• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Black Culture Thread |OT2|

F

Future PhaZe

Member
harSon said:
I've gotten dumber shit then that. Like some chick during pillow talk asked me "what my whitest and/or blackest feature is" since I'm mixed. What the fuck kind of stupid question is that? She then went on to break down my physical features and personality by race when I was caught in my tracks with such a stupid ass question.
Click to expand...

oh wow
 
M

MWS Natural

Member
Love the Spike vs QT discussion. As a fellow Morehouse Man Spike will always have a special place in my heart so I really have nothing but biased opinions to add. Tyler Perry's name shouldn't even be mentioned in this discussion.


DominoKid said:
*screwface*

when & where was that shit EVER hot?
Click to expand...
I guess a blackout was a little different, it was just died jet black hair but I didn't get all of the extra die in it like he has. I think I have a pic of me with it but it's small so you can't see it that well.

The Faceless Master said:
<3 McRib
Click to expand...
I think this may fall under Rob Parker Cornball Theory
 
H

harSon

Banned
Did anyone see Harry Lennix's (Hollywood Obama) comments on Lee Daniel's upcoming film, Butler? Dude went HAM: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowan...-on-lee-daniels-the-butler-and-it-aint-pretty

Knowing Harry personally for many years, we really had more of a converstaion than an interview; he is, as always, up front, totally honest and says exactly what he thinks. And that is so refreshing, considering how most people in the business are reluctant to speak out on anything, or be opinionated.

However, when the interview appeared on the other site where it was posted, it was severely edited, to put it nicely, and a lot of what he said was cut out, evidently fearing that Harry had stepped on some toes. Especially what Harry said about black imagery in the media and, in particular, Lee Daniels' upcoming film The Butler, with Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, about the long-serving butler who worked at the White House. As you can read below, Harry is not too thrilled about the film.

Well anyone who reads S & A knows that we just love stepping on toes. In fact, we crush the whole damn foot, so here is the part of the interview that has, thus far, been unseen... until now:

Which leads me to asking do you constantly have to think about the image you are portraying as black man every time to do a role?

"I think about it every day and any time that a role is offered, and believe me lots of crummy roles are offered. But at this point people know better than to mess with me with a lot of these things. For example Lee Daniels sent me the script for that film he&#8217;s making now, The Butler, about the black butler at the White House. I read five pages of this thing and could not go any further. I tried to read more of it, and I&#8217;m not a soft spoken guy, but it was such an appalling mis-direction of history in terms of taking an actual guy who worked at the White House. But then he &#8220;niggerfies&#8221; it. He "niggers" it up and he gives people these, stupid, luddite, antediluvian ideas about black people and their roles in the historical span in the White House and it becomes&#8230; well... historical porn. I refused."

Well that&#8217;s not good.

"And people want to see these images so they&#8217;ll say things like: &#8220;It&#8217;s a very difficult movie to look at, but it&#8217;s great movie.&#8221; That&#8217;s a contradiction in terms. That&#8217;s a paradox. It can&#8217;t be that it&#8217;s a great movie, but it&#8217;s difficult to look at. You know what I mean? (laughs) Why would you put these images out there? But clearly the critics, many of them, love to see this kind of material and love to see us in these types of roles."

Because it feeds into&#8230;

"Because it feeds into the great lie that is being perpetrated by the most important medium, the most powerful export that the United States has to offer which is entertainment. The most powerful tool that they have and it has kept us in a place, men in dresses and things, raping their daughters and things. While any sort of aberrant behavior happens in any community, it has become normative in black cinema that we are these bestial, deprived people, and I refuse to play with that."

Well just keep fighting the good fight.

"I&#8217;ll never take part in it. They can kiss my ass (laughs). But it&#8217;s not going to happen."
Click to expand...
 
Jackben

Jackben

bitch I'm taking calls.
That's pretty candid. I respect his decisions t if that's the way he feels and I do think a lot of the faux bio-pic movies that get made devolve into 'historical porn' in the way he describes. I have no idea what he is talking about when he mentions men in dresses raping their daughters though. Maybe I just misunderstood his allusions.
 
H

harSon

Banned
Jackben said:
That's pretty candid. I respect his decisions t if that's the way he feels and I do think a lot of the faux bio-pic movies that get made devolve into 'historical porn' in the way he describes. I have no idea what he is talking about when he mentions men in dresses raping their daughters though. Maybe I just misunderstood his allusions.
Click to expand...

It's common for black comedic actors to take Drag roles (Nutty Professor, Norbert, Wanda in Living Color, Sheneneh in Martin, Juwanna Man, Madea, etc) as loud stereotypical black women.

And now that I think about it, the father-daughter rape thing sort of does have merit. Precious and The Color Purple come to mind.
 
H

harSon

Banned
MWS Natural said:
Could a black director have made "Django"?
Click to expand...

You're delusional (not you specifically, in general) if you think Hollywood would have given the go ahead for a black director to make a big budget movie in the vein of Django Unchained. It's simply not happening. There aren't any black directors who are basically gifted what amounts to a blank check like Tarantino and Nolan are.

Outside of the fact that he has a great working relation with the Weinsteins, and has been a decent source of revenue over his career for them, the only reason QT was given the funding for Django Unchained is A) He's Quentin Tarantino and B) There was a major white character for white audiences to relate too.
 
Z

Zeus Molecules

illegal immigrants are stealing our air
Just saw Django. Its a good movie. The racist shit disturbed the fuck out of me (which I know was the point). Uncle Ruckus is a evil motherfucker man....
 
K

Kreed

Member
&#8220;When you look at Roots, nothing about it rings true in the storytelling, and none of the performances ring true for me either,&#8221; said Tarantino. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t see it when it first came on, but when I did I couldn&#8217;t get over how oversimplified they made everything about that time. It didn&#8217;t move me because it claimed to be something it wasn&#8217;t.&#8221;
Click to expand...

