Alright, here's the deal. I need to find a film in which a minority image is used, analyzed, critiqued, or featured and basically analyze the fuck out of it. But I don't want to do something that's been done to death, so nope, no Do the Right Thing. The more obscure yet rife with potential for intellectualizing, the better (hopefully it won't be loaded with pretentious BS unless I just totally get sick of the subject). Older films would be good, too, though some racial stereotypes in older films are just painful to watch. So yeah, no Breakfast at Tiffany's, and no D.W. Griffith films. Here's some others that I've probably ruled out because they're too done (just so you won't suggest them):
Do the Right Thing
Breakfast at Tiffany's
American History X
West Side Story
Higher Learning (or Boyz 'n the Hood)
Anything by D.W. Griffith
If you've ever wanted to see a certain film studied but never seen anyone do it, it'd be a great chance for me, and I'd post the finished product here. Thanks a bunch and stuff.
Jackie Brown scene where Sam Jackson tries to get Tucker into the trunk by promising him delicious fried chicken & waffles, and by his reasoning that they can't trust Koreans.
Lots to dig in there...
what? Do the Right Thing was too done? It has probably the best insights regarding racial tension in film history.
liberty heights had quite a few things to say about race too.
Any Next Generation movie with Wharf in it.
How about Imitation of Life? It's an oldie.
There's a part in the begining of Y Tu Mamá Tambien where all the bodyguards are having lunch on the parking lot of the wedding-party plaza. Would that help?
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I'm so jaded from all the work at this point that I actually considered doing something on the plight of the Melmackians.
Quote from: Dottie_HinkleHow about Imitation of Life? It's an oldie.
definitely. you could probably do a lot of douglas sirk's stuff.
also;
boyz in da hood
nothing but a man (excellent, but may be hard to find)
once were warriors
You said no Do the Right Thing... what about Bamboozled? Forget the whole "minstrel show" aspect of the movie, you can just focus on Mos Def's character, Big Blak Afrika, who was a stereotype himself.
And there apparently are Mammy-esque centaurs that have been cut from the Pastoral Symphony sequence of Fantasia. If you look at the film now, there are several shots which are disturbingly cropped or panned-and-scanned. It's really freaky to see if you know where to look for them. I don't know if the fact that it's no longer in there will help you but maybe the fact that they were in there might help. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to tell you where to find any stills of the cut footage.
Quote from: hacksparrowwhat about Bamboozled? Forget the whole "minstrel show" aspect of the movie, you can just focus on Mos Def's character, Big Blak Afrika, who was a stereotype himself.
Thanks for the thought, but I forgot to mention my loathing of that film. Goes along with Boyz 'n the Hood and Higher Learning as overrated, manipulative dreck. My professor seems to love it, too, which doesn't help much either. He's written articles on it, so I couldn't do it if I wanted to because he's too much of an expert on it. Go figure.
Oh, and I actually like Do the Right Thing, but 25th Hour is better -- not that that has too much to do with race -- the problem with DTRT is it's become so watered down, so pervasive, that to talk about its impact or mention it in the context of race has pretty much lost all zing to it. Besides, looking back on the film, some of the scenes in it are just pathetically acted. There are some memorable ones, though, that make it hold up, but it's not as good on a second viewing (much like Goodfellas, which I only mention because it's from the same era and has the same problems).
QuoteAnd there apparently are Mammy-esque centaurs that have been cut from the Pastoral Symphony sequence of Fantasia. If you look at the film now, there are several shots which are disturbingly cropped or panned-and-scanned. It's really freaky to see if you know where to look for them. I don't know if the fact that it's no longer in there will help you but maybe the fact that they were in there might help. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to tell you where to find any stills of the cut footage.
That's a good idea in itself. Thanks. Don't know if I'm gonna do it, but I should probably just read up on it for the hell of it anyway. Very intriguing.
Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors.
trainspotting
any hollywood teen movies has white stereotypes good and bad.
