(2008)Mark DemingWashington D.C. may be the capitol of the most powerful nation on Earth, but there's a side to the city that most folks who don't live there will never see, where a largely African-American population and a sizable economic underclass stands in the shadows of the halls of power. Petey Greene hardly seemed like a likely person to give this side of Washington D.C. a public voice -- he was a former junkie and alcoholic who had done time for armed robbery -- but Greene was a man with the gift of gab and he wasn't the least bit afraid to use it. In 1966, Greene landed a talk show on the Washington D.C. radio station WOL, and Greene became an overnight sensation with his outrageous humor, blunt street-wise commentary about racial and political issues and insistence that everyone who came on his show talk to him on his own level, from local political leaders to folks off the street. In 1976, Greene's success on radio led to a local television show, Petey Greene's Washington, which gained a nationwide audience when it was picked up by the fledgling BET network in 1980. Greene was a hero to the local D.C. community until he succumbed to liver cancer in 1984, and if story sounds like it would be fodder for a good movie, so far it has provided the basis for two worthwhile films. Don Cheadle played Petey Greene in Talk To Me, a 2007 drama based on his life, but Adjust Your Color: The Truth Of Petey Greene is a documentary produced for PBS that lets us see the real Petey Greene in action. Most documentary filmmakers would give their right arm for a subject like Petey Greene -- the man was brash, funny, charismatic and utterly fearless, willing to say anything that he believed in and able to swing from a candid appraisal of the fun side of drug abuse to a heartfelt celebration of the grandmother who raised him at a moment's notice. The footage of Greene on his television show (taken from tapes believed to have been lost for twenty-five years) is the heart and soul of Adjust Your Color, and while there are eloquent tributes to the man delivered by those who knew him well (including sportscaster James Brown, actor Robert Hooks, D.C. music legend Chuck Brown, former mayor Marion Barry Jr., boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and Dewey Hughes, the producer of Petey's television show), Greene dominates the screen whenever he's on camera, and despite (and sometimes because of) the rough edges of his style, it's not hard to imagine how Greene became a local hero. One remarkable moment comes when Greene welcomes to his show Howard Stern, then a disc jockey on a local radio station; Stern shows up in blackface and an Afro wig, but Greene defends Stern while cutting him down to size at the same time, and watching the King of Outrage banter with someone even more gifted than himself offers a perspective on where Stern learned a few of his tricks. Adjust Your Color portrays Greene as a man who, in the tradition of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce, used over-the-top humor as an instrument of commentary and change, and as fine as Talk To Me was, this profile of Greene offers a more accurate picture of his talents and his legacy.
Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene on AllMovie
Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene (2008)
Discover the story of America's first shock jock in this documentary detailing how legendary radio personality Petey Greene fought poverty, addiction, and stint behind bars to become a leading activist during one of America's most turbulent periods. Narrated by actor Don Cheadle (who played Greene in the 2007 film Talk to Me), Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene shows why everyone from the ghetto to the White House could identify with his universal message of understanding. By bringing taboo words and concepts out into the open, Greene effectively commanded his followers to confront their own prejudices. Greene wasn't afraid to use raw language in order to make a point, and his brash style was often seen as a direct threat to the establishment, but his fight against the powers that be would ultimately be eclipsed by his battle to overcome his own personal demons.
