JessimistBANTER: Women, Nerds, & Comics, OH MY!

TV ONE: HAVE BLACK MEN IN FILM GONE SOFT?

Posted using ShareThis (via Ebony)

 Read the full article in context over at Ebony. Here's my money shot:

"EBONY: Antoine we’ve talked before just recently and I told you that I was so anxious to see this film because I love tough, violent R-rated action films. I’m a guy. I make no apologies for that. I want tough hardcore movies.

FUQUA: That’s what it’s about!

EBONY: Too many black films now are aimed at women. Or nerds or comic book geeks. I mean what happened to us? What happened to movies for men? [emphasis mine: are y'all for real?]

SNIPES: That’s right!

EBONY: What happened in the film industry?

FUQUA: I think we’re in a time they’ve cut the cojones off or are trying to. You want me to put it to you for real? Everything is soft, they’re putting everyone in dresses and O.K. that’s fun. [Wesley's worn one, too!] But I grew up watching movies about men. Watching movies from the 1930’s the 40’s the 50’s Movies like Public Enemy and Scarface (i.e. referring to the original Howard Hawks’ 1932 version with Paul Muni)."

Honestly, I think I probably agree with you at the end of the day, but I'm going to need this to be re-articulated a hell of a lot better. 

See...

This is what I'm talking about when I argue, for example [Avatar Redux, pt. 2 preview] that a character like Laz Alonso's Tsu'Tey in 'Avatar' appears to exist for the sole purpose of working all Black men into a fit of deeper patriarchal longing and resenment. That man had "'his' woman" snatched from him by a "'white' boy," (assault on his domestic "role" as protector/provider) his home and people damn-near destroyed because of that same "'white' boy" (assault on his societal "role" as protector/provider) and then couldn't do nothing about it but make nice and die at the hands of another "'white' boy" who was at least 4 feet shorter than him (ultimate assault).  

Now you want some cinematic revenge. *sighs*

I get it.

I just HOPE you're not saying you want to take it back to the days of John Wayne and Scarface for the sake of having a bang-bang-shoot-em-up-hero whose muscles, guns and (seeming) lack of punk-bitsh-ahssedness you can aspire to. Because that would imply you want those good ol' unproblematized, uncritical versions of masculinities apparent in works like August Wilson's Fences and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

So touche to your remarks about compassion, but PLEASE keep that COMPASSION and conscience and SPIRIT in perspective as you begin the work of recreating this cinema for your lost Black male auds.

POST SCRIPT

And let me just say: I don't know what Black films you're talking about when you say "aimed at women." TP is not a valid example! If you want to discuss your oversimplification, then let's discuss it, but -- newsflash: the 'Something New's, the Black 'Sex and the City'-like flicks are cool--I, personally, get my guilty pleasing on now and again, certainly-- but cease and desist! These are not as legion or cathartic as it seems you think.

I'd like to believe that what you're really calling for is an end to the bourgeois Black flick that makes all this "post-racial" bull sound legit, and reinforces the folly of gender-role allegiance. IF that's what you mean, touche again. But geezpineesh!