I have been hearing about the soloist since just after I moved out to Los Angeles I was intrigued by it from the very beginning. I think because when I saw the trailer it made me think, "That looks really good". Ever since those early days in LA I have changed quite a bit. I have also come to learn a lot more about the story than I ever would have if I was still living in Illinois. Just to fill you in the LACW does extensive work on skid row and that is exactly where this story takes place. We also don't have that great of a relationship with Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr's character). Way back before I had ever heard of the Catholic Worker they were fighting to get port-a-potties on the row. Which they finally did get accomplished after a lot of hard work I am sure.
So here comes Steve Lopez who works for the LA times and he starts writing columns on skid row and about Nathaniel (Jamie Foxx's character). He writes an article about the port-a-potties on the row and how they are being used for prostitution and drugs. But he neglected to also say that these port-a-potties were being cleaned out daily and they were removing thousands of pounds of fecal matter per day. That's a lot of shit that would otherwise have to be defecated on the streets out in front of the whole world. So as soon as this article came out the public demanded that these port-a-potties be removed from skid row. Which was a huge defeat for our community and we blamed Steve Lopez for it, although he did not take responsibility for it. We really just don't understand how he could see what is happening to Nathaniel and all the rest of the homeless population and then concentrate all his efforts on one individual who has an interesting back story.
So you could see why our community really doesn't like Steve Lopez. But also we see this relationship between Steve and Nathaniel and we know that this is a meaningful relationship because we have the same kind of relationship with many of the guys on skid row and many of them have just as fascinating a story as Nathaniel does.
As for the movie, I went and saw it last night. It was heartbreaking on so many levels. The severity of mental illness that I see every day was very apparent. The abuse of the homeless by the police was also portrayed well, another thing which I am reminded of almost daily. The complete exploitation of this individual to make money off his story was heartbreaking. The self-righteousness of Steve Lopez was also sad. The fact that he thought he was a more important person than these people that live on the street. The fact that he saw this man and immediately demanded that he see a doctor and then get medication was heartbreaking. The fact that there are 90,000 homeless in the Los Angeles area was just a blurb before the credits.
This was in no way an inspiring movie. Nor was it even a very good movie I think as far as movies go it lacked many elements that could have made it better. A more complete back story on Nathaniel, a more extensive look at Lopez's relationship with his ex wife. They could have also left out several scenes about Lopez's pest problem which has nothing to do with the story. But I do think that it portrayed the mental illness of Nathaniel, life on skid row, and the police's solution to it very well.
There was one scene that showed skid row at night also. They made it look very animated. Everyone was getting high or drinking and there was fights in the middle of the street. At first I thought, "That's not even close to what its like on the street at night". Whenever I go to the kitchen at night all you see is people lining the sidewalk trying to sleep. However this morning I was telling Jeff about it and he was like you know back when Lopez was writing those articles that kind of thing would not have been to uncommon down here. So I guess it is more accurate than I thought.
They also used many of the people that eat at our kitchen as extras. I recognized several of them especially the old lady with the scarf over her head that Steve Lopez talks to at the lamp community. We call her the cat lady, she always leaves cat food at our back gate for the many stray cats that live in our garden, we have to sweep it up every morning. I think her name is Caroline. They actually show her feeding some cats during the part when Nathaniel is saying the lords prayer.
After the movie was over on the way home I was talking to Jason, one of our volunteers that took me to the movie (thanks again Jason). We were talking about the police harassment scene and to my surprise he put the relationship between the kind of thing that police are doing here now with the type of thing police were doing in New York back when he lived there. Which is because the police commissioner Bill Bratton who successfully "cleaned up" New York with more police moved to LA. Since then he has began something called Safer City Initiative. Under SCI the number of cops on skid row has doubled and people are arrested for jaywalking or spitting or sleeping on the sidewalk during the day. The problem of homelessness translates to unlawfulness to people like Bratton.
I guess what I really want to get across is to remind you that there are people that have given their whole lives to helping the people of skid row. They work without any recognition and dedicate all their time to helping these people. And then here comes Lopez with the power of a global audience of the LA Times. He spends a little time down here he writes a few articles and then leaves. I also want to stress the fact that Nathaniel is just one case out of tens of thousands many of them just as sever or worse than his. But yet he is the only one you will hear unless you come down here and get to know some of them.