The actual quote isn't as bad as the article headline, but I still don't get why these guys can't just say "no comment" to set up questions.

Also for a bonus, here's Parallax's favorite person, aka BET's Reginald Hudlin comments (who executive produced Django Unchained):

Django Unchained&#8217;s producer Reginald Hudlin also shared Tarantino&#8217;s distaste for Roots, saying that he preferred the Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman flick Glory instead.

&#8220;I liked the black characters in Glory,&#8221; said Hudlin, whose great-grandfather was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. &#8220;Didn&#8217;t see the point of the white ones. The true story was the slaves in the film. They should have been the main focal point of the entire plot. But somehow no one figured that out.&#8221;

However, both men feel confident that Django Unchained gives an accurate depiction of the lives of black American slaves.
Click to expand...

...yeah, no. The movie was a good Spaghetti Western with slavery themes and it was funny. That's it.

MWS Natural said:
Could a black director have made "Django"?
Click to expand...

If Tyler Perry had the same creativity he could do it with his funding.
 
V

Vice

Member
soundscream said:
Of course he does, but there's no need for Spike to get all up in his Kool-aid, just say no comment and move the fuck on. He's more known for beefing with other directors than making movies, recently.

And while he felt the need to make a black WW2 movie, the one he made was terrible and embarrassing. Red Tails was better, and that movie isn't all that.
Click to expand...

Making a bad movie doesn't make his criticisms and complaints lose weight though. If someone asks him his opinion he may as well say what he means. Django is a movie that exploits slavery for laughs at many times.
 
O

Oldschoolgamer

The physical form of blasphemy
I'll start this by clarifying that I haven't seen Django yet, and I'm going off of QT's past work.

I saw Roots as a kid (all of it) and one more time recently. QT is delusional, acting as if a movie that's basically an episode from the Boondocks, with a cartoon "super-negro" is any more authentic than what was basically a "documentary" about family living during slavery. However, he isn't wrong with suggesting that it doesn't paint the biggest picture on the actual harshness of the times. I do believe that comes down to shooting style and actual approach, more than "he's wrong and I'm right." If Roots were any more oppressive (it skirts a line), I doubt it would have been able to be made.

If QT made Roots, the gore would have been a lot more in your face than it was. Maybe that's a bit more "honest" to the times, but I don't know if it would have been for the best.
 
H

harSon

Banned
Oldschoolgamer said:
I'll start this by clarifying that I haven't seen Django yet, and I'm going off of QT's past work.

I saw Roots as a kid (all of it) and one more time recently. QT is delusional, acting as if a movie that's basically an episode from the Boondocks, with a cartoon "super-negro" is any more authentic than what was basically a "documentary" about family living during slavery. However, he isn't wrong with suggesting that it doesn't paint the biggest picture on the actual harshness of the times. I do believe that comes down to shooting style and actual approach, more than "he's wrong and I'm right." If Roots were any more oppressive (it skirts a line), I doubt it would have been able to be made.

If QT made Roots, the gore would have been a lot more in your face than it was. Maybe that's a bit more "honest" to the times, but I don't know if it would have been for the best.
Click to expand...

It was also a Network television movie made in the late 70s...
 
N

NumberTwo

Paper or plastic?
I'm awaiting the day USA Network stops beating around the bush and just titles their next show 'Handsome White Guys Wearing Suits'. :p
 
R

ReiGun

Member
DominoKid said:
TDKR does not hold up well to multiple viewings. Its surprisingly boring the second time around.

even Anne Hathaway cant save it.
Click to expand...

Begins is the only film in that trilogy that really held up for me on repeat viewings. I watched TDKR on Christmas and it's decent. It just has so many moments where I'm like "fucking really?" i.e "Robin"
 
D

DominoKid

Member
ReiGun said:
Begins is the only film in that trilogy that really held up for me on repeat viewings. I watched TDKR on Christmas and it's decent. It just has so many moments where I'm like "fucking really?" i.e "Robin"
Click to expand...

I've only seen Begins once because I don't have it on DVD. TDK probably a dozen times.
 
O

Onemic

Member
TDKR was good, but I'd probably put it at the bottom of the batman trilogy. It had so much potential to easily be the best of the three, but fell flat on its face in a few key areas.(im looking at you Bane the henchman)
 
R

ReiGun

Member
For me there are just too many moments when TDK drags, usually when Joker isn't on screen. I was completely not invested in third act (after Rachel's death) outside of Harvey. The ferry scene especially did nothing for me.

onemic said:
im looking at you Bane the henchman
Click to expand...
Lord, yes. Such a bad end to what had, up to that point, been a great villain.
 
S

soundscream

Member
DominoKid said:
I've don't watch enough movies to really give a shit. I'm still rocking w/ a case full of bootleg dvds.
Click to expand...

smh.gif
 
S

soundscream

Member
Oldschoolgamer said:
The truth of the matter, honestly. It didn't help that Bane sounded like he had mixer in his mouth, constantly blending his fucking sentences together.

"Suchabeautifulvoice"

-_-
Click to expand...

Banes voice was amazing.

Thats not even what he said :p

I see where this is going and Im not getting into it because I dont feel like starting another film argument up in here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - Launch Trailer
Trailer
25
710
clarky replied
Black Myth Wukong on Steam Is Still at 10/10 Score Even After 200K User Reviews
2 3
127
9K
Spukc replied
[IGN] Explaining – and Fixing – IGN's Face-Off Controversy
20
1K
March Climber replied
Aerosmith Retire
38
3K
jason10mm replied
Black Myth Wukong Previews are coming up
Community Hype 2
62
5K
GHG replied
Top Bottom