Great Character: Nola Darling (“She’s Gotta Have It”)
This month’s theme: Attractor characters. Today: Nola Darling from She’s Gotta Have It, written and directed by Spike Lee.
For Spike Lee’s 1986 feature film debut, Brooklyn New York’s Dean of Cinema transformed roughly $185,000, 12 shooting days, black and white film stock and a cast of vibrant non-stereotypical three-dimensional African-American characters into She’s Gotta Have It. The result was the first Spike Lee Joint that he wrote, directed, produced and acted in, the birth of Spike’s 40 Acres & a Mule Filmworks banner, over $7 million in box office receipts, and prestigious rewards bestowed by the Cannes Film Festival, Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Spike Lee’s Mars Blackman character even became the comedic crony to arguably the greatest NBA basketball player ever — Michael Jordan — in their classic Air Jordan Nike commercials. All of these accolades emerged from Mr. Lee’s fearless creation of a refreshingly unconventional lead character: an upwardly independent, sexually liberated African-American woman named Nola Darling.
She’s Gotta Have It from IMDB: Story of a woman and her three lovers.
Against the backdrop of the same culturally eclectic enclave of creativity that Spike Lee himself emerged from — Fort Green Brooklyn, Nola Darling holds down her own spacious loft apartment, crafts artwork for a living, and ignites passionate candlelight around a nocturnal shrine, better known as her bed. Breaking the fourth wall and addressing us directly, Nola makes us aware of her “don’t judge me” belief in uncommitted sexual freedom.
NOLA DARLING: I consider myself normal, whatever that means. Some people call me a freak. I hate that word. I don’t believe in it. Better yet, I hate labels.
Nola has three male suitors that are vying for primary consideration status during their scheduled intimate arrangements. Greer Childs makes the most money, but has an insatiable ego of arrogant vanity. Mars Blackmon’s strength is his sense of humor, but unfortunately his sense of responsibility is something to laugh at. Then there is Nola’s happy medium, Jamie Overstreet: romantic, mature and has a knack for popping up with poems and performance art birthday gifts.
NOLA DARLING: It’s really about control, my body, my mind. Who was going to own it? Them? Or me? I’m not a one-man woman. Bottom line.
All three men are completely aware of their shared space in Nola’s bed sheets, but she is one magnetic attractor character who is in complete control of their destinies of passion. The beauty of Nola Darling is that she is sexually active without being portrayed as a sex object. If anyone could be considered a “piece of meat” for pleasure in She’s Gotta Have It, it is the men who settle for part time privacy with her.
Nola is sexy, smart, ambitious, and is totally comfortable gripping the steering wheel of her sex drive in and out of lustful lanes of traffic. She challenges the double standard of promiscuous males leaping from lover to lover that women get socially shamed for.
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=eavU9
Ms. Darling is practicing polyamory without deceit; each partner is fully aware that their relationship with Nola is wide open — whether they want it to be or not. Nola doesn’t feed men what she thinks they want to hear, she is straight up about her intentions and desires for satisfaction.
NOLA DARLING: In my experiences, I found two types of men: the decent ones and the dogs. It seems that men are taught not to be in touch with themselves, with their true feelings. But the things that they do say? WEAK.
Aside from Jamie, Greer and Mars, Nola has also innocently initiated the arousal of her female friend Opal. But Nola Darling’s sexual curiosities don’t appear to lead towards same-sex exploration. They do lead towards Greer labeling Nola a “sex addict,” but he conveniently has no intention of rehabbing her with celibacy.
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=9LJn
Whether men or women disagree with the unadulterated multiplicity of Nola Darling’s sex life, she is still a confident career woman, not a prostitute sexing men for rent money and bus tokens. She’s Gotta Have It reminds all consenting adults that sexual urges are not just a bi-product of “a man’s world” — they are universal desires that we are all entitled to.
For her open honesty, her reshaping of female gender roles and her unabashed control over her needs and wants — Nola Darling is an incredibly GREAT CHARACTER.
In my experiences, I found two types of men: the decent ones and the dogs. That alone is worth the price of admission for this film as we know right away we are interfacing with a compelling woman the likes of which, especially up to 1986, we had not often seen on screen. Plus the fact Nola has many suitors makes her an especially intriguing Attractor figure.
Thank you, Jason, for this post. Please hit Reply and join us in comments to discuss She’s Gotta Have It.
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