Jim Iyke (Jake), Rita Dominic (Peju), Nikky Samonas (Sophia), Barbara Ukattah (Maggie), Jibola Dabo (Chief Aderibigbe), Joyce Kalu (Mrs. Aderibigbe), Dan Dinovo (Richie). Story, Uchenna Ivo; Screenplay, Jim Iyke; Director of Photography, John Osemeka; Producer, Omar Oyin Bala; Director, Chijoke Okeke Ogano; Editor, Okey Benson. C2017.
I was interested in Frederick Leonard’s ’76 which have already 57,000 hits to its name, and I thought this could be a good one to watch and share in the experience; especially when I’m a history movie buff. I couldn’t access it even when I tried to subscribe to the site. My online security, McAffe security, warned me not to dare and to stay away. I did, and not long after, it gives me the creeps when the online security thanked me for taking the precaution. Why do I have to be warned? I only wanted to watch a movie, and put some money in the producer’s pocket.
Anyway, when I clicked on the Youtube, Nollywood movies ’76 icon with the military officers’ picture on the cover, I found another two movies of the same title. There’s this one featuring Ini Edo, Saint Obi and Desmond Elliot, and another one, which I’m reviewing now, featuring Jim Ike and Rita Dominic. ’76 featuring Ini Edo stands a better chance of acclaim. It’s a psychological thriller based on a medical doctor who lived a quiet life all his years of practice and good citizenry but unwittingly plunged into a world of murder and crime, that causes the doctor so much trepidation that he loses his sanity, judgment, and quiet lifestyle. You can hear his daughter, Ini Edo yelling at him, “Look at you drinking at 10 ‘o’ clock, early in the morning, instead of being in your office.”
Having a wanted criminal in a household, on whose head government has placed almost half a million Nairas, is no small fit. A criminal called Judas who isn’t ready to give in to the law but lives undercover in the doctor’s house. He is impersonating as the long-lost son of the doctor. He’s holding out here against the will of the doctor’s daughter and it brings the household to a crash. ’76, à la Saint Obi, Ini Edo and Elliot is a story that gathers so much steam from the beginning to the middle and dissipates towards the denouement. Disappointing!
’76 is a movie in which Rita Dominic and Jim Iyke perform as the estranged husband and wife. The type of movie that could easily pass for the Broadway Summer Stock. ’76 is an auxiliary project, I presume. Studios fill in the period when serious projects are not onboard for release, while it is incumbent upon them to pay bills. This ’76 is not a serious project to boot! The storyline is a Nollywood run of the mill; the plot is shallow. The storyline, weak.
This piece sheds some light on Nollywood marriages. It shows a relationship that has too many temptations from both outside and inside of the union. Peju’s (Rita Dominic) father, Chief Aderibigbe (Jibola Dabo) didn’t approve of Jake (Jim Iyke) being married to his daughter, and therefore never give hands-free to the marriage. Chief could have given his all to Jake if he had gone to medical school but entertainment industry with all its facade, the glare of light, the women, the money and the popularity it brings one, won’t do. He suffocates Jake and Peju’s relationship by his constant telephone calls and the panic it creates for Peju every time her father calls, be she in the middle of having affairs with her husband or, in the middle of the night. Jake gets fed up with that.
When the movie starts, Jake and Peju are at the table eating, but there’s an initial confrontation over a telephone call from Chief, while they are in the middle of discussing the care of their only daughter. Peju leaves the table and clatters upstairs, repel by the derogatory statements Jake makes about her father. Well not so much so. Peju has external affairs with Richie (Dan Dinovo), who works for Jake in the same office, and this is taking too much of her time away from her husband Jake. Jake finds out about her incessant secret phone conversations, texts, and emails. Jake and Peju’s relationship sours and goes into a deep curve when they could no longer have a decent discussion, nor sex, nor anything fit between a husband and wife.
Jake confronts Puje his discovery about the affairs between her and Richie and asks for a divorce. Out of his disappointment in his wife and out on the town to take a breather from his marital home, and tipsy as well, Jake rushes into the arms of a long time friend, Sophia (Nikky Samonas) and have impulsive steaming sex with her. Like a setup, Peju catches Jake leaving Sophia’s apartment in the morning, with a parting good-bye kiss. Peju too accuses Jake about his infidelity with Sophia, but that didn’t stop Jake anyway from moving out of the house for good. You do me I do you! Story ends.
I have seen these two mavericks acted in so many movies and had followed them so long that seeing them here working the way they did leave me with an awkward feeling; I would easily assume that Rita Dominic and Jim Iyke presumably owe on their contracts to Nollywood if Iyke did not execute the product itself. Except for her hysterical cry for losing Jake at the end of the movie, Rita’s usual acting prowess, albeit the fault of the weak script, didn’t kick in here.
I should come to grip with one doubt I have for this story: the title: ’76. Why ’76? Three movies of the same name. One says: This is a film formerly called, Lions of ’76 based on the botched assassination of President Mohammed Buhari, featuring Rita Dominic and Ramsey Nouah, which must have caused my curiosity in the first place. Upon clicking to view this wonderful title, another ‘76 title shows up with Saint Obi as the wanted criminal. I patiently but grudgingly viewed that one, then up came another ‘76 title with Rita Dominic and Jim Iyke as husband and wife on the verge of divorce. It’s like a parade of ’76 movies.
What must have caused Nollywood to line up all these movies with different themes, under the same title? And not making them have different thematic headings instead. What are the dramatic attributes that can plausibly explain why these two films are named ’76 needs an explanation? There are no scenes in both films that justify the titles; the themes are present, but the titles only append to the stories for the lack of, I don’t know what. Except for the fact that Rita Dominic was barely a year old when the ’76 incident took place in Nigeria, but I find no relationship between the titles and the themes and the year, 1976.