Dolemite is My Name and Eddie Murphy's Comeback
Dolemite Is My Name. Image courtesy of Netflix.
Don't call it a comeback
I've been here for years
I'm rocking my peers
Puttin' suckers in fear- LL Cool J, Mama Said Knock You Out
It feels like a comeback to me, though. I watched Dolemite is My Name with my wife in 2020 and she had no idea who Eddie Murphy was. She is Indonesian, so I can see how it would be hard to fully understand how popular Eddie Murphy was in the 1980s, or the extent of his cultural impact. It would also no doubt be hard to understand why he faded so thoroughly from the public arena. Whatever the reason, Dolemite is My Name reminds us of Murphy’s star power, his charisma. The film is boilerplate biopic stuff - a gang of likable, spirited underdogs band together to beat the odds. Essentially every beat and character arc can be seen coming a mile away.
And yet, the film is still enjoyable to watch thanks largely to Murphy’s screen presence. The dynamism that made him a star in the 1980s hasn’t lost its shine. The fact that the film also tells a somewhat obscure, but compelling, story firmly rooted in black culture with echoes of Murphy’s own showbiz rise helps add another layer of meaning and complexity. Murphy’s raunchy stand-up is legendary, so he’s a natural fit for the role of Dolemite, another legendary entertainer who made his name on being unabashedly coarse.
Rudy Ray More (alias Dolemite) is an interesting figure, one I knew nothing about before I watched the film. But his story is a crazy one and biopics like this that tell the stories of black entertainers are rare enough indeed. Dolemite is My Name intrigued me after I finished watching it - basically I was left wondering how much of it actually happened, since it seemed on its face so insane. So I ended up in a Wikipedia rabbit hole after the credits rolled and was amazed to find out that the events depicted in the film are mainly true to life. Discovering and watching clips from the real Dolemite film on Youtube was probably the best part about the whole experience.
So it’s nice to see Eddie Murphy using his still considerable star power and influence to ensure that this film got made, and that the story of a black entertainer who many people would be unaware of today got told. I would also be remiss if I did not mention Wesley Snipes. He is an absolute scene-stealer. The wild costuming also deserves a mention. Dolemite is My Name is not groundbreaking in a narrative or structural way - but it does tell a story that wouldn’t usually see the light of day in Hollywood. And what a story it is! Maybe a century from now when Eddie Murphy’s biopic hits the silver screen, audiences will be equally wowed by how crazy his rise and fall was. And maybe they too will look up clips of his old movies and chuckle about how weird it was that in the 1990s there was a film-going audience happy to pay money to watch Eddie Murphy in a variety of fat suits sitting around a table farting.
