André Holland stars as Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton in the series from Jim Hecht and Janine Sherman Barrois.
The Big Picture
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The Big Cigar
tells the true story of Huey Newton’s escape to Cuba through a fake movie plan. - The series focuses on Newton as a man, conflicted by his past and present, with emphasis on his human side.
- Despite its political depth, the show falls short of fully exploring the character development of its co-protagonist Bert Schneider.
Back in 1974, Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton (André Holland) found himself in a pretty dire situation. Accused of the murder of 17-year-old sex trafficking victim Kathleen Smith, he faced a difficult choice: either leave behind his family and the organization that he helped create in Oakland, California, and flee the country, or face yet another stint in prison, an experience that had already broken his spirit in the 60s, when he was arrested for the murder of a police officer and did time almost entirely in solitary confinement. After weighing both options and knowing full well that whether he was guilty or not was beside the point thanks to the FBI’s interest in bringing down both him and the Party, Newton decided to take off to Cuba, where he sought asylum with a government that was much more sympathetic to his cause. Now, 50 years later, Apple TV+ brings the story of his escape to our screens with Jim Hecht and Janine Sherman Barrois‘ The Big Cigar.
With a story that is mostly true, as per its own voiceover delivered by Holland himself as Newton, The Big Cigar centers around the Black Panther leader and the two Hollywood producers that helped him flee the United States government. Played by Alessandro Nivola and P.J. Byrne, respectively, Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner staged a fake movie to deceive the feds as they smuggled Newton out of the country. If this description immediately makes you think of the 2012 Ben Affleck movie Argo, in which the fake movie strategy is deployed to get American hostages out of the U.S. embassy in 1979 Tehran, you’re not far off. The Big Cigar is actually based on a Playboy article written by the same author who penned the story that inspired Argo, Joshuah Bearman. As a matter of fact, the story of Huey Newton’s cinematic escape has been making the rounds around Hollywood since Argo was still in theaters, with Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris set to direct a movie based on Bearman’s piece.
The Big Cigar (2024)
Follows Huey P. Newton’s life. He escaped to Cuba to avoid prosecution for murder with the help of Bert Schneider, the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider, as well as a few other celebrity radicals.
- Release Date
- May 17, 2024
- Cast
- Andre Holland , Alessandro Nivola , Tiffany Boone , PJ Byrne , Marc Menchaca , Moses Ingram , Rebecca Dalton , Olli Haaskivi , Jordane Christie , Glynn Turman
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator(s)
- Janine Sherman Barrois
- Writers
- Jim Hecht , Joshuah Bearman , Janine Sherman Barrois , Laurence Andries , Ameer Hasan , Gwendolyn M. Parker , Valerie Woods
- Streaming Service(s)
- Apple TV+
- Directors
- Damon Thomas , Don Cheadle
- Showrunner
- Janine Sherman Barrois
‘The Big Cigar’ Might Be Misnamed, But the Cast Are Standouts
Well, the movie never happened. Instead, it took the article another decade to be turned into a six-episode-long limited series with episodes helmed by Don Cheadle, Tiffany Johnson, and Damon Thomas. The Argo approach, though, remains, with Apple TV+ describing the show as a “wild caper” and leaning heavily on the fake movie aspect of the story. This is, however, a bit deceiving. Schneider and Blauner’s fake film, titled The Big Cigar, is not that big a part of the plot. The bogus project does serve its purpose as something that those involved in Newton’s escape use to chat in code with one another in order to keep FBI agents unaware of their plan. Still, unlike what happens in Argo, there’s nothing of a Hollywood production to how Newton eventually manages to flee. Blauner and Schneider’s plan is much more straightforward, and their movie The Big Cigar is hardly at the center of the show. Heck, we hear more about Schneider’s other, very real film, the classic war documentary Hearts and Minds, than about the movie from which the show takes its name.
As a result, going into The Big Cigar, the TV series, expecting a “wild caper” is a recipe for disappointment. While the show has its spectacular moments, they often read as an afterthought. In reality, The Big Cigar‘s focus lies somewhere else: the series is a pretty successful drama about Newton as a man and how the reality of his existence conflicts with the image that was created around him. The show makes a point of verbally telling us that there are two Huey Newtons: the one sitting on a wicker chair, holding two weapons in a famous photograph, and the one made of flesh and bone, who’s conflicted about the future of his legacy, traumatized by his past, and utterly afraid for his present.