I would suggest going to see the movie. But just keep in mind that this life is a reality for thousands of people. And don't think that Lopez is some kind of hero. The real heroes are here every day and you will probably never hear about them.
So here comes Steve Lopez who works for the LA times and he starts writing columns on skid row and about Nathaniel (Jamie Foxx's character). He writes an article about the port-a-potties on the row and how they are being used for prostitution and drugs. But he neglected to also say that these port-a-potties were being cleaned out daily and they were removing thousands of pounds of fecal matter per day. That's a lot of shit that would otherwise have to be defecated on the streets out in front of the whole world. So as soon as this article came out the public demanded that these port-a-potties be removed from skid row. Which was a huge defeat for our community and we blamed Steve Lopez for it, although he did not take responsibility for it. We really just don't understand how he could see what is happening to Nathaniel and all the rest of the homeless population and then concentrate all his efforts on one individual who has an interesting back story.
So you could see why our community really doesn't like Steve Lopez. But also we see this relationship between Steve and Nathaniel and we know that this is a meaningful relationship because we have the same kind of relationship with many of the guys on skid row and many of them have just as fascinating a story as Nathaniel does.
As for the movie, I went and saw it last night. It was heartbreaking on so many levels. The severity of mental illness that I see every day was very apparent. The abuse of the homeless by the police was also portrayed well, another thing which I am reminded of almost daily. The complete exploitation of this individual to make money off his story was heartbreaking. The self-righteousness of Steve Lopez was also sad. The fact that he thought he was a more important person than these people that live on the street. The fact that he saw this man and immediately demanded that he see a doctor and then get medication was heartbreaking. The fact that there are 90,000 homeless in the Los Angeles area was just a blurb before the credits.
This was in no way an inspiring movie. Nor was it even a very good movie I think as far as movies go it lacked many elements that could have made it better. A more complete back story on Nathaniel, a more extensive look at Lopez's relationship with his ex wife. They could have also left out several scenes about Lopez's pest problem which has nothing to do with the story. But I do think that it portrayed the mental illness of Nathaniel, life on skid row, and the police's solution to it very well.
There was one scene that showed skid row at night also. They made it look very animated. Everyone was getting high or drinking and there was fights in the middle of the street. At first I thought, "That's not even close to what its like on the street at night". Whenever I go to the kitchen at night all you see is people lining the sidewalk trying to sleep. However this morning I was telling Jeff about it and he was like you know back when Lopez was writing those articles that kind of thing would not have been to uncommon down here. So I guess it is more accurate than I thought.
They also used many of the people that eat at our kitchen as extras. I recognized several of them especially the old lady with the scarf over her head that Steve Lopez talks to at the lamp community. We call her the cat lady, she always leaves cat food at our back gate for the many stray cats that live in our garden, we have to sweep it up every morning. I think her name is Caroline. They actually show her feeding some cats during the part when Nathaniel is saying the lords prayer.
After the movie was over on the way home I was talking to Jason, one of our volunteers that took me to the movie (thanks again Jason). We were talking about the police harassment scene and to my surprise he put the relationship between the kind of thing that police are doing here now with the type of thing police were doing in New York back when he lived there. Which is because the police commissioner Bill Bratton who successfully "cleaned up" New York with more police moved to LA. Since then he has began something called Safer City Initiative. Under SCI the number of cops on skid row has doubled and people are arrested for jaywalking or spitting or sleeping on the sidewalk during the day. The problem of homelessness translates to unlawfulness to people like Bratton.
I guess what I really want to get across is to remind you that there are people that have given their whole lives to helping the people of skid row. They work without any recognition and dedicate all their time to helping these people. And then here comes Lopez with the power of a global audience of the LA Times. He spends a little time down here he writes a few articles and then leaves. I also want to stress the fact that Nathaniel is just one case out of tens of thousands many of them just as sever or worse than his. But yet he is the only one you will hear unless you come down here and get to know some of them.
I would suggest going to see the movie. But just keep in mind that this life is a reality for thousands of people. And don't think that Lopez is some kind of hero. The real heroes are here every day and you will probably never hear about them.
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