Blu-ray Review: Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle on the Criterion Collection

Following the exploits of a fledgling Black actor, Hollywood Shuffle ruthlessly skewered Hollywood’s treatment and representation of Black people during a time of rampant tokenism in the industry. While Robert Townsend’s 1987 film is ostensibly a series of comedy sketches, it’s unified by its often funny, perceptive, and fervently indignant portrait of an era when virtually every Black actor, aside from Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby, was relegated to playing slaves, pimps, butlers, or thieves.

In his commentary track for the Criterion release of the film, Townsend shares the story of an audition in which an unnamed white British director mimicked how he wanted the actor to move about in order to appear “more street.” After Townsend left the room, he overheard the man say, “Get me an n-word!” Townsend’s telling of the story is amusing, but that demeaning experience, along with countless others, give shape and authenticity to the satire that drives Hollywood Shuffle, much of which is only slight exaggerations of Townsend and co-writer Keenan Ivory Wayans’s actual experiences in Tinseltown.

Made for under $100,000 and shot on film stock that Townsend cobbled together from leftovers from the productions of various films he starred in during the previous few years, Hollywood Shuffle bears the markings of a passion project and the limitations of its shoestring budget. But for all the bad wigs and imperfect takes that were used because there was neither time nor money for a second, the film is the type of debut that sees its director, literally and figuratively, going for broke, keenly aware that this may be his only shot to ever work behind the camera.

The central narrative of Hollywood Shuffle involves Bobby’s (Townsend) auditions for and shooting of a blatantly racist blaxploitation film called Jivetime Jimmy’s Revenge. That film, written by one white man (Dom Irrera), directed by another (Eugene Robert Glazer), and cast by a white woman (Lisa Mende), is exactly the type of stereotypical work that Townsend and his friends were forced to take if they wanted to work in Hollywood.

Indeed, unless you were one of a small handful of Black stars in the mid-’80s, Black actors were forced to play to the worst stereotypes of their race, as shown by the J.J. Walker-esque strut and exaggerated voice that Bobby brings to his character’s much-repeated line: “I ain’t be got no weapon!” Hollywood Shuffle knows that, for actors like Townsend, it was either that or imitate Eddie Murphy. And in one of the film’s funniest sequences, Townsend pans around a waiting room full of actors dressed and acting like Murphy, and later has Irrera’s screenwriter decry his wish for his lead actor “to have a Murphy-like quality. To be Murphyesque. To be Murphonic.”

Hollywood Shuffle’s critiques go beyond just the casting and rehearsal process, and include everything from an homage to film noir and a Siskel and Ebert parody to a hysterical twist on the infomercial with “Black Acting School,” which promises to teach aspiring Black actors how to fit Hollywood’s limiting mold of Blackness. There’s also a number of dream sequences thrown in for good measure. The most memorable of these involves slaves escaping a plantation and fits in a Stepin Fetchit impersonation and a dig at the Mandingo stereotype—particularly damning as that character abandons two Black women to run off with his master’s wife.

Hollywood Shuffle is a bit uneven, but as silly as it often is, its swipes at Hollywood’s racism—both the blatant and subtle varieties—cut deep. And nearly 40 years after its release, many of the problems and shortcomings the film is mocking still remain sadly all too relevant.

Image/Sound

Hollywood Shuffle looks very good on the Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray. The new, restored 4K digital transfer boasts a sharp image, with fairly high detail and a high dynamic range of colors. Skin tones are extremely naturalistic, while the grain distribution is nice and even. For a film made for under $100,000, it looks like a million bucks. The lossless mono audio is good enough to get the job done, featuring crisp dialogue with no hisses or pops.

Extras

Robert Townsend provides a funny and enlightening new audio commentary, delving into the backstory of how Hollywood Shuffle was made, including the various guerrilla filmmaking tactics that he employed. Most interesting among these is how he got scraps of leftover 35mm film from other productions and how many of the exterior scenes, most filmed without permits, were shot early on Sunday mornings to avoid being detected by the police. He also goes into great depth about his time in Hollywood prior to film, describing the often humiliating and demeaning experiences that inspired even the most ridiculous scenes in Hollywood Shuffle.

Townsend shows up again in an audio-only interview with Elvis Mitchell on the latter’s NPR show, covering much of the same ground covered on the commentary. Also on the disc is an interview with actors Rusty Cundieff, Anne-Marie Johnson, and Bobby McGee, who touch upon their experiences in Hollywood as well as the rehearsal process on Hollywood Shuffle, which was important since Townsend often only had enough film for one or two takes. Rounding out the package is a foldout booklet with an essay by critic Aisha Harris, who deftly analyzes the inspiration for Townsend’s satire and how its targets have morphed in the ensuing decades.

Overall

Robert Townsend’s pointed satire of Hollywood racism gets a sharp new transfer and an essential audio commentary by the director courtesy of the Criterion Collection.