Customer Reviews

"Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street", By Phil Ranstrom

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After much anticipation, Cheat You Fair, the incredibly moving and ultimately heartbreaking story of Chicago's famed Maxwell Street Market is finally available on DVD. Written, directed and produced by Phil Ranstrom and narrated by actor and former Maxwell Street regular Joe Mantegna, the film meticulously documents the street's fascinating 120-year history from its humble beginnings as a makeshift refuge for poor immigrants in the years following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 to its heydey as being one of the most unique and culturally important open-air markets of the 20th century to the valiant but unsuccessful efforts in the early 1990s to save it from both the city and a nearby university's destructive plans of gentrification which eventually displaced countless families and livelihoods.

Most fans of Chicago blues recognize the dominant role Maxwell Street played in the music's creation and Cheat You Fair prominently features many bluesmen and women who famously performed on the hallowed grounds near Maxwell and Halsted throughout the years. Artists such as Jimmie Lee Robinson, Eddie Burks, Uncle Johnnie Williams, Johnnie Mae Dunson, Bo Diddley and Junior Wells among others offer their perspectives on why the street was so important to themselves and to so many others.

From start to finish, the film wonderfully captures not only the spirit of Maxwell Street and its vibrant people, but also its cultural and historical significance. With top-notch production, the amount of rare historical photographs and film clips of Maxwell Street that Ranstrom has unearthed to help visually tell the story is staggering. This, along with Ranstrom's own footage and interviews which he began shooting in 1994 to document Maxwell's remaining days, combine to paint a complete and very engaging history of this one-of-a-kind landmark.

Cheat You Fair is a powerful film which I cannot recommend highly enough.