Trigger warning: talks of racial violence
If you’ve never heard of Billie Holiday, you’ll know her after watching the biopic, The United States v. Billie Holiday, exclusively on Hulu. This movie released in February 2021 is exactly what we need at the end of Black History month and the start of Women’s History month.
The film starts with Holiday being interviewed about her career, but we soon see the questions focusing more on her controversial song, Strange Fruit. Strange Fruit was a song that featured a very graphic depiction of lynchings that were happening all over the country. The movie follows Holiday through her life at its most trying moments, including her halted performance of Strange Fruit, being arrested and sent to jail, and her ongoing addiction to heroin. It ends with her tragic death in 1959, when she was 44 years old.
As much as I think this movie was needed to educate us all on Holiday, there were a few things that I did not like. The film jumped around in time a lot, and did not always explain who the characters were. I admittedly do not know much about Holiday, so if you were going to watch this movie, I would recommend researching her life and her relationships before doing that. The other thing that I did not particularly like was the intense focus on Holiday’s struggles. Most of the film was about her addiction or her relationship issues, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but how the film was advertised, I thought it would be more about her activism and fight against racial violence and injustice.
The one light that shone brightly through the whole movie was Andra Day’s performance as Billie Holiday. Everything about her portrayal was perfect, from the emotion, the acting, and the singing. The thing that shocked me the most throughout was how Andra Day managed to sound just like Billie Holiday when she was singing. The whole soundtrack to the film was amazing, and fit the tone of every situation perfectly. Holiday’s music is so interesting to listen to anyway; her voice is raspy and light, which fits the style of jazz and blues so well, but it’s her songwriting that made her such a star. Her songs are raw and real, and tend to be relatable to anyone who listens to them. I have listened to a few of her more popular songs, and aside from being a very successful jazz singer, she accomplished so much more in her life. Her songs started conversations, especially Strange Fruit.
When this song was released in 1954, racial violence was still rampant, and segregation still being enforced. Holiday wanted to push people, to make them see how horrible their situation was. One of the most striking things about the film was seeing the duality of the white people. They would buy tickets to her sold-out shows, but then enforce segregation and ignore racial violence. Holiday was renowned as a superstar every time she walked on a stage, but she could not even ride in the same elevator up to her friend’s room. To see these injustices through Holiday’s eyes was so educational, obviously we are all taught about segregation, but we never learn about how it felt. In these moments especially, Andra Day’s performance was exquisite. I could feel her emotion in those scenes, her anger and frustration. It was like watching Billie Holiday from the 1940s and 1950s, Andra Day really embodied Holiday’s spirit and her story so she could portray her accurately on the silver screen.
Even though there were aspects of the film that I did not love, this was what we needed to see in 2021 at the end of Black History Month and the start of Women’s History Month. It was incredible to see a powerful, successful, and struggling woman of color on the screen. We as a society need to advocate for more. More education, more awareness, and more movies like The United States v. Billie Holiday to help us achieve that.