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With the arrival of Alex Wheatle, the fourth of the five installments that make up Small axSteve McQueen’s uncompromising and penetrating series of hour-long dramas centered on the experience of the black immigrant community in Britain after WWII, the emerging central concern is the hypocrisy involved in the nation that presents the welcome mat to newcomers in the first place while denying opportunity once they have arrived. The theme could hardly be clearer than in this episode, which sees the eponymous young man bouncing back for years through social services before becoming involved in the Brixton uprising in April 1981. The reason we see a movie about him now is that, a few years later, Wheatle has become a successful writer.
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The fierce police brutality of the London police is a recurring feature of McQueen’s compelling series; authorities shut down popular Caribbean restaurant in Mangrove, and veteran officers make life very difficult for token black recruit Red, white and blue. Here the focus is on the eponymous teenager (Sheyi Cole), whose father cheated on him about the government when the child was only 3 years old. Her mother returned to Jamaica, never to be heard again.
How many young men survive, let alone fulfilled, faced with such deprivation? Alex is lean and light, never one to win a fist fight or even a run. McQueen doubles the miserable misfortune of the child; he is brutalized and called a “horrible and mean little boy” by his adoptive mother, who does not resist hitting him. He suffered at the hands of a much larger cellmate during incarceration and was later in a straight shirt. The Whites bombard him with “African” mockery.
As an adult and saying goodbye to school, Alex is offered a dilapidated room in a social service hostel in the then severely depressed Brixton district. Like Oliver Twist, he has to scramble and think fast if he is to keep his head above water in London’s underworld; he shovels a plate of food in seconds flat, a trick he learned from a young age if he wanted to prevent other boys from taking him away. Having his afro haircut in an attempt to fit in, he still has adaptation problems due to his good school pronunciation. “Your accent sounds too English,” a street kid told him, informing him that learning Rastafarian is a must.
Americans and others will have issues with the thick island dialect that dominates much of the dialogue, but the challenges this physically unwilling boy is facing are pretty clear as he tries to do what the lads street expect him, more than a few of them. the criminals who dominate the roost in the neighborhood. He finds a job at a nightclub, but he can’t escape less desirable tasks for his tough elders, who need to test his loyalty.
Powder keg of discontent and anarchy, breathes Brixton; hundreds of cars were set on fire during the riots of April 10-12, 1981, many businesses were damaged and 279 police officers were injured, compared to only 45 members of the public; remarkably, no fatalities were caused by the clashes. While sleeping in his room, Alex becomes one of 82 people arrested, but it sets the stage for how this “lonely boy” discovers literature and the use of the mind. “Education is the key,” an old Rastafarian told him. “If you don’t know your past, you won’t know your future.” Thus inspired, we are told, the youngster became serious in a way that led to his successful writing career.
As powerful as Wheatle’s life story is in how the young man overcame adversity to set himself on a promising path, the 66-minute film seems rather conventional in its narrative approach and not particularly illuminating his character. ; It’s no The 400 blows. McQueen and Alastair Siddons’ screenplay (the latter also collaborated with the director on two other episodes, Mangrove and the next one Education; he also wrote the sad 2018 Grave robber) shed light on how the legal system and personal perseverance (as in Mangrove and Red, white and blue, respectively) played a pivotal role in the breakthroughs that caused significant repercussions and changes in society and official practices. In Wheatle’s case, his discovery of writing and advancing his career came after what is portrayed in the film.
Here we see the fuse light up, but do not witness the resulting explosion.
Previous reviews on ‘Small Ax’
Movie Review: Steve McQueen’s “ Mangrove ” ‘Small Ax’ Opener
Movie Review: ‘Lovers Rock’ by Steve McQueen
Movie Review: ‘Red, White And Blue’ by Steve McQueen with John Boyega
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