When Hearing is Winning and Listening is Losing and Both is a Tie
A Score/Sound Approach to White Men Can't Jump (1992)
White Men Can’t Jump (1992) – Score/Sound
Happy First Round of March Madness to all celebrating! I wish you a very unbusted bracket and as many upsets as you predicted. This is entirely new territory for me as I’m getting into the men’s tournament spirit with my husband and stepsons for the first time, and as of starting this review ahead of games on Day 2, I am 10 and 6, second in our household. Killin it. (I have very little actual idea what I’m talking about, but the winner gets to choose a restaurant to celebrate, so LET’S GO, GATORS).
In honor of the festivities, I watched Ron Shelton’s White Men Can’t Jump (1992) and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. That’s not a dig at the film, just at myself for being closed minded about sports, something I am actively working hard at changing (I followed the NBA playoffs last year (go Celtics), the whole NFL season (go Commanders and Birds), and most of college football (go Cam Skattebo) this year (I draw the line at baseball though. Hard pass. No thank you. (And don’t even try with soccer. If living in London for 8 years couldn’t turn me, nothing will.))). White Men Can’t Jump was really fun though and also incredibly frustrating to watch such a self-destructive man do his thing, but hey, at least he wasn’t bringing the whole US federal government down with him, right? So, let’s jump in with a review of White Men Can’t Jump from a unique perspective we haven’t yet explored on Review Roulette: the sound and music choices within the film.
White Men Can’t Jump is about two basketball players, Billy Hoyle and Sidney Deane (Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes (after their dual debuts in another trash-talking sports film, Wildcats (1986))), who hustle others in pick-up games as a large portion of their income. Sidney realizes that he can exploit the general stereotype that white people are bad at basketball (or at least not as good as black people) and teams up with Billy to enter a lucrative tournament to raise enough money to help his small family move out of a dangerous neighborhood. Billy is in a much more dire situation as his gambling debts have caused him and his girlfriend Gloria (Rosie Perez) to live out of motels, constantly on the run from violent debt collectors. Billy’s gambling addiction is tied to his self-image and need to prove himself to any doubter despite the immense damage that proof may cost.
There are two elements of the music I want to focus on in this film: 1) how the soundtrack is used to elevate the visual and ideological beats of the film, and 2) how the idea of music is used as a metaphor for character development. As for the first, the musical selections on the soundtrack evoke different parts of the story, as any good soundtrack does. There are R&B, rap, and hip-hop songs throughout that set tone, emotion, and cultural setting, but there are a few specific uses of music that I want to highlight.
Similarly to how I wrote about jazz as such an artistic foil to the main character of The Conversation (1974), a funky contemporary jazz echoes the movements of Billy and Sidney on the courts in White Men Can’t Jump. The fluidity with which the two move has a musical quality to it; they read each other’s body language and anticipate their next moves to be in the right places at the right times to win. The whole hustle, from before Billy even steps onto the court, is a performance, and the two consider their audiences, other players, and each other to deliver the best outcome they can in a live, constantly evolving duet. The use of funky jazz in these moments reinforces the cooperation and the immense skill the two are displaying when they work a court.
In that vein of musical cooperation, at both the opening and close of the film, The Venice Beach Boys a capella group of older black men sing "Just a Closer Walk With Thee". This song is not only important because of the nature of a capella relying on one’s fellow performers to do their part as Billy and Sidney must rely on each other, but also because the lyrics help develop the title of the film over time. "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" is a traditional gospel song and jazz standard with the lyrics:
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
I am weak, but Thou art strong,
Jesus, keep me from all wrong,
I'll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.
When my feeble life is o’er,
Time for me will be no more,
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom's shore, to Thy shore.
Billy’s gambling and self-image problems are his burden that he believes he is sharing with Gloria in their wildly dysfunctional relationship. Despite Gloria’s best efforts to help Billy out of his debt and with his addiction, and despite her repeated attempts to tell him what she needs in a partner, Billy is unable and largely unwilling to commit to being the more considerate and compassionate person she needs him to be. This white man can’t jump the hurdle of his issues into a more stable and emotionally mature version of himself that Gloria needs, until he is forced into a situation in which he must, not unlike the film’s most climactic basketball scene. As he learns what is required of him and begins to take a first step, Billy walks closer to the one person who promises to share his burden and help him through this world of toil and snares. Both the funky jazz and the a capella gospel jazz are such beautiful uses of music to invoke and strengthen the connection between the two players even when much of the film is about their differences.
Those differences bring us to the second use of music in the film that I want to mention briefly. Early in their relationship, Billy plays Jimi Hendrix for Sidney who says white people “can’t hear” Jimi, they only “listen”. This distinction between “hear” and “listen” is a recurring motif throughout the film not only to highlight the racial differences between Billy and Sidney but also the emotional maturity differences between Gloria and Billy. As mentioned, Gloria tries so hard to get Billy to understand what consideration looks like in their relationship. Sometimes her approach comes off as whiny, but I refuse to echo the male reviewers who call her a nag. She is absolutely begging this man whom she clearly, desperately loves for some unknown reason, to put effort into understanding her, and that is neither nagging nor unreasonable. Gloria is such a strong, well-written character with such amazing depth that Billy can’t even begin to understand because he scoffs at her attempts to encourage him to hear her rather than simply listen to her. Using Jimi to initiate that character flaw and foreshadow how significant Billy’s inability to “hear” Gloria would become paired with his acute ability to “hear” the silent jazz of Sidney’s partnership on the court is just a flawless use of music in every direction.
Overall, I truly enjoyed White Men Can’t Jump in my week of basketball takeover. The Day 2 games are well under way by now so I will leave this review here and wish you all a wonderful rest of the tournaments, whichever you are watching!
Because I’m Never Done When I Say I Am
Feminist
Just quickly, Gloria is such a phenomenal character, and I would recommend this film just to see how fantastic Rosie Perez is in this role even beyond the emotional intelligence discussed above. In a film about exploiting racial stereotypes, her skills are also not stereotypical of her race and gender, and she faces those derogatory estimations of her with such excellent Rosie Perez don’t-fuck-with-me energy. It’s just so good. And apparently the 2023 remake reduced her role to just an unsupportive girlfriend without any of the progressive feminist subversion of Gloria in the original. How uninspired and boring and un-Rosie Perez of them.
Also the yet-to-be-appreciate global superhit "I will never bring you water" remains underappreciated to this day!