Perry's Unique Story

            Perry’s movies include Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea’s Family Reunion, Daddy’s Little Girl, and last fall’s Why Did I Get Married, a movie with a positive message about traditional marriage and family. His sitcom, House of Payne airs on TBS. When the network first offered to produce a sitcom for Perry, it asked that he tone down his religious content, something he absolutely refused to do. Eventually, Perry was able to make the show on his own terms. Apart from his Christianity, Perry is also unique as a movie maker whose success came first as a playwright, and as a black man who made movies about African American life that don’t center in cliché stories about drug dealers and gangs.

            Perry tells stories about wealthy black professionals as well as poor black neighborhoods, about lawyers as well as drug addicts, about saints as well as sinners, and about the rich heritage of African American music—jazz, blues, and gospel music—without a single rap/hip-hop song to be heard in any of his movies. Perry’s comic characters are definitely caricatures: the frumpy old man who has no manners, no tact, and no apparent kindness, and the wise old “big mama,” the recurring and well loved character, Madea, who loves gambling as much as she loves Jesus and who’s just as likely to shoot you as she is to feed you. But Perry’s dramatic characters are real people whose problems become ours as they work toward salvation, redemption, and forgiveness by story’s end.

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            Several of Tyler Perry’s plays, recorded live, have been released on DVD. I enjoyed Madea Goes to Jail and Madea’s Class Reunion for their mix of humor, drama, soulful music—including some powerful gospel performances belted from the heart by some of the best singers Atlanta has to offer—and Christian answers to tough problems. The stories are not “happily” Christian—everything is fine and wonderful and the people are all good. They deserve PG-13 ratings for mild language and drug use and sexual humor which isn’t crude but isn’t holy either. Madea smokes, carries a gun, and doesn’t go to church, though her friends tell her to all the time. But the plays are filled with struggling prayers, with faith in God to overcome obstacles, and with bold, even unpopular statements of Christian truth. To a young woman who is desperate to hold onto her husband and buy back his love, her mother replies, “If you could afford love, Jesus wouldn’t’ve had to go to Calvary” (Madea’s Class Reunion). In Madea Goes to Jail, Madea teaches her foster child that, whatever she prays, she should “stamp it” with “in the name of Jesus” to be sure it gets there.

            Between the plays and the movies there is some repetition. Perry’s favorite themes are family, overcoming urban problems (especially drugs), the heart broken black woman who, even if she’s financially well off, can’t find happiness if she can’t value herself and forgive those who have hurt her, and the tender black man who says no to sex before marriage and brings restoration to the woman’s heart. Diary of a Mad Black Woman is the most disturbing of the films I watched. It begins with a rich woman, Helen, being physically thrown out of her house while her husband’s girl friend and two children move in. Later in the film, she exacts disturbing revenge, but she learns she must forgive her ex-husband (Charles) for her sake as well as his. And when she tells her mother, “Charles was my everything,” her mother replies in no uncertain terms, “God is your everything. Don’t you know he’s a jealous God. He’ll have no man before him.” Other wonderful moments of truth in the film include when Madea proclaims that “love is stronger than any addiction…it is one,” and when the preacher at church, half preaching, half singing with the choir, says that it’s not Buddha or Muhammad they call on but “Jesus that they crave.”

            Daddy’s Little Girls and Madea’s Family Reunion also begin with difficult circumstances but end just as positively as all of Tyler Perry’s stories and with just as much openness toward expressing Christian answers to life’s problems. Of all the movies and plays I got to see, I enjoyed Madea’s Family Reunion the most. I think you’ll find it the funniest of the bunch and the film best suited for your children (no younger than 12!) to watch. Personally I’m again pleased to see Christians making inroads in an industry where they can have a powerful affect on people.