in Hollywood war movies in which a group from a widely diverse range of backgrounds and viewpoints are thrown together and we watch as those differences clash and ultimately coalesce. The story also includes a white man, the Jewish bus driver who strongly objects to Farrakahn's characterization of his people, offering the opportunity for discussions of the march leader's statements about the Jewish community and comparisons of the Holocaust and slavery.

Lee knew that the mostly single-set script would prove to be thorny in terms of visual interest, and after the film's release, he admitted that the piece was "a little too talky." So he relied on a cast of distinguished veterans, such as Ossie Davis and Charles S. Dutton, as well as talented newcomers and lesser-known performers, to make the confined setting as lively and compelling as possible. Davis, who had acted in Lee's School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), and Malcolm X (1992), had reservations about participating, largely due to ideological differences with Farrakahn and the general direction of the Nation of Islam. Nevertheless, Davis and his wife, actress Ruby Dee, had contributed to the March by financing a bus and supported the overall goal of it. And he was eager to work with Lee again, especially given the character of Jeremiah, an older man who has been through a lot personally and witnessed a great deal of his people's history and who is a mouthpiece for some of the film's most stirring words about pride and responsibility.

The limits imposed on him by the script weren't Lee's only challenge in getting Get on the Bus made. The budget was not huge, the schedule short (18 days, necessitated not only by the logistics of shooting on a traveling bus but by the need to have a finished piece in time for the one-year anniversary of the march), and the production difficulties potentially daunting. Sound mixer Tom Fleischman, noting the run-and-gun nature of the shoot, said the finished result was more like a documentary, grabbing sound and image on the fly and having to accept whatever was captured. But it's that very quality that gives the movie its appeal, and it opened to some of the best reviews of any of Spike Lee's films. The downside is that it has often been overlooked, in no small part, perhaps, because many people perceive it to be a documentary and not a reality-based but completely crafted work of fiction.

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Get on the Bus, however, is the way it was initiated and financed. Lee had no thought of making a film about the march until he was contacted by producer Reuben Cannon, who had a writer, Reggie Rock Bythewood (a former actor who had written only for TV series up to this point) and the idea for the story. Lee agreed, but only if it could be financed solely with African-American funding. "When you think about the principles of the Million Man March, that was right," Lee said. "Black seed investment for a black business. I didn't want to approach the same people who had given money to Malcolm X, so we made a new list." In addition to himself and Bythewood, Lee got production investment funds from famed attorney Johnnie Cochran; actors Wesley Snipes, Danny Glover, and Will Smith; and several other black businessmen and financiers. In all, he raised $2.5 million, all of which, thanks to pre-selling the finished product, was returned to investors right before the picture opened.

Producer: Bill Borden, Reuben Cannon, Spike Lee, Barry Rosenbush
Director: Spike Lee
Screenplay: Reggie Rock Bythewood
Cinematography: Elliot Davis
Film Editing: Leander T. Sales
Art Direction: Ina Mayhew
Music: Terence Blanchard, Common, Kenneth 'Babyface' Edwards, Roxanne Seeman
Cast: Ossie Davis (Jeremiah), Richard Belzer (Rick), De'aundre Bonds (Junior), Andre Braugher (Flip), Albert Hall (Craig).
C-121m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Rob Nixon