Citizen Ashe
The Grand Slam champion and activist Arthur Ashe is given his due in a rewarding new portrait.
Arthur Ashe who lived from 1943 to 1993 was a great sportsman but he was also much more besides. The fact that he was the first African-American to win the US Open and the singles title at Wimbledon earned him his place in the hall of fame, but he was a noted activist too and not just in respect of civil rights since he also involved himself with issues around Aids. In 1988 he suffered from health problems which led to brain surgery and he was unlucky enough to contract Aids through a blood transfusion. It was that which would ultimately lead to his death from pneumonia.
No less a figure than Barack Obama cited Ashe and Mohammed Ali as inspiring figures when it came to how a man should live his life and Ashe, a less widely known figure than Ali these days, fully deserves a documentary biopic. This one brings in as interviewees his brother Johnnie and his wife Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe together with various friends and colleagues, the most famous being the younger tennis champion John McEnroe. The filmmakers, Rex Miller and Sam Pollard, achieve a judicious balance between the sports activities on the one hand (the 1975 Wimbledon triumph is understandably the sporting event given the most emphasis) and on the other his personal life and his increasing involvement as an activist which grew from his becoming a role model through his success as a black tennis champion.
Regrettably Citizen Ashe is initially something of a mess although it does go on to find its feet and become a worthwhile film. There is a vast amount of archive material both public and personal (Arthur’s widow is one of the producers) that is available to place alongside the new interview footage and much use is made of older interviews with Arthur Ashe himself. However, mixing this together makes for an introduction that is anything but smooth. Old footage veers between black and white and colour, more modern scenes are intercut with it so that the ratio keeps switching and detailed extracts from interviews with Ashe are shown but are also used as voice over comments (heard alongside comments from others they sound new but obviously aren’t). All of this makes for distracting viewing initially, but in time the film settles down and sensibly unfolds in what is basically chronological order from the childhood years in Richmond, Virginia to a late meeting with Nelson Mandela who greeted Arthur as a brother.
Even towards the end one can question the way in which some of the material has been handled. There is, for instance, a very interesting comment from Ashe about the possibility of being reunited after death with the mother he had lost at the age of six. That is telling not least because his vision involves being with her but not asking her anything, but why oh why do the filmmakers choose to show two actors representing this meeting taking place? However, you should not be put off by the film’s defects both on account of the value of the story it tells and because Arthur Ashe himself - modest, calm, intelligent - comes over so well.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Johnnie Ashe, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Charlie Pasarell, Andrew Young, Donald Dell, John McEnroe, Harry Edwards, Lenny Simpson, John Carlos, Billie Jean King, Art Carrington.
Dir Rex Miller and Sam Pollard, Pro Rex Miller, Steven Cantor, Beth Hubbard, Jaime Schutz and Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Ph Rex Miller, Ed R.A. Fedde, Lewis Rapkin, Federico Rosenzvit and Ben Sozanski, Music Jongnic Bontemps.
Rexfix Media/Artemis Rising Production/CNN Films/Dogwoof Pictures-Dogwoof Pictures.
94 mins. USA/UK. 2021. US Rel: 3 December 2021. UK Rel: 10 December 2021. No Cert .
