The Quality of Black Movies

Jamal5000 · #1 06-14-2004, 05:14 PM

Dear Everyone,

How do you rate the quality of Black movies in the past twenty years?

How come no one has tried to adapt some of the acclaimed stuff to film like Johnson's AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EX-COLORED MAN, Gwendolyn Brooks' MAUD MARTHA, and new a new version of Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN?

Some of the greatest movies of our time spring from novel material (GONE WITH THE WIND, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE LORD OF THE RINGS).

What do you think?

Ice in Christ,
Jamal5000

Steeltrap · #2 06-14-2004, 05:28 PM

I suspect that some of our quality literary works haven't been adapted to film because studios want to make $$$ (even independent ones) and I've heard that serious films on the AfAm experience don't easily find an audience. Remember, most moviegoers are in their teens or 20s.

This might also speak to the lack of AfAms in Hollywood who can greenlight a project.

HederaNaturale · #3 06-14-2004, 08:55 PM

ditto. to truly bring a project like that to light and do it well, one would need budget, time, and talent that major studios just aren't going to be willing to give a "black" movie of that scale.

Basically, if it's not a fluffy dramedy with a role for Gabrielle Union and Taye Diggs, it's not getting made.

Professor · #4 06-15-2004, 02:13 PM

but in the mean time, AA continue to make make crap like the new movies that should be called ghetto plane.

i wish oprah would again try her hand at movies - i can't think of anything serious since her flop - however, i did support it.

sphinxpoet · #5 06-15-2004, 03:57 PM

Unfortunatly if it is not drama filled or a comedy our people usually do not support it. Spike Lee has struggled with this for years! I think it is time that the 35+ audience come out in masses for a positive black movie.

Sphinxpoet

BigChill06 · #6 06-15-2004, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sphinxpoet
Unfortunatly if it is not drama filled or a comedy our people usually do not support it. Spike Lee has struggled with this for years! I think it is time that the 35+ audience come out in masses for a positive black movie.

Sphinxpoet

I agree 100%. My girl and I were having the same conversation a while back after seeing Mystic River. The movie was GREAT (IMO) and on the way home we were discussing the reasons why we as black people can't make a movie like that. The answer is that nobody wants to see one...not even our own people. Those that would like to see one are those not likely to go to the movies. Hollywood knows that a cursing, drug dealing, gun carrying thug will make more money at the box office than a regular black man will.I'm sure that many positive black movies have been on the table for production but got passed over for the usual black movie like "Menace II Society", "Boys in the Hood" or even "Soul Plane" Not to mention that these movies further scare people who already think that black people are dangerous and ignorant by nature. It's all based on marketing and $$$.

Jamal5000 · #7 06-17-2004, 10:47 PM

Thank you for your comments. Please keep them coming.

I wonder if African-Americans' lack of vision and initiative for producing an adaption of a proclaimed literary work reflects on our level of intellectuality.

Are we THAT shallow as a people?

Ice in Christ,
Jamal5000

HederaNaturale · #8 06-21-2004, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Professor
i wish oprah would again try her hand at movies.

she has produced a film version of "Their Eyes Were Watching God," staring Halle Berry as Janie. I don't know who the supporting cast will be, but I CAN'T WAIT for it. BTW does anyone know when it's supposed to be in theaters?

My opinion on the film front is that there's a place for everything. There's an audience for Invisible Man just as there's an audience for Menace 2 Society, just as there's even an audience for The Best Man, just as there's even a place for, yes, Soul Plane. It's all about choices. Last weekend, I watched Lord of the Rings (again) and loved it and turned right around and watched Old School, and laughed my butt off. We can do sophomoric humor AND fluffy comedy AND violent drama AND thought provoking intellectualism, but whoever has the money and resources to back and produce the latter genre, be they black or white, just isn't doing it.

I don't think it reflects on us as a people that such an adaptation hasn't been made, I think it reflects on suppositions and assumptions of us as a people by ourselves as well as others. If a studio doesn't think that people are going to come out in droves to see a thoughtful, cerebral black film, no one is going to make it. That's not discrimination, that's good business sense. If we back that up by not going to such movies when they ARE made, (Spike Lee joints, Oprah's adaptations) then that's our fault, for playing into that stereotype. We can't then turn around and get mad when there aren't any.