![In the Year of the pig documentary still, helmet reads](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-w1280-1-1.jpeg)
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André Holland makes that human version of Newton an extremely compelling character. Though his voice-over can frequently feel redundant, his voice as a performer shines through in a way that makes Newton completely his own. Holland knows how to make his emotions resonate with audiences, particularly when the character is at his lowest and drowning in paranoia. Likewise, the cast surrounding his protagonist is also at the top of their game. Tiffany Boone is captivating in her earnestness as Newton’s girlfriend, Gwen Fontaine, and it’s frankly a pity that we get to see so little of her character, especially when her rich inner life is alluded to in the screenplay. Byrne’s performance is also extremely funny and anxiety-inducing, which, when taking Blauner’s role in the story into account, should be read as a compliment.
‘The Big Cigar’ Fails Its Co-Protagonist
Nivola is also quite in his element as Schneider, but this is where The Big Cigar starts to suffer from some hiccups. There’s really nothing wrong about Nivola’s performance in the show, but there is something missing from Schneider’s construction as a character. From the get-go, we are introduced to him as a nepo baby who wants to break the mold, a bourgeois with a conscience who wants to fight for the underdog not just through his movies but also by putting his money where his mouth is. This leads to would-be interesting conflicts between Schneider and his family, as well as to some dramatic moments in which he doesn’t know whether he will be able to finish Hearts and Minds, but all is dampened by the fact that we don’t actually understand what makes his character tick. Since The Big Cigar puts Schneider in the role of a co-protagonist alongside Huey, that becomes a serious problem.
The Big Cigar builds parallels between Schneider and Newton, painting them not just as partners but as equals fighting the good fight in different territories. However, while the show offers us plenty of insight into Huey’s upbringing and ideological awakening, there’s not enough about where Schneider’s idealism comes from. Is he merely rebelling against his wealthy, powerful family, as suggested by his chats with his father? Is he trying to become someone he is not, as it seems to be the case in the moments in which he flakes out? Or is he really a revolutionary, someone who had the back of not only Huey Newton but also Chicago 7 defendant Abbie Hoffman? Perhaps he’s all of these things rolled into one, but why? The show wants us to accept that he was merely born different, but that is the kind of explanation we get for a Chosen One narrative, not a historical, political drama.
This doesn’t just harm Nivola’s character. At one point, Gwen asks Huey why these are the right people to elude a manhunt, and, by the end of the show, we’re still nodding our heads alongside her, wondering why. Of course, these guys were the ones that were there back in 1974. However, in telling a story, The Big Cigar should convince us there is a reason why they were chosen, and it doesn’t. If we didn’t know that the show was based on a true story, we would simply think that its creators went with Hollywood producers for Newton’s partners because it sounded fun.
‘The Big Cigar’ Isn’t Afraid of Huey Newton’s Politics, but Leans Away From Uglier Aspects
By contrast, the show is pretty clear when it comes to making us understand what led Newton to take action, either through his excessive voiceover or through scenes of police harassment and brutality against himself and other Black people. In all fairness, The Big Cigar is not afraid of Newton’s politics. It doesn’t water down his communism in order to make him more palatable to a liberal audience, and it even goes as far as clamoring for a revolution. The writers and directors are also not shy when it comes to portraying the contradictions and the conflicts of interest inside the party itself, showing how different courses of action collide against one another through Newton’s interactions with the more radical Eldridge Cleaver (Brenton Allen) and the more electoral politics-inclined Bobby Seale (Jordane Christie).
What The Big Cigar is a little afraid of, though, is its main character. Granted, the show does a very good job of portraying Newton as a broken man, but it stops short of depicting his violence toward those around him. When it does so, it’s by suggesting that Newton’s bodyguards might have been involved in some ugly deeds, but Newton himself is always given the benefit of the doubt. It is hard to know whether he did commit all the crimes that he was accused of or whether he was framed by a government that wanted to see him gone. However, when we consider that even former Black Panther partisans have come out and accused Newton of some pretty egregious violence — namely, rape — it seems like at least some of it should have been addressed. Politically speaking, Huey Newton, the man on the wicker chair, and the movement that he helped sprout cannot be overlooked. However, as a person, and not an idea, Newton was a complicated man. When it comes to portraying that whole complexity, The Big Cigar falls short.
![Andre Holland in The Big Cigar TV Show](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/sharedimages/2024/04/andre-holland-in-the-big-cigar-tv-show.jpg)
The Big Cigar (2024)
Apple TV+’s The Big Cigar, which tells the true story of Huey Newton’s escape to Cuba through a fake movie plan, succeeds at being more of a drama than a caper.
- André Holland, Alessandro Nivola, P.J. Byrne, and Tiffany Boone are all great in their roles.
- The show isn’t afraid of Huey Newton’s politics.
- The series is a pretty successful drama that opposes an idea and a real person.
- When it comes to co-protagonist Bert Schneider, the series fails in his characterization.
- The Big Cigar is also afraid of portraying the ugliness in Newton’s life.
The Big Cigar premieres with its first two episodes on May 17, exclusively on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
This article was originally published on collider.com