John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020)

John Lewis: Good Trouble (aka Untitled John Robert Lewis Documentary) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

John Lewis has continued to remain a constant in the battle of civil rights that he’s made himself loud and known that this fight is not over. He addresses a crowd where he reveals his past work of being an activist in the 1960s alongside the likes of Martin Luther King. He talks about how back then he got into trouble and was arrested. He then remarks on how he continues to become arrested as a political representative in congress. He expects to be arrested again as well. All of this is in the name of causing good trouble, the kind that is written about in history book. Lewis hopes we’ll do the same kind of rousing as well.

This documentary takes care to show Lewis’s history and present in a nonlinear fashion. When addressing his past, he is placed on a stage where he views footage of past protests where he has taken part. He admits to having never seen this footage before of the violence and clash with police over civil rights. He watches with quiet dignity and thought about how far we’ve come. At the same time, however, he knows this fight is not over, even stating so directly towards the camera before watching the footage. We get to see the archival footage as well though it’s more intriguing to hear Lewis speak of first meeting MLK with a twinge of fear for being the presence of such a figure.

Lewis comes off in this film as someone laser-focused on the rights of the black community. The scenes where he is not portrayed as delivering a speech find him either checking his phone for updates on elections or reading the newspaper quietly. One of his more relaxed moments finds him feeding chickens, a chore he’s been used to since childhood. Though he shows affection towards his feathered friends, he doesn’t breakdown as a more sensitive or silly man. He remains devoted to the concerns of the people in every candid moment. When he goes out to get the paper, he’s silent. He reads the paper for a few moments before telling the camera that he has had nightmares about picking up the paper and reading headlines of civil rights he’d fought for being destroyed. It’s only a nightmare though and there’s no time for despair when the black community is in danger.

Good Trouble isn’t so much a deep-dive on the 80-year-old congress representative and civil rights leader as it is a flowery portrait of an important figure whose work is not yet done. The film does feature talking heads of other civil rights activists and Democrats who speak highly of Lewis but without a whole lot of insight into the man, delivering words more akin to that of a hagiography than a biography. The film more or less takes great focus of Lewis’s work during the Trump Presidency, to which he has been very of his disapproval. Lewis did not attend the inauguration and spoke of how he could see the writings on the wall with such a man who will be a burden for civil rights. He wasn’t wrong, as voter suppression kicked back up after laws were subverted under this administration. Trump has also made it clear he’s not going to work with Lewis, stating on Twitter that Lewis is all talk, no action, and should focus on cleaning up his own community before slandering the President. Lewis’s fight for civil rights hasn’t ended, only grown much tougher since 2016.

This documentary plays more like the greatest hits of John Lewis’s legacy without as much contemplation but perhaps that’s the point. Lewis’s many speeches are loud and invigorating, inspiring the black community to not give up, and don’t worry about getting into trouble if it’s for the right reasons. It’s an important picture even if it seems mostly to be presented as a classroom introduction.