Talk to Me

Don Cheadle (“Crash,” "Hotel Rwanda") is fantastic in the broadly drawn summer released biopic, “Talk to Me,” which he co-produced and Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) directed.

Cheadle is mesmerizing as the ex-convict turned walk-on radio personality, Ralph Waldo “Petey” Green. Cheadle convincingly takes on the loud-mouth bad man persona of Petey Green, without going over the top. He’s got the tough walk, the hip Seventies threads, and the pedigree of the streets: a thief, convict, and product of a dysfunctional home--his mother and father were simultaneoudly serving time while he was doing the same.

The movie tells Petey’s story as a deejay that used his empathy and wit to tap into the soul of Black Washington, D.C.

Petey cut his teeth as a radio deejay in the early Sixties while serving time in Lorton, a prison in the D.C. suburbs. It is the only thing he says that he can do well that is not illegal. A chance meeting between Black radio exec Dewey Hughes and Petey in jail leads to the unlikely opportunity later for Petey to “audition” at the station where Dewey is attempting to shake-up the format.

Petey's humor and inviting radio banter (“talk to me!”) with listeners raised ratings for the white-owned radio station that was the forerunner of the successful Black owned-WOL-AM radio in D.C. Eventually coming under the ownership of Dewey Hughes, the co-star in the movie, WOL became the flagship of the present day Radio One media conglomerate owned by Dewey’s former wife, Cathy Hughes.

As depicted in the film, Petey Green’s influence in the Black community was based on his willingness to speak “truth to power” and to the status quo. For example, in his first moments of his debut at WOL radio, according to the film, Petey spoke dispargingly about Hitsville music mogul Barry Gordy. The station manager (played by Martin Sheen) went ballistic and made Petey apologize moments later. In his own defense, Petey insisted that he only said what everybody knew about Gordy.
Petey tells the station manager, “I am the people.” That’s who Petey was, a voice of the people.

At a turning point from the light fair comprising the first third of the movie, Petey’s authentic voice paid off for the station and the D.C. capital during during a national crisis. The assassin’s bullet that killed Dr. King also exploded angry outbursts from Black America. The movie depicts the anger that spilled onto the streets of the nation’s capital (and other majority Black cities) that terrible night in April 1968. Fires burned, people were attacked and injured. Petey was the right man on the scene at the right time. Taking over the WOL microphone late into the night of Dr. King’s death, Petey spoke directly to the anguish that had cut the heart of Black Americans. He told the people that he knew they were hurting and wanted revenge. He did not blame them. However, the destruction of the community he said was not what Dr. King would have wanted. Both Petey and Dewey, the grassroots con-man and the professional hustler, were credited for their combined efforts to quell some of the unrest during this time.

The movie comments credibly on the class tensions between poor and affluent Black Americans. Dewey Hughes is a talented radio executive who models himself on the conservative and smooth Tonight Show icon Johnny Carson. Initially unknown to Petey, Dewey is also a graduate of the the poor and Black housing projects in Anacostia in Washington, D.C. He tells Petey that he made it out of the projects through moxy and the revelation, gained through watching the Tonight Show, that there was more in the world than his immediate surroundings.

The central tension of the movie exists between Petey and Dewey. Dewey views Petey through the prism of Dewey’s Hollywood-styled ambitions to become an entertainment mogul. Dewey aims to take Petey’s street-honed radio humor to the top ala comedians Dick Gregory or Richard Pryor. Despite his wit and bravado, Petey actually understands his limitations—or his range—and is comfortable and confident in his role at WOL and as host of a local public affairs television program. He tries to signal this to Dewey. However, blinded by his own aspirations, Dewey does not understand the depth of this truth until it is too late.

The dynamic is also interestingly played out using the metaphor of a pool game which causes both men to assess his own ability to “sink the nine ball.”

“Talk to Me” is ultimately an important movie because it points out the essential role of Black media. The movie showed that Black media is a necessary component of Black social unity in this country. There is the added benefit that the movie will spur on a movement among Black media producers to bring information and inspiration to Black audiences from the perspective of Black audiences. And encourage Black audiences to demand, protect and preserve Black media.