Hunters Point, a historically impoverished, predominantly African American district of south-east San Francisco, has a fascinating social history; in 1966, riots flared up in the area after white police officer Alvin Johnson shot Black teenager Matthew Johnson, who was running away from a stolen car. It is against this backdrop that I’m Charlie Walker, the second feature film in 11 years from director Patrick Gilles (Olive), takes place. The film is based on the true story of Hunters Point truck driver Charlie Walker (Mike Colter) and his successful bid for a contract to clean up the beaches in nearby Marin County following a catastrophic oil spill in January 1971. But despite some strong performances, the film tells a flawed story.
Walker had been trying unsuccessfully to obtain work, but his efforts were frustrated by racist local officials’ unwillingness to award transportation contracts to a Black man. Walker’s wife and the film’s occasional narrator, Ann (Safiya Fredericks), grows frustrated by her husband’s lack of prospects, and the family are at risk of losing their home within weeks. But when he hears of the spill via the local news, Walker senses an opportunity to save his family, and convinces the civic official in charge of the tendering process (Lyle Kanouse) to award him the cleanup contract. After encountering some obstacles, not least the covert racism of local businessmen Mr. Sharpe (Mark Leslie Ford) and Mr. Bennett (Dylan Baker, still looking implausibly boyish at 62), Walker’s clean-up operation is a success, and he becomes a relatively prominent local entrepreneur in the process—unfortunately provoking the anger of Northern California’s white business establishment.
I’m Charlie Walker is a mere 79 minutes long. This is an unpopular view to propound within contemporary film criticism, but the film would benefit from a longer running time. While the film rattles along entertainingly and engagingly for a good hour or so, its conclusion feels forced and rushed. This feeling is compounded by a pair of disclaimers appended to the end credits: the film is based on a true story but also completely fictional, and in real life, Charlie Walker served quite a bit of time in prison for his business activities. The viewer is left feeling that the film cannot be telling the complete truth about Walker’s character and dealings, and that his sympathetic character is to some degree embellished. Yet it doesn’t feel like the filmmakers intended to make a hagiography; such shortcomings seem like the result of a low budget that prevented Gilles and company from making the longer, more nuanced story that Walker and his historical moment deserved.
I’m Charlie Walker works perfectly well as a humorous, lightly dramatic period piece, with Colter, Fredericks, Ford and Baker all turning in credible performances. However, it is (by its own admission) an incomplete portrayal of its protagonist and his struggles with institutional racism in ‘70s California. Its story could have been told more satisfyingly in the form of a longer film or TV mini-series.
Photo courtesy of SHOUT! STUDIOS
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