'Friday' And Its Cultural Impact On America- Chris "Preach" Smith

Photo Credit: New Line Cinema

No, that title isn’t an attempt at clickbait. 

It isn’t because when you think of what the 1995 film has
become in the twenty years since it’s release, how ingrained
it has been into the psyche of folks across the nation and
across generations…it’s more than justified. And by the time
you finish this article, we’ll have detailed exactly why Friday
has become so ingrained in American culture to the point 
where it’s now mainstream.

When Friday was released by New Line Cinema back then, I
was about to graduate high school. It had gotten some press,
but not a whole lot was expected of it off the bat. Mainly due
to the fact that the mainstream press looked at Friday as a
‘Black film’ and therefore in the way that they can, treated it
with an air of slight dismissal. In hindsight, it was a curious
move given that hip-hop combined with cinema had gained a
certain appeal with Ernest Dickinson’s Juice, and the two major
hits by John Singleton, Boyz N The Hood and Poetic Justice.
But this film was different, in that Ice Cube wrote the screenplay
at the suggestive influence of Singleton along with DJ Pooh. After
shopping it around, New Line Cinema picked it up and ran with it.
Looking at the original ad in The Source now, with Cube & comedian
Chris Tucker softly scowling out at you from Craig’s porch, you
didn’t know what to expect. But the moment the first weekend
ended, I swear to you that it seemed like EVERYBODY was talking
about Friday. Bootleggers were making money hand over fist with
sales of it wherever you went. The flick, done on a three and a
half million dollar budget, would go on to gross close to three
times that amount by the end of its theatrical release. That’s a
staggering amount of money for a ‘hood’ flick. 

I guarantee you any amount of money that people who haven’t
even seen the film can utter lines from Friday at the drop of a
dime. Take “Bye Felicia” for example. Craig & Smokey’s casual
dismissal of one of the local dopefiends, played by Angela Means,
is so much a part of American vernacular thanks to it being a 
key weapon used by well-renowned news analyst and ESPN host
Keith Olbermann. And in a funny twist, Means reached out to
Olbermann via Twitter - to connect and talk about her son, now
playing for the University of Miami. I remember being out in
Tulum, Mexico years ago and hearing one of the tour bus drivers
repeating one of Smokey’s classic lines - ‘it’s made from the earth,
for you and me!’. And of course: ‘you got knocked THE FUCK OUT!!’
The entire movie is quotable. You don’t find that too often with
films, even with the  more celebrated films of John Huston and
other celebrated American filmmakers. From bodega owners to
cabbies to even the most saintly of older ladies(let’s not even lie
on that one), lines from the movie have become ingrained in our
popular vocabulary. It’s a testament to how magnetic Friday was
and is. Try dropping one of those lines today - although if you’re
at work, use discretion because I don’t want to be the reason you
get fired.

 
Of course, every great film has a good or equally great soundtrack. 
Friday’s soundtrack fits the bill with a fine selection of tracks that 
mostly speak to the love of marijuana. Rick James’ iconic ‘Mary Jane’
on the soundtrack? Check. Dr. Dre stepping in with a new head-nodding
entry, ‘Keep Their Heads Ringin’? Check. Cypress Hill, Mack 10, and 
even Southern California soul band Rose Royce? Double check. It 
continued that tradition that dated back to Gordon Parks & Issac Hayes’
Shaft of making sure you were satiated with the visuals and the audio
backdrop. It also ensured that there was going to be some major dollars
rolling in since Dre and Cube were at their prime in the rap game during
this time and building their respective empires. The other aspect of this ties
into the next point - the ‘stoner buddy’ genre. Friday is that bridge that
ties the legendary Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke to this generation’s
versions found in flicks like ‘Pineapple Express’. Stoner comedies, the
mere fact that weed consumption is accepted in movies without any 
heavy stigma these days is because of how palatable Friday made it to
folks. It wasn’t just the domain of white people toking up in an element
that was counter-culture. Look at Bernie Mac’s pastor character reaching
for Smokey’s joint saying ‘lemme have some of that for my cataract.’
Faizon Love as Big Worm making transactions from the ice cream truck.
Friday transmitted these day-to-day situations involving weed without it
taking on any left-field plot progressions. It also took elements found in
the ‘hood that we’ve had issues with, like Eziel and Felicia the dopefiends
and looked at their comedic angles. Serious messages are embedded in 
the flick like stray seeds within a spliff, like drug addiction, drug dealing 
and violence in the community. But it does give Friday a special weight
in how each situation gets handled. I still say that one of the great John
Weatherspoon’s scenes is when he finds Craig with the gun and sheds
the comedy for an instant to basically tell him that all you need to be a
man to protect yourself is your fists. It might be simplistic to some,
but for all the weed-induced moments of hilarity, there’s at least those
scenes that tie it all together to make another day in the ‘hood that more
real to whoever’s watching.

I can’t finish this article without commenting on the fact that the cast
of Friday is another reason for this film being a vertiable classic. It’s a 
perfect blend of personas and everyone brought their A-game to the 
set. Take Craig’s mom, played by Anna Marie Horsford. She was a veteran
actress to this point, most known for her role as Thelma on NBC’s ‘Amen’.
Look at the late Bernie Mac - he had ONE real scene and made that whole
scene memorable, line for line, with his banter with Smokey and his 
seduction of Ms. Parker. And you remember Ms. Parker. Sweet Jesus,
Kathleen Bradley. Thank you for inspiring more appreciation for mature
Black women.  The point being, Friday was also a benchmark in comedies
like this being a blueprint on how casting can make or break a Black film.
And Nia Long as Debbie? Regina King as Craig’s sister? FOINE AND DOUBLE
FOINE. (Plus Paula Jai Parker as Craig’s hoodrat girlfriend, nails and all.)
I can assure you that Tyler Perry took notes on that as evidenced by his
film casts. You also have to give F.Gary Gray major props - this was the first
film for for the music video director, and he knocked it out of the park to build 
a solid career in Hollywood including ‘Set It Off.‘ 

Friday is getting the love and respect it deserves from the mainstream
now, and it’s about time it did. One supreme example will take place
today as the film will be shown again in 400 theaters nationwide. On
4/20. Heh. Friday went on to have two sequels, Next Friday and Friday
After Next which were decent. But the magic found in the first film is 
hard to replicate. Which is why Friday deserves a spot in American cinema
on the same plane as Up In Smoke and other counter-culture comedies
that film critics fawn over. And if there is going to be a fourth film, the 
only thing I(and many of us) need to see is for F.Gary Gray and Chris
Tucker to be back in the fold.