But we also can't expect for "us as a people" to decide that we're all going to the movies on Friday. Some people don't care, and that's their perogative. Not all white people wanted to see The Matrix, not all black people wanted to see Bamboozled. That's nothing wrong on their parts, just preference of what's going to entertain you. However, we only make up 12-13% of the population as it is, so the percentage of us that does want to see those types of films is never going to equate in numbers and dollars to the numbers of whites who want to see those thought provoking films on their end.

The problem isn't necessarily in "us as a people" being shallow, it's numbers and DOLLARS not adding up. So what do we do about THAT?

The Original Ape · #9 06-22-2004, 10:15 AM

I concede there are more than enough ideas as to what is a good AA movie, but I believe we, AA, can control what comes out of Hollywood. We have to learn how to think, act, feel, believe, and spend collectively. Our influence in Hollywood comes from the size of a market we represent to the frat that owns it.

If we don't like the way Hollywood portrays us, we must stop going to the movies, renting them, purchasing them, and watching them on television. If we all stopped for a month, don't you think we would have impacted the moviemakers enough to make them listen to our demands?

SHOUT OUT TO MA BRUH, TONYB!!!!!!!

TheEpitome1920 · #10 06-22-2004, 10:19 AM

I was just thinking about this last night. What makes a movie a "Black Movie". There are a lot of movies directed by AA's that don't get our critques.. Like The Negotiator and the new flick King Aurthor, both directed by African Americans.

BigChill06 · #11 06-22-2004, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
I was just thinking about this last night. What makes a movie a "Black Movie". There are a lot of movies directed by AA's that don't get our critques.. Like The Negotiator and the new flick King Aurthor, both directed by African Americans.

I would say that a "Black Movie" is one with the majority of the cast composed of Black people...not with a black actor or director...but Black characters...like the multitude of movies that are made up of White characters.

The Original Ape · #12 06-22-2004, 12:50 PM

Quality is quality; and junk is junk.

If a brotha is the director/producer and he does HIS thang, it's a black movie. Black is not just skin: it's a belief, a concept by which certain people live by. To clarify, I refer to a man of color who feels collective pride in his culture as a brotha. Not every "colored-skinned'" man can be a brotha. That's another topic, so I''ll stop right here. Incidentally, I liked the negotiator.

Professor · #13 06-22-2004, 01:29 PM

Good Point - - - I suggest there are few movies staring AA that portray the lifestyle of a college educated middle class black man - - - true that covers a lot from the club to workplace. Mostly, movies that I see staring AA are about thugs in the inner city. We need more films like the Brothers that show the range of black men and their lives.

Quote:

Originally posted by The Original Ape
Quality is quality; and junk is junk.

If a brotha is the director/producer and he does HIS thang, it's a black movie. Black is not just skin: it's a belief, a concept by which certain people live by. To clarify, I refer to a man of color who feels collective pride in his culture as a brotha. Not every "colored-skinned'" man can be a brotha. That's another topic, so I''ll stop right here. Incidentally, I liked the negotiator.

TonyB06 · #14 06-22-2004, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by The Original Ape
Quality is quality; and junk is junk.

If a brotha is the director/producer and he does HIS thang, it's a black movie. Black is not just skin: it's a belief, a concept by which certain people live by. To clarify, I refer to a man of color who feels collective pride in his culture as a brotha. Not every "colored-skinned'" man can be a brotha. That's another topic, so I''ll stop right here. Incidentally, I liked the negotiator.

...bruh, you been gone too long. I co-sign all of this.

CrimsonTide4 · #15 06-22-2004, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by HederaNaturale
she has produced a film version of "Their Eyes Were Watching God," staring Halle Berry as Janie. I don't know who the supporting cast will be, but I CAN'T WAIT for it. BTW does anyone know when it's supposed to be in theaters?

I thought this was going to be a TV movie and not theater.