AKA_Monet |
03-07-2005 09:23 PM |
Re: CRITICS
Quote:
Originally posted by bobbyearl93
A friend of mine who lives in New Orleans called me and told me that a lot of guys were on the radio (not sure if it was Doug Banks, Tom Joyner, or whatever) upset that they casted the guy from BARBERSHOP to play Tea Cake, because in the book, Tea Cake is described as a taller guy with darker complexion. The guys were complaining and saying that Oprah should have gotten Omar Epps or Morris Chestnutt.
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I think they needed a guy that "looked obviously" much younger than Halle to play an opposite role to her... Then, there may have been some politicking, 'cuz it is a Harpo production and "they" did not want those big name actors all up in the mix--especially with Miss Academy Award Halle Berry... And Halle herself may have had her agents and publicists to say, hey, Oprah, I am doing you a favor and not charging you too much for this with my resume... But given my last two movies bombed, I'ma hook you up and make this happen if you get me "no name so-n-so" to play opposite to me for this Jaine role... Overall, I think they did aiight of a job casting...
Quote:
Originally posted by bobbyearl93
I didn't see the movie last night, but I did read the book. The guys are right, Tea Cake did not have the same features as the guy who played him in the movie. Still, does it matter? Do you think Zora meant for the emphasis to be on what Tea Cake looked like or what he symbolized? I felt Tea Cake's character symbolized a stage in Zora's life.
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I think the history was that Zora was inappropriately interacting with a young man much too young for her age at the time that "Their Eyes.." was coming out... I think the whole idea of the name "Teacake" was something of a "sweetness, that is unadulterated" by the ageism that old men before Viagra enforced on young women a long time ago... But that's my opinion.
Quote:
Originally posted by bobbyearl93
By the time she met Tea Cake, she was more or less free and spontaneous and that's exactly what Tea Cake was... free and spontaneous. I don't really think it was about what he looked like. I felt it was all about how Tea Cake lived. She loved Tea Cake because he never placed restrictions or limits on her. He allowed her to be mentally and physically free. His complexion had nothing to do with that.
PLUS IT'S ABOUT DAYUM TIME THE LIGHT SKINNED BROTHERS GOT A JOB IN HOLLYWOOD. SNIPES / CHESTNUTT HAVE BEEN RUNNING THE SHOW SINCE 87! :D
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I think Jaine as a character was written into the free spiritedness that was constrainted by society as a whole in the 1930's before WWII. Women had little say who they would marry and how they would marry... Then after Jaine was married to men that suppressed and maybe abused her, the freedom associated with a younger man enabled her to pursue her desires back in that day... What is now called a "Boy Toy"...
That is what I found that could have been captured better in the movie that I read in the book... Jaine as the character desired freedom to be... All the other "older and controlling" men, suppressed her... And only when Teacake manifested his illness, did he begin to suppress her, too. And it took Jaine to kill the love of her life... Then be forced back into the "daily grind " of things by going to jail and subjugated to a lengthy court appearance--where the scholars say that Zora failed to give Jaine a voice...
I understand that made for TV movies can be only so long, but I also think the lack of a court case missed some essential points to the complexity of the Jaine character...
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