This thread just proves my point that xixax is one of the whitest places on the internet. Aside from that I don't have any suggestions. Continue.
EDIT: Okay, I lied. What about films about the holocaust? Like Shoah. Night and Fog?
Or if not. How about Titticut Follies (never seen it, only hear)
George Washington?
Godardian is always owning racists (slavery pun?) so i'm sure Godardian would have some suggestions.
Quote from: StefenThis thread just proves my point that xixax is one of the whitest places on the internet.
What is that supposed to mean?
Fassbinder's Ali
Imitation of Life or Far from Heaven (especially the latter, if only for my Todd :) )
Dirty Pretty Things (apologies if people have already mentioned it).
There's quite an inflammatory bit of racial defiance espoused briefly in Masculin/Feminin
Shock Corridor has some brilliant racial stuff.
Quote from: OnomatopaellaQuote from: StefenThis thread just proves my point that xixax is one of the whitest places on the internet.
What is that supposed to mean?
What you talkin about willis?
You were right on cue Godardian.
These are all really such brilliant suggestions. I should clarify though, that this is for a Minorities in Communications class, not a film class. At first, I wanted to get away from more common films, and all the ones mentioned are ones I've either seen or wanted to check out anyway. But now I'm wondering if getting more obscure is even the right idea here. Basically I want to make things easy for myself while having fun with it, because the class wasn't that fun.
I've wanted to see Ali for ages, ditto for Dirty Pretty Things, Far From Heaven was just a gorgeous film, perfect suggestion which I may seriously consider. Those other two you mentioned I haven't even heard of, so it looks like I've gotta do my research there.
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BONZAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Want an idea for racially charged films? Here's one. W.E.B. DuBois once spoke of the concept that exists amongst black Americans that I believe all minorities in America have to deal with. It is the concept of twoness in which one person is a part of two cultures as an American and as an African-American. If you want a film to go with that, there's Oscar Micheaux's 1925 film Body and Soul. That movie is a practical allegory to twoness. I'm not sure how available it is, so you'd have to look high and low to find it. But if you want some obscure movies, the find some directed by Oscar Micheaux.
James Toback's Black and White deals with matters of race in a multi-faceted way, and it's also a film that has not been widely seen or discussed. It also features Elijah Wood getting upset when his girlfriend Bijou Phillips hooks up with a man of color at a party. It might also be interesting to look at two of Toback's earlier films, The Gambler and Fingers.
I've also noticed that Robert Altman's films (ranging from MASH to The Company) feature unflattering portrayals of African-Americans.
MASH -- a black sergeant at the beginning is depicted as a sadistic buffoon.
California Split -- after Elliott Gould and George Segal win big at poker, they are mugged by (you guessed it) a black man.
Short Cuts -- a black woman is depicted as an anally-retentive buffoon; Joe Robbie, a thuggish black criminal, threatens white woman Jennifer Jason Leigh and her white husband Chris Penn at a jazz nightclub, and talks during the set to disrupt Tom Waits' listening experience, then threatens Waits when he asks him to be quiet.
Kansas City -- Harry Belafonte plays Seldom Seen, a gangster who commits an act of almost unthinkable brutality.
The Company -- a black dancer argues with artistic director Malcolm McDowell in an obnoxious way, then quits the company.
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The story takes place in alternative America where the blacks are members of social elite, and whites are inhabitants of inner city ghettos. Louis Pinnock is a white worker in a chocolate factory, loving husband and father of two children. While delivering a package for black CEO Thaddeus Thomas, he is mistaken for a voyeur and, as a result, loses his job, gets beaten by black cops and his family gets evicted from their home. Desperate Pinnock takes a gun and kidnaps Thomas, demanding justice.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114928/
My Beautiful Laundrette (d. Stephen Frears) is an interesting look at race, class, and sexual orientation in London. It also is a ghetto drama, so there is a whole tradition in which to contexualize